Indiana State had not been ranked in the Top 25 since the 1978-79 season when Larry Bird wore #33 and led the Sycamores to the NCAA national championship game against Magic Johnson and Michigan State.
While ranked in the Top 25 for just a week in January 2024, Indiana State earned its third all-time regular-season Missouri Valley Conference title with a 17-3 record.
It was the team’s first conference championship since 2000 and earned the squad the top seed in the State Farm MVC Conference Tournament which begins Thursday at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
While a top seed is valued on the road to cutting down the nets on Sunday, it does not foreshadow certain success. There is a reason this tournament goes by “Arch Madness.”
The top-seeded team has prevailed just 17 times in 47 attempts. It has happened only 10 times in the tournament’s 33-year history in St. Louis. A No. 2 seed has won the title 11 times in St. Louis; the 3 seed has six titles; a four seed has won four times; and a five seed, two titles.
Coming into the tournament with the second seed is last year’s tourney champion Drake, who closed the regular season with a 16-4 mark.
The top two players to watch during the tournament are Xavier Johnson of Southern Illinois-Carbondale and Tucker DeVries of Drake, with both being named to 40-member USBWA Oscar Robertson Trophy and All-America Watch Lists by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
Johnson led the MVC with 22 points per game, assists (6.1), free throws (212), minutes per game (36:47), ranks second in field goals (193) and ranks fourth in steals per game (1.5). He is the third player in MVC history to lead in both scoring and assists (Anthony Manuel, Bradley, 1989, and Curt Smith, Drake, 1993).
Reed Jackson, Evansville (1994-95), is the lone MVC player in the past 30 seasons that averaged in double-figure scoring with 6.0 or more assists: 13.8 points per game and six assists.
The Salukis’ star topped the league in 20-point games with 17, while scoring 16 or more points in 28 games for the Salukis. He is fourth in program history in 30-point games in a season with six so far. He has recorded five or more assists in 25 games this season.
DeVries averaged 21.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.7 steals. The junior wing has put together 16 performances of scoring 20 points or more and has scored in double figures in every game he’s played except one.
Should Indiana State and Drake advance to the MVC title game, there is a chance that both could land bids to the NCAA Tournament, regardless of which team secures the automatic bid.
Indiana State is 25 in offensive efficiency in the KenPom rankings, and Drake is 37. Since 2012, 10 of 12 MVC teams in the Top 35 of KenPom’s OE have earned a spot in the NCAA Tourney.
The MVC finished 15th as a league in the Conference NET last year and is No. 9 as a league this season.
The Reid Roundup
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