Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Media Guides 2013-14 Men's Basketball Media Guide | Page 119

Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and regular-season titles three times as UNI (2009, 2010) and Creighton (2013) swept both the regular-season and tournament crowns in 2013. Notably, the top-seeded team has only won the league tournament title seven times (in 23 previous tries) in St. Louis. And no seed worse than a No. 5 has won the title. To celebrate the tournament’s 20th anniversary in St. Louis in 2010, the league conducted a two-month, online voting campaign which was sponsored by FOX Sports Midwest. And Missouri Valley Conference fans chose Deon Jackson’s buzzer-beating three-pointer in 1996 as the top moment in Arch Madness history. In addition to Jackson’s exploits in 1996, the other top five moments include Creighton’s Nate Funk leading the Bluejays to the 2007 Arch Madness title in front of a sold out Scottrade Center crowd, Bluejay Bob Harstad pacing CU to the first Arch Madness crown in 1991, Illinois State’s Osiris Eldridge nearly leading the Redbirds to the 2009 championship and UNI’s Ben Jacobson helping the Panthers take the 2004 crown in double-overtime vs. Missouri State. And during that same 20th anniversary online voting campaign, sponsored by AT&T Real Yellow Pages, Creighton’s Kyle Korver -- the first back-to-back Most Outstanding Player in MVC Men’s Basketball Championship history -- was selected the top player in Arch Madness history by a vote of the league’s fans. In addition to Korver, the other top five players include Nate Funk (Creighton), Osiris Eldridge (Illinois State), Rodney Buford (Creighton) and Ryan Sears (Creighton). Funk (2007), Buford (1999) and Sears (2000) all earned Most Outstanding Player recognition for a team that won the championship, while Eldridge (2009) became only the second player in tournament history to earn Most Valuable Player honors for a team that did not take the title. In 2011, the millionth fan -- Tyler Anderson of Milwaukee, Wis. -- crossed through the turnstiles and was awarded a prize package that included tournament tickets for life. The 2012 tournament featured two nationally ranked teams for the first time as Wichita State (14) and Creighton (24) entered the tournament as ranked teams. 2013 Tournament Review TournamenT The 2007 MVC Tournament established league records every session: opening (8,013), day quarterfinal (15,186), night quarterfinal (16,651), semifinal (22,612), championship (22,612) and total tournament attendance (85,074). to St. Louis in 1991. The Bluejays, who also won the MVC Tournament in 2012, were repeat champions, marking the second time in the past five years that has happened. Creighton became just the sixth team in MVC tournament history (37 total seasons) to repeat as tournament champion. The Bluejays posted two double-digit wins before slipping by Wichita State, 68-65, in the title game. Wichita State had advanced to the title game for the first time since 2010 as the Shockers also posted a pair of double-digit wins in the quarters and semis. Doug McDermott, who was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player for the second successive season, was joined on the all-tournament team by teammate Gregory Echenique, Illinois State’s Jackie Carmichael and Wichita State’s Malcolm Armstead and Carl Hall. The total attendance (71,029) ranked second all-time in MVC tournament history, and the per-session average was fifth best of any NCAA conference last year. 2014 Tournament Notes For the fourth-straight year, the Missouri Valley Conference will televise the Thursday openinground games, while the quarterfinal and semifinal games will be on FOX Sports Midwest and Comcast SportsNet. All games will be shown in High Definition. The MVC Championship game will be telecast live on CBS (more than 100 million homes) for a ninthstraight year. The 2006 tournament broadcast by CBS marked the first over-the-air national broadcast of an MVC game since Jan. 28, 1989, when BYU beat Wichita State, 93-92. MVC TOURNEY FUTURE DATES: 2014 2015 2016 2017 ----- Thursday-Sunday, Thursday-Sunday, Thursday-Sunday, Thursday-Sunday, March March March March 6-9 5-8 3-6 2-5 Creighton became the seventh MVC regular-season champ to win the MVC Tournament since it moved 117