(St. Louis, MO) – Quarterfinal day is over and the real tension builds at Arch Madness 2016. With the semifinals come all the questions of postseason play, defending titles, graduating seniors and which fans will really show up and support their team?
With a semifinal of defending tournament champion Northern Iowa taking on regular season king Wichita State, you have a meeting of the Valley’s two best teams over the past six or seven years. Clearly the Shockers are the elite program in the MVC and yet the Panthers split their games with them this year and are on a great roll.
The other semifinal is a little less sexy. A pair of Indiana schools that typically fly under the proverbial radar, have driven to St. Louis to reach for the brass ring. Evansville has had a great season and the coronation of their two great seniors, D. J. Balentine and Egidijus Mockevicius has been well deserved. They will contend with two of the better seniors in Indiana State history today in Devonte Brown and Khristian Smith.
With the officiating reverting back to the 2014-15 rules this weekend, the scoring is down, the blood pressure is up and execution is at a premium.
The teams that can react to the hype, energy and pressure of semifinal day in St. Louis will play on national television tomorrow.
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Caleb Stone-Carrawell is in the portal. @SaintLouisMBB or some @ValleyHoops team ought to get this guy.
.@BustingBrackets gives a brief intro to the 5 new @ValleyHoops head coaches.
I don't blame players for leaving, but this wild fluctuation is going to kill fan interest. When the TV people's ratings go down and the attendance figures keep falling, maybe the 'Suits' will wake up and fix this.
I think I'm going to enter the portal.
