I am doing something a little different this week. One of my first articles on this site was “Every MVC School’s Best Team of the 21st Century”. In that article, as the name implies, I laid out what I thought was each school’s best MVC team this century. Since then, I have had this idea percolating in my head. What if each school’s best team came together for a traditional MVC season? With that in mind, I have done a simulation using the website whatifsports.com that attempts to answer that question. I am simulating an entire MVC season based on last year’s schedule, a full home/away round-robin using each school’s best team. I will finish it off with an Arch Madness at the end as well.
Whatifsports is a cool site. It allows me to pick any college hoops team from this century, set a lineup, and simulate a game between the teams. I can set which team is the home team (or play the game at a neutral site) and it will give me a full box score for each game. I can even set it up to give me full a play-by-play (which I intend to do for the Arch Madness games). How much if this is actually computed based on statistics and how much if it is a coin toss I don’t know, but it at least gives us something to talk about.
Below are the standings and results for the first half of the season. You’ll notice I did throw Valpo a bone and included their 2016 NIT runner-up team instead of the 2020 team I used in the article. For the writeup I wanted to use only teams that were in the Valley, but for this I allowed Valpo to use its best team of the 20th century even though it was a Horizon League team. As you will see that is paying off big for them.
MVC All-Time Team Standings at the Midpoint 1.) 2016 Valpo (7-2) 2.) 2008 Drake (6-3) 2.) 2017 Illinois State (6-3) 4.) 2006 Bradley (5-4) 4.) 2007 SIU (5-4) 6.) 2010 UNI (4-5) 6.) 2016 Evansville (4-5) 8.) 2001 Indiana State (3-6) 8.) 2018 Loyola (3-6) 10.) 2011 Missouri St (2-7)
As you can see, the choice to allow Valpo to use the 2016 team has paid off for the Crusaders as it is actually a Horizon team in the lead at the mid-point of this season, which kind of makes me regret my decision. Overall things are pretty even with spots two through nine separated by only three games and everyone in some sort of tie. We’ll see how things play out in the second half. The individual scores for all the games are below (home team listed first). I’ll be back next week to finish off the standings and do Arch Madness. I’ll provide box scores for the Arch Madness games and do a tournament MVP and All-Tournament team as well. Until then, I hope you all had a great holiday and enjoy your new year.
2016 Valpo 77 2018 Loyola 64
2001 Indy State 60 2007 SIU 77
2017 Ill St 78 2010 UNI 59
2011 Mo State 74 2016 Evansville 83
2006 Bradley 72 2008 Drake 54
2010 UNI 70 2006 Bradley 64
2007 SIU 76 2017 Ill St 80
2008 Drake 85 2001 Indy St 59
2016 Evansville 62 2016 Valpo 76
2018 Loyola 87 2011 Mo State 94
2010 UNI 70 2001 Indy St 72
2007 SIU 68 2016 Valpo 81
2017 Ill State 79 2011 Mo State 74
2008 Drake 83 2018 Loyola 69
2016 Evansville 76 2006 Bradley 81
2011 Mo State 79 2010 UNI 69
2001 Indy St 57 2017 Ill St 77
2018 Loyola 75 2016 Evansville 69
2016 Valpo 76 2008 Drake 70
2006 Bradley 67 2007 SIU 79
2010 UNI 85 2016 Valpo 75
2001 Indy St 80 2016 Evansville 82
2011 Mo State 58 2006 Bradley 70
2018 Loyola 76 2007 SIU 86
2008 Drake 76 2017 Ill St 67
2006 Bradley 77 2010 UNI 71
2016 Evansville 79 2011 Mo State 72
2016 Valpo 68 2001 Indy St 70
2017 Ill St 99 2018 Loyola 90
2007 SIU 59 2008 Drake 72
2007 SIU 77 2010 UNI 81
2016 Evansville 86 2008 Drake 81
2018 Loyola 79 2001 Indy St 76
2006 Bradley 56 2017 Ill St 54
2011 Mo State 64 2016 Valpo 90
2001 Indy State 85 2006 Bradley 74
2017 Ill State 68 2007 SIU 75
2010 UNI 64 2018 Loyola 65
2008 Drake 72 2011 Mo State 61
2016 Valpo 78 2016 Evansville 69
2010 UNI 72 2011 Mo State 50
2001 Indy St 65 2008 Drake 96
2006 Bradley 67 2016 Valpo 85
2007 SIU 79 2018 Loyola 70
2017 Ill St 70 2016 Evansville 69