Southern Illinois' upset win over Southwest Missouri State locked in the first three seeds of next weekend's 2002 State Farm-Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Peoria, but Bradley, Illinois State and Wichita State all will have to wait until after the league's final day of regular-season action to find out their seeds.
With a win in Saturday's 7 p.m. match at Bradley, Illinois State can still claim the No. 5 spot if Southern Illinois beats Wichita State in Carbondale. Those results would cause a repeat of the final matches of the season between SIU and WSU, Illinois State and Bradley, in the Nov. 23 first round. The SIU-WSU winner would play No. 2 seed SMS, while the Bradley-Illinois State winner would face Northern Iowa in the second round.
If Illinois State loses at Bradley, or wins coupled with a Wichita State win at Southern Illinois, then the Redbirds will open the Valley Tourney against the Salukis and Bradley would play Wichita State. The SIU-Illinois State winner would meet Southwest Missouri State and the BU-WSU winner would play Northern Iowa.
Bradley and Southern Illinois both could end up 12-6, but the Salukis win all tiebreakers with BU because SIU swept the two regular-season matches. Wichita State has the same edge over the Redbirds.
Illinois State is the only Valley team to play in all 21 tournaments.
