Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Media Guides 2013-14 Men's Basketball Media Guide | Page 118

Missouri Valley Conference Tournament

TournamenT

The Missouri Valley Conference
will conduct its 24th St. Louis-based
postseason men’s basketball championship, when the MVC Tournament
takes the hardwood at Scottrade Center, formerly known as Savvis Center,
on March 6-9, 2014.
The Missouri Valley Conference
Tournament, also known uniquely as
“Arch Madness” to Valley fans, will
be played at Scottrade Center for the
20th time. With 24-straight years at
the same neutral site, Arch Madness
is the second-longest neutral site tenured collegiate tourney in the nation
(following only the Big East in New
York City).
The tournament -- for the ninthstraight year -- will begin Thursday
and end Sunday. From 1997-2005,
the tournament had started on a Friday and ended on a Monday.
The MVC Tournament site has
moved from Kiel Auditorium (1991)
to the Saint Louis Arena (1992-1994)
to Scottrade Center (1995-present).
In 2013, the tournament drew more
than 42,000 fans for an 18th-straight
year.

2013 Men’s Basketball
Conference Tournament
Per-Session Averages
League

Sess. Total

Atlantic Coast
Big Ten
Big East
Big 12
The Valley
Southeastern
Mountain West
Pac-12
West Coast
C-USA

6
6
7
5
5
7
5
6
5
5

133,014
124,543
140,399
90,687
71,029
90,295
64,131
63,750
39,480
33,794

Avg.
22,169
20,757
20,057
18,137
14,206
12,899
12,826
10,625
7,896
6,759

Source: NCAA, only the top 10 are listed

Top Title Games - 2007
League
^MISSOURI VALLEY
^Atlantic Coast
^Big East
^Big 12
^Pacific 10
^Big Ten
Mountain West
^denotes neutral site

116

Attendance
22,612
22,269
19,594
18,879
18,259
17,538
16,204

2014 MVC TOURNAMENT BRACKET
(Matchups for qualifying-round games TBA)
#1

#8
#9

Friday -- #3

Thurs. -- #1

Saturday -- #7

#4
#5

Friday -- #4
Sunday -- #9

#2

#7

Friday -- #5

#10 Thurs. -- #2

Saturday -- #8

#3
#6

MVC Champion &
NCAA Qualifier

Friday -- #6

Tournament Game Times (All times CST):
Session
Session
Session
Session
Session

I
II
III
IV
V

Thursday, March 6
Friday, March 7
Friday, March 7
Saturday, March 8
Sunday, March 9

6 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.
12 p.m. & 24 minutes after Game 3 ends.
6 p.m. & 24 minutes after Game 5 ends.
1:30 p.m. & 24 minutes after Game 7 ends.
1 p.m.

Qualifying-round pairings to be announced March 1. Times subject to change.

The 2007 turnstile of 85,074 set a
league record in the league’s tournament history in St. Louis. Last year’s
figure of 71,029 was second-best in
the history of the tournament, while
the league has had a tournament
turnstile of better than 50,000 in each
of the past 11 seasons. The per-session average of 14,206 was fifth-best
nationally (see chart at left).
Last year’s championship game
attendance was 16,659 -- the secondbest for a title game.
Since the Conference moved its
tournament to St. Louis in 1991,
some of the greatest moments in
Valley men’s basketball history have
occurred in the Gateway City.
In 1995, Southern Illinois completed a three-peat at the Conference
tournament -- the only time a league
school has won three consecutive
tourney championships.
In the 1996 semis, Bradley’s Deon
Jackson hit an improbable threepointer with no time remaining for a
64-62 win over Missouri State. His
shot was nominated for an ESPN

“ESPY Award” for the college basketball play of the year.
In 1998, Illinois State took its
second-straight regular-season and
conference tournament titles -- the
first time in Missouri Valley Conference history that a school had accomplished that feat.
UNI’s 2004 title and subsequent
NCAA bid gave the Panthers their first
tournament berth as an MVC member.
With that, all 10 current members
have represented the Missouri Valley
Conference in the NCAA Tournament.
And in 2005, UNI was eliminated in
the quarterfinals of the tournament
and still received an at-large berth
into the NCAAs. That marked the first
time a team that failed to advance to
the MVC tournament semis earned a
spot in the NCAA tourney.
The 2008 Tournament marked
the first time the top-seeded team
(Drake) won the title since Illinois
State swept the regular-season and
tournament titles during the 199798 season. Since 2008, the No. 1
seed has claimed the tournament