Arch Madness

Also beginning tomorrow is Arch Madness. The Missouri Valley makes its annual trek to St. Louis. I’ll be curious following this tournament how the attendance and atmosphere is. It was a tough blow losing Creighton, losing Wichita State makes it interesting from a ticket selling standpoint.

As for the games, Loyola-Chicago comes in as the regular season champion and clearly the best team in the Valley. They’re 45th in KenPom, ahead of quite a few bubble teams. They have a win at Florida and a win over Horizon contender Wright State but a bad loss to Milwaukee. At the very least, they have to make the title game to even sniff an at-large. That’s too bad but speaks larger of the conference.

The next best team in the Valley according to KenPom is Missouri State at 115 and they finished 7-11 in the league. The 2-seed is 138th, Southern Illinois. Usual contender Northern Iowa finished 7-11 in league and is 128th in KenPom. Illinois State is the 3-seed and behind all those aforementioned teams at 148th in KenPom. Basically, the league has coagulated into mediocrity. The Valley really needs Loyola to come out of St. Louis for a realistic run in March.

The Pick: Loyola