Opening week games

[SalukiWorld]

Illinois St with a brutal loss to UT Martin at home

[smidge34]

Looks like we went 6-6 tonight, just effin brutal smh.

[TylerDurden]

Welp, that was a pretty bad opening night with just one win over a DI opponent.

Congratulations, Bradley! You're the team of the night because you're better than SEMO.

SIU lost by 10 - albeit to the CAA preseason No. 2. This was a pretty good showing by SIU.
Valpo got waxed
Missouri State was competitive at Butler
Drake beat York College Nebraska, a church league team
Belmont beat Maryville (TN) College. Not to be confused with Maryville (MO) University.
Indiana State lost by a Larry Bird
Murray State also beat a church league team
UIC beat a different church league team
Illinois State lost to UT Martin, at home
UNI beat a men's league team

On a positive note, Evansville did not lose!

[MissouriValleyUnite]

Illinois St shot twice as many 3s (41) as 2s (21). They ended up 19% from 3 and 48% from 2 in a 2-point loss as a 12.5-point favorite.

[tribecalledquest]

There were no real surprises in Bradley’s easy win except freshman PG Jaquan Johnson. He looked like he belonged from the beginning (and I’m not really referencing the stat line which was impressive).

Bradley won by 29 and none of Duke Deen, Darius Hannah or Zek Montgomery scored in double figures.

[bcg]

Bradley won by 29 and none of Duke Deen, Darius Hannah or Zek Montgomery scored in double figures.

I think Friday night is going to look totally different than Monday night. Duke was in a pass-first mode and I don't think that happens in a big game.

It was nice to see that Bradley's 4th and 5th option on offense are pretty good. You don't cringe when they get the ball.

[IllinoisState]

Our coaching and play was disgusting, especially in the second half.

[Majik45]

Really brutal night for the Valley other than Bradley.

MSU was encouraging as they had a 3 ball in the air with about 45 seconds left at Butler that would have tied the game. SIU losing to a solid Charleston team by only 10 is not unexpected, so not horrible.

Everyone else was bad. Even the teams winning by 40 against non-D1 teams, as those games don't help them or the conference. I guess it's better than playing teams with RPI's below 300 since they don't count.

[ValleyFAN]

Could be a mirage, but Missouri State looked much better last night. They play really, really hard. They had Butler on the ropes, just couldn't quite finish it.

[Drakey]

I think the Valley might drop considerably this year in conference rankings. When the best players from every team are poached by P5, it is hard to be good. A lot of lower ranked leagues probably did not lose as many players as they weren't in demand by P5 schools. Does any Valley team return it's best players? Title is completely up for grabs. At least we shouldn't have as many players poached this year.