Ryan Smiley

🏀 2026-27 Missouri Valley Preview 🏀 Team to watch: Illinois State. The Redbirds bring back the best player in the league and they know it. Chase Walker was First Team All-MVC a year ago, and with last season’s Player of the Year gone to Tennessee, he’s the clear headliner in a conference that turned over almost everything else. Pair him with sharpshooter Johnny Kinziger and Illinois State has the experience to chase something it hasn’t done since 1998: an NCAA Tournament bid. The bold call: UIC wins the Valley. Voters picked the Flames third. This board puts them on top. Last season was the best in modern program history: 19 wins, a first-ever trip to the Arch Madness championship game, and the school’s first NIT bid since 2003. Rob Ehsan returns senior starters Ahmad Henderson II and Mekhi Lowery, one of the best defenders in the league, then added Stanford grad transfer Benny Gealer, the guy who hit a buzzer-beater to win an early-season tournament MVP last year. This roster is built to finish the job. Here’s the thing about this league: the favorite has never been the favorite before. Murray State earned 32 of 50 first-place votes, the first time the Racers have ever been picked to win the Valley. Roman Domon, last year’s Freshman of the Year, leads a group that already beat American Conference favorite Wichita State 93-87 in an October exhibition. And true freshman Pavle Nikolic arrives after averaging 15.7 points a game against professionals in the Adriatic League. Murray isn’t sneaking up on anybody this time. Storylines worth watching: - Belmont defending its first MVC regular-season title with a new coach. Casey Alexander left for Kansas State, and Belmont legend Evan Bradds comes home from Duke’s staff with Jack Smiley and Eoin Dillon back. - Northern Iowa’s first season without Ben Jacobson, who left for Utah State after 20 years and 397 wins. Longtime assistant Kyle Green takes over a team that just won Arch Madness as a 6-seed. - Murray State’s international-heavy rotation trying to live up to the program’s first-ever preseason top billing. - Whether Illinois State’s Walker-Kinziger core can finally end a 28-year NCAA Tournament drought. - UIC chasing its first MVC title in just its fourth season in the league. Fun fact: Last season’s Valley regular-season champ and tournament champ both lost their head coaches this offseason, and the league lost its Player of the Year too. Belmont’s Casey Alexander, Northern Iowa’s Ben Jacobson, and Tyler Lundblade all left for power-conference programs, leaving this as one of the most wide-open Valley races in years.