The Wichita State Shockers have compiled 21-3 straight up and 18-5-1 against the spread records over their last 24 games. The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament gets underway Thursday with the Shockers as the top seed.
Missouri Valley Conference basketball tournament odds: Wichita State tops lines
The Wichita State Shockers and Evansville Aces enter the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as the teams to beat this week.
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Wichita State is going off at +3300 on the odds to win the NCAA Tournament this season at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. With a 16-2 SU record against their conference opponents this season, the Shockers owned the best record in the regular season and are the clear favorite to win the conference tournament.
A conference tournament win would mark just the second time that Wichita State has won this tournament since 1987, last doing so during its dominant 2014 campaign. The Shockers will play Friday against the winner of Thursday’s game between Loyola (Chicago) and Bradley.
The Evansville Aces locked up the No. 2 seed in the MVC Tournament with a 23-8 SU and 11-14-1 ATS record this season. Evansville finished its season going 5-4 in its last nine games and 4-1 in its last five, but just 2-7 ATS over those final nine games. The Purple Aces will face the winner of Thursday’s game between Missouri State and Drake.
Friday’s No. 3 vs. No. 6 matchup pits the Illinois State Redbirds against the Indiana State Sycamores. Both teams finished with identical 14-14-1 ATS records, but Illinois State held the straight-up edge at 18-3 over Indiana State’s 14-16.
Indiana State has enjoyed success against Illinois State in recent years however with a 6-3 SU and 7-2 ATS edge in the last nine games between these two teams according to the OddsShark College Basketball Database. The winner of this game will play Saturday against the winner of Evansville’s game.
Rounding out the conference tournament’s early action is Friday’s game between the No. 4 Northern Iowa Panthers and No. 5 Southern Illinois Salukis. Northern Iowa was the conference’s best ATS performer besides Wichita State with 19-12 SU and 17-13 ATS records this season.
The Panthers are the defending Mountain Valley Conference Tournament champions after defeating Illinois State in the conference final last season. This winner is slated to face the winner of Wichita State’s game on Saturday.
