For the fourth straight season the Illinois State mens basketball team will open up conference play at Southern Illinois as the Missouri Valley Conference released the league schedule on Monday.
Head coach Porter Moser knows the Redbirds will face a challenge in the league opener.
No matter how you look at our conference schedule its going to be a challenge, Moser said. The conference office had about five or six different drafts of the schedule and every time you looked at it was challenging because of the competitiveness within the league. Opening up with Southern on the road will be one of our toughest games on the whole schedule with them having so many returnees back and the record they have in Carbondale. Im going to look at the glass half full, their students wont be there and what a win that would be to start off the conference season.
The Redbirds will travel to Carbondale, on Dec. 23 to begin league play, before their conference home opener against SMS on Dec. 30.
ISU will be in Redbird Arena for three league games on Saturdays, including the Feb. 5 match-up against Interstate-74 rival Bradley. The Birds and the Braves will face each other for the 100th time in the series on Feb. 23 at the Peoria Civic Center.
I say it all the time. I say it in the recruiting process, I say it while speaking to groups on and off campus it is the best rivalry in the state of Illinois and the best in our league, Moser said. The fans were great last season, even in the tournament. Both schools brought a lot of fans to St. Louis to see the game. Rivalries are a great side of college basketball and you cant get much better than Illinois State and Bradley.
The home contest against Bradley is the first of four straight home games in February. To wrap up the four-game homestand the Birds will host three of the four conference teams which participated in post-season play last season Wichita State (Feb. 10), Northern Iowa (Feb. 12) and Southern Illinois (Feb. 16).
At first I was happy that we had four home games in a row, but then I looked at them and realized it was going to be a heck of a stretch, Moser said. But there are tough stretches all over the schedule. I like it, because our students are going to be here in full force and hopefully we are going to have some momentum that time of year.
The Missouri Valley Conference, in agreement with Fox Sports Net Midwest, is also introducing the Wild Card Saturday and Monday this season. Traditionally, the conference has televised a double-header on the final Monday night of the regular season. By Feb. 1, the league will select one game for the regular-season Saturday finale and two games for its regular-season doubleheader finale on Monday to televise on Fox Sports Net.
The Wild Card is a great idea for exposure, Moser said. If you are in the running as an at-large team and you get a chance to be on television late in the season, who knows if a tournament committee member is watching the game and what kind of impact it may have.
Illinois States non-conference schedule, with the exception of ESPNs Bracket Buster III game on Feb. 19, is yet to be released. Season tickets for the upcoming campaign are currently on sale. For more information contact the Redbird Arena Ticket Office at 309/438-8000.
