Red-hot Wichita State will look to bolster their big dance resume as other teams in the Missouri Valley tournament will look to play spoiler this weekend. Their first test will be against Bradley, a team on a winning streak themselves as of late. The Braves have won four consecutive games, two of which included beating Drake back-to-back in recent outings. The Shockers had a bye on the first night of the tournament. Tipoff is set for 7:00 PM Eastern time and can be seen on FSN Midwest, CSN Chicago, and ESPN3, online at espn.com/watch, and on the WatchESPN and ESPN mobile apps.
Bradley (13-19, 7-seed in MVC tourney)
The Braves have been feeding off of the lesser teams in the conference to get this winning streak, but they were still able to gain momentum heading into this tough matchup. Their resurgence has been thanks to an improved offense. They only scored 67 points in the recent win over Drake, but scored 77 or more points in the three games prior to that.
Some of that newfound scoring is helped by junior forward Donte Thomas (7.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg). He's had 13 or more points in three of the last four games, with his best performance of 22 points and 12 boards in their first meeting against Drake.
No. 21 Wichita State (27-4, 2-seed in MVC tourney)
Illinois State actually gets the top seed due to winning the tiebreaker over Wichita State, but the Shockers are the only lock for the MVC in the big dance.
WSU is also still the favorite with 12 consecutive victories. The latest ESPN projection shows the Shockers as a 7 seed in the West region.
Freshman guard Landry Shamet (11.4 ppg, 3.4 apg) led the team with 23 points and 8 boards in the regular season finale over Missouri State. Junior center Shaquille Morris (9.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg) also had 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting in 25 minutes of action.
The winner of this game will play the winner of Missouri State vs. Northern Iowa in the second semifinal on Saturday at 5:00 PM Eastern time. Wichita State is favored by a whopping 21 points and the O/U is set at 141.5 points. They are 16-11 overall against the spread, but Bradley is also a solid 17-13.
