by TylerDurden » February 27th, 2012, 11:05 am
From ESPN:
-St. Louis (MVC tourney begins): The Missouri Valley tournament has a way of providing thrilling basketball even when the conference is down, and that's not the case this season. Wichita State is the nation's best true mid-major, while Creighton boasts a likely All-American in forward Doug McDermott. That duo will have to ward off challengers such as Northern Iowa, Missouri State, Illinois State, Evansville and Drake, all of which finished 9-9 in MVC play and need the automatic bid to get to the tournament. Anyway, long story short: Mid-major conference tournaments are uniformly awesome but the MVC's might be the best. Arch Madness!
From CBS:
You down with Arch Madness? I am down with Arch Madness -- otherwise known as the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. That five schools finished with 9-9 league records speaks to the competitiveness of the MVC, but that doesn't mean there isn't power at the top because Wichita State and Creighton could both advance deep into March. I'm heading to St. Louis later this week in hopes of spending Sunday watching the Shockers and Bluejays play for the title. But if that's not the championship matchup, fine. Because then I'll spend Sunday watching another school -- Northern Iowa? Illinois State? Drake? -- try to turn the MVC into a three-bid league, and that would be fun, too. So either way, I'm cool. Arch Madness is annually one of the jewels of early March. I suspect this year will be no different.
Arch Madness is a great brand for the league.
