2019–20 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball season

The 2019–20 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2019, followed by the start of the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season on November 5, 2019. Conference play began in late December 2019 and concluded in March with the Missouri Valley Conference tournament at Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

2019–20 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	10
TV partner(s)	CBS, CBSSN, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN+, FSI, FSKC, FSMW, NBCSC
Regular Season
2020 MVC Champion	Northern Iowa
Season MVP	A. J. Green, Northern Iowa
Tournament
Champions	Bradley
Runners-up	Valparaiso
Finals MVP	Darrell Brown Jr., Bradley

2019–20 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Northern Iowa	14	–	4		.778			25	–	6		.806
Loyola Chicago	13	–	5		.722			21	–	11		.656
Indiana State	11	–	7		.611			18	–	12		.600
Bradley †	11	–	7		.611			23	–	11		.676
Southern Illinois	10	–	8		.556			16	–	16		.500
Missouri State	9	–	9		.500			16	–	17		.485
Valparaiso	9	–	9		.500			19	–	16		.543
Drake	8	–	10		.444			20	–	14		.588
Illinois State	5	–	13		.278			10	–	21		.323
Evansville	0	–	18		.000			9	–	23		.281
† 2020 MVC tournament winner

Northern Iowa captured the regular season title at 14–4.

Bradley defeated Valparaiso in the championship game to win the Missouri Valley Conference tournament and thereby would have received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Northern Iowa, by virtue of winning the regular season title, but not winning the conference tournament, would have received the conference's automatic bid to the National Invitational tournament.

All subsequent postseason tournaments were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Head Coaches

Changes

On March 6, 2019, Southern Illinois head coach Barry Hinson resigned.^[1] He finished with a seven-year record of 116–106. The school announced on March 20 that former Loyola-Chicago associate head coach (and Saluki alumnus) Bryan Mullins had been named head coach.^[2]

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	MVC record	MVC titles	NCAA Tournaments
Bradley	Brian Wardle	Green Bay (Head)	4	58–75	28–44	0	1
Drake	Darian DeVries	Creighton (Assistant)	1	24–10	12–6	1	0
Evansville	Walter McCarty	Boston Celtics (Assistant)	1	11–21	5–13	0	0
Illinois State	Dan Muller	Vanderbilt (Assistant)	7	139–96	76–50	1	0
Indiana State	Greg Lansing	Indiana State (Assistant)	9	148–142	80–82	0	1
Loyola-Chicago	Porter Moser	Saint Louis (Assistant)	8	141–125	60–82	2	1
Missouri State	Dana Ford	Tennessee State (Head)	1	16–16	10–8	0	0
Northern Iowa	Ben Jacobson	Northern Iowa (Assistant)	13	266–168	139–95	2	4
Southern Illinois	Bryan Mullins	Loyola-Chicago (Assistant)	0	0–0	0–0	0	0
Valparaiso	Matt Lottich	Valparaiso (Assistant)	3	54–44	13–23	0	0

Notes:

• All records, appearances, titles, etc. are from time with current school only.
• Overall and MVC records are from time at current school and are through the beginning of the season.
• Lottich and Moser's conference records only includes MVC play, not other conference records.

Preseason

Poll

Source^[3]

Rank	Team	Points
1.	Missouri State (29)	410
2.	Bradley (5)	368
3.	Northern Iowa (3)	343
4.	Loyola-Chicago (6)	340
5.	Drake	243
6.	Indiana State	210
7.	Illinois State (1)	193
8.	Evansville	132
9.	Valparaiso	98
10.	Southern Illinois	83
(First-Place Votes)

All-Conference Teams

Honor	Recipient
Player of the Year	Cameron Krutwig, Loyola-Chicago
First Team
	Darell Brown Jr., Bradley
	Tulia Da Silva, Missouri State
	A. J. Green, Northern Iowa
	Tyreke Key, Indiana State
	Cameron Krutwig, Loyola-Chicago
Second Team
	Jordan Barnes, Indiana State
	Elijah Childs, Bradley
	Keandre Cook, Missouri State
	Javon Freeman-Liberty, Valparaiso
	Ryan Vazekas, Valparaiso
Third Team
	Zach Copeland, Illinois State
	Gaige Prim, Missouri State
	Lamont West, Missouri State
	D. J. Wilkins, Drake
	DeAndre Williams, Evansville
	Lucas Williamson, Loyola-Chicago

Source^[3]

Regular season

Changes

On December 27, 2019, Evansville placed head coach Walter McCarty on administrative leave and named current Evanville assistant coach (and former Samford head coach) Bennie Seltzer as interim head coach.^[4] McCarty was in his second season at the school with an overall record at the time of 20–25. The school terminated McCarty's contract on January 21, 2020^[5] and announced later that same day that former Marian, Butler and Iowa head coach, as well as Evansville associate head coach, Todd Lickliter would return as head coach, effective immediately.^[6]

Conference Matrix

This table summarizes head-to-head results between teams in conference play; each team will play eighteen conference games, facing each team twice.

	Bradley	Drake	Evansville	Illinois State	Indiana State	Loyola-Chicago	Missouri State	Northern Iowa	Southern Illinois	Valparaiso
vs BU		1–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	2–0	0–2	2–0	0–2	1–1
vs DU	1–1		0–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	1–1
vs UE	2–0	2–0		2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0
vs IlSU	2–0	1–1	0–2		1–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	2–0	2–0
vs InSU	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–1		1–1	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–1
vs LU	0–2	1–1	0–2	0–2	1–1		1–1	1–1	1–1	0–2
vs MSU	2–0	1–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	1–1		2–0	1–1	1–1
vs UNI	0–2	0–2	0–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	0–2		1–2	0–2
vs SIU	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–1		1–1
vs VU	1–1	1–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–1
Overall	11–7	8–10	0–18	5–13	11–7	13–5	9–9	14–4	10–8	9–9

Postseason

Coaches

Source^[7]

Honor	Recipient
Coach of the Year	Ben Jacobsen, Northern Iowa

Source^[7]

All-Conference Teams

Source^[8]

Honor	Recipient
Larry Bird Player of the Year	A. J. Green, Northern Iowa
Defensive MVP	Isaiah Brown, Northern Iowa
Sixth-Man of the Year	Marquise Kennedy, Loyola-Chicago
Newcomer of the Year	Marcus Domask, Southern Illinois
Freshman of the Year	Marcus Domask, Southern Illinois
First Team
	Javon Freeman-Liberty, Valparaiso
	A. J. Green, Northern Iowa
	Tyreke Key, Indiana State
	Cameron Krutwig, Loyola-Chicago
	Austin Phyfe, Northern Iowa
Second Team
	Darrell Brown Jr., Bradley
	Elijah Childs, Bradley
	Keandre Cook, Missouri State
	Marcus Domask, Southern Illinois
	Liam Robbins, Drake
Third Team
	Jordan Barnes, Indiana State
	Tate Hall, Loyola-Chicago
	Nate Kennell, Bradley
	Roman Penn, Drake
	Gaige Prim, Missouri State

Source^[8]

Conference tournament

Main article: 2020 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball tournament

References

1. "Barry Hinson steps down as Southern Illinois head coach". coachesdatabase.com. March 9, 2019. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
2. "Former Saluki Bryan Mullins named head coach at Southern Illinois". coachesdatabase.com. March 20, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
3. "2019-20 MVC MEN'S BASKETBALL PRESEASON POLL" (PDF). mvc-sports.com. October 17, 2019. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
4. Lindskog, Chad (December 27, 2019). "UE places Walter McCarty on leave for alleged 'unwelcome conduct'". courierpress.com. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
5. Lindskog, Chad (January 21, 2020). "University of Evansville fires Walter McCarty as head men's basketball coach". courierpress.com. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
6. Lindskog, Chad (January 21, 2020). "Evansville hires Todd Lickliter as basketball head coach hours after firing Walter McCarty". courierpress.com. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
7. "UNI's Ben Jacobson Named Top MVC Men's Basketball Coach" (PDF). mvc-sports.com. March 5, 2020. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
8. "AJ Green of UNI is the 2020 Larry Bird MVC Player of the Year" (PDF). mvc-sports.com. March 3, 2020. Retrieved March 3, 2020.