By: Sammy Stava @StavaOnSTL After a one-year hiatus, the St. Louis Blues have returned to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 2019 postseason. It’s the team’s seventh playoff berth in the last eight seasons after just one playoff appearance in the last six seasons from 2006-2011. Finishing the regular season with a record of 45-28-9…
By: Sammy Stava @StavaOnSTL It was 5 seeded Bradley vs 6 seeded Northern Iowa for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line in the MVC Tournament Championship. That sounds about right for Arch Madness in the most wide-open Valley Tournament that we’ve had experienced in a while. For the first time since the Missouri Valley…
By: Sammy Stava @StavaOnSTL The first of two in-state match ups in the MVC Semifinals on Saturday afternoon was No. 1 Loyola and No. 5 Bradley. It was an electric atmosphere at the Enterprise Center between the two fanbases in Illinois. It turned out to be quite the game, too. In a re-match of last seasons MVC Semifinal…
By: Sammy Stava @StavaOnSTL The biggest news that has happened so far in this year’s Missouri Valley Tournament came down late Friday night as the longest-tenured head coach in the league decided to call it quits. After spending 16 seasons in the Missouri Valley Conference (nine with Missouri State and seven at Southern Illinois), SIU’s…
By:Sammy Stava @StavaOnSTL The 2019 Missouri Valley Coach of the Year Darian DeVries showed exactly why he was deserving of winning the award. Coaching in his first-ever conference tournament as a head coach, the Drake Bulldogs played exactly like the MVC regular season champions and the No. 2 seed. In a season battling significant injuries,…
By: Sammy Stava @StavaOnSTL One of the best games of Arch Madness Quarterfinal Friday is usually the four vs five game because of two evenly matched teams going at it. That’s what Missouri State and Bradley did for all 40 minutes at the Enterprise Center. The game came down to the final seconds, but it…
By: Sammy Stava @StavaOnSTL It was a battle between the two newest members of the league as Loyola-Chicago and Valparaiso tipped-off Arch Madness Quarterfinal Friday at the Enterprise Center. Though, it was Loyola who looked like the more experienced team in the conference. After their Final Four run a season ago, the Ramblers looked just…
By: Sammy Stava @StavaOnSTL It was unfamiliar territory for Dan Muller and the Illinois State Redbirds having to play on Thursday night in the first-round game. What isn’t unfamiliar to them is winning in St. Louis. And that’s what they did against No. 10 Evansville, but the Aces gave Illinois State all they could handle…
By: Sammy Stava @StavaOnSTL An in-state rivalry tipped off the 2019 Missouri Valley Tournament between Valparaiso and Indiana State. The game also featured the MVC’s leading scorer Tyreke Key for the Sycamores. Key did play like the league’s leading scorer with a 20-point game, but the night belonged to Markus Golder and the Crusaders. Golder…
By: Sammy Stava @StavaOnSTL The regular season has come to an end, which means it’s time for the Missouri Valley Tournament, and Arch Madness should once again live up to the name. While the MVC may only be a one-bid league this season, it should provide plenty of drama for all teams competing for the…