Belmont University has been tabbed as the preseason favorite in the MVC women’s basketball race in the annual survey of the league’s coaches, sports information directors and media.
Belmont received 32 of 48 first-place votes and 508 total points, out-distancing Illinois State (444, 7 1st place votes) and Drake (438, 6 1st place votes). Murray State (397), UNI (393), Missouri State (388), Southern Illinois (270), Indiana State (257), Evansville (207), Valparaiso (197), Bradley (133) and UIC (112) round out the poll.
Preseason voters have correctly selected the conference’s regular-season champion 23 times in 39 seasons, but since the poll was expanded to include sports information directors and media in 1994-95, pollsters have accurately predicted 18 of the 28 champions. Preseason favorites have played in 30 postseasons, including 22 NCAA Tournaments with two Sweet 16 and one Final Four appearance.
The only non-power conference program to reach the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 each of the last two seasons, Belmont will look for another run in 2022-23.
The Bruins will vie for their first MVC regular season title in 2022-23 after joining The Valley this past summer. Belmont has ended the regular season as OVC champions five of the last six years, including a first place 16-2 finish a year ago.
The MVC has seen an average of four league teams participate in postseason play in the last 23 seasons, including five teams reaching postseason play in 2021-22. Drake, UNI and Southern Illinois participated in the WNIT, while Illinois State and Missouri State earned bids to the NCAA tourney. The MVC claimed two bids into the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in the last five NCAA tourneys and 14th time overall.
#1 BELMONT BRUINS
- Belmont welcomes back three starters from last season’s 23-8 (16-2 OVC) team that won a fifth OVC regular season title in the last six years and an NCAA berth.
- Belmont enters its first season in the Missouri Valley Conference after an impressive 10-year run in the Ohio Valley Conference where the Bruins captured a combined 11 championships, including regular season and tournament.
- After becoming only the second program in Division I women’s basketball history to win NCAA Tournament games in consecutive seasons as a No. 12 seed or lower, and coming within a ball bounce of Belmont’s first Sweet 16, the Bruins return their top three scorers. First-team all-conference performers Destinee Wells (16.7 PPG), Madison Bartley (11.7 PPG) and Tuti Jones (11.6 PPG) are all back. The trio accounted for over 50 percent of Belmont’s scoring and assists in 2021-22 and combined for over 400 rebounds.
#2 ILLINOIS STATE REDBIRDS
- Illinois State will see four starters return from last season’s team (19-14, 12-6 MVC) that captured the MVC Tournament title for the fifth time in program history. The Redbirds made their sixth NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2008.
- Illinois State brings back 10 returners from last season’s MVC Championship and NCAA Tournament team, including All-MVC First Team member and MVC All-Tournament Team member, DeAnna Wilson. Wilson averaged 12.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game a year ago.
- Illinois State has added three transfers and two freshmen in the off-season, including NCAA Division II Player of the Year, Paige Robinson (Drury).
#3 DRAKE BULLDOGS
- Drake returns four starters from last year’s group (20-14, 9-9 MVC) that finished sixth in the Valley standings and earned a WNIT berth. The Bulldogs enter the 2022-23 season qualifying for a postseason berth in seven-consecutive seasons.
- Allison Pohlman enters her second season as head coach and became the second coach in program history to reach 20 wins in her first season as head coach.
- Megan Meyer (2021-22 MVC Newcomer of the Year/2021-22 All-MVC First Team), Grace Berg (2021-22 All-MVC First Team), Katie Dinnebier (2021-22 All-MVC Freshman Team), Anna Miller (2021-22 All-MVC Freshman Team) and Maggie Bair (2021-22 All-MVC Honorable Mention) all return for the Bulldogs. Meyer and Bair each averaged 12.1 ppg a year ago, while Berg added 11.2 per contest.
#4 MURRAY STATE RACERS
- Murray State returns nine players and four starters from last season’s team that went 22-10 overall and finished third in the OVC with a 13-5 league mark. The Racers tied a school record in 2021-22 with 21 regular-season wins and advanced to OVC semifinals in for a second consecutive season. Murray State also earned a WNIT berth for first-time since the 2008-09 season.
- The Racers return 85.2-percent of their scoring from a season ago and 85.7-percent of their rebounding efforts. Junior Katelyn Young had an amazing sophomore season, earning the OVC Player of the Year award.
- Young led the OVC in scoring and rebounding last season, averaging 20.1 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. Young was also named a semifinalist for the Becky Hammond Mid-Major Player of the Year and became the first AP All-American in school history.
#5 UNI PANTHERS
- UNI finished the season 23-11 overall and 13-5 in MVC action. UNI saw its season come to a close in the second round of the WNIT after falling just short of an NCAA berth in the MVC Tournament title game.
- The Panthers posted its 14th consecutive season at .500 or better in Valley play along with its 13th year in a row with at least 17 victories and a top-half finish in the league standings.
- UNI will have a different look this year after losing three four-year starters. Several familiar names return to the Panther roster including guard Kam Finley (active career leader in three-point shooting), center Cynthia Wolf, point guard Maya McDermott, and forward Grace Boffeli (MVC All-Conference Honorable Mention).
#6 MISSOURI STATE LADY BEARS
- Missouri State returns six players and one starter from last season’s NCAA tournament team that finished the season 25-8 overall and 14-4 in MVC play.
- Missouri State will be led by first-year head coach Beth Cunningham in 2022-23. Cunningham spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at Duke and prior to that served as an associate head coach at her alma mater, Notre Dame, under Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw.
- MSU returns one starter from a year ago in fifth-year senior Sydney Wilson. Wilson currently ranks in the program’s top 20 in career free throw percentage, career three-pointers and career games played while also ranking inside the top 30 in steals and top 40 in scoring and free throws made in program history.
#7 SOUTHERN ILLINOIS SALUKIS
- The Salukis return seven players from last season’s MVC Regular-Season Championship squad (21-10, 15-3 MVC).
- While they return point guard Quierra Love, the Salukis are replacing the program’s all-time leading scorer in Mackenzie Silvy and last year’s MVC Player of the Year in Abby Brockmeyer.
- For the first time in nine seasons, Southern Illinois will have a new voice leading them as Chicago-native Kelly Bond-White takes over for Cindy Stein, who retired after last season. Bond-White comes to SIU after 19 seasons at Texas A&M, where she was the associate head coach since 2007-08.
#8 INDIANA STATE SYCAMORES
- Indiana State welcomes back three starters and nine letterwinners from last season (11-20, 5-13 MVC).
- The Sycamores will look to build off the 11 wins, including five in MVC play. Both of those win totals were more than the previous two seasons combined, while the Sycamores also earned their first MVC Tournament win since 2014.
- Second-year head coach Chad Killinger will have a plethora of weapons available, including 2021 Honorable Mention All-MVC and MVC All-Defensive Team selection Del’Janae Williams, who led the Sycamores in points (12.5), assists (2.8) and steals (2.0).
#9 EVANSVILLE PURPLE ACES
- Evansville returns four starters from last season’s squad (8-22, 2-16 MVC).
- In what will be her fourth season, senior guard/forward Abby Feit is poised to continue her climb up the entirety of the UE Women’s Basketball record book. The Normal, Ill. Native currently sits in fourth in career blocks, seventh in career rebounds, and is just 44 points away from jumping into the all-time top 10 scorer’s list.
- A season ago, Feit earned her first all-MVC first-team honor and finished fourth in scoring in the MVC (15.1 ppg) and second in rebounding (8.9 rpg).
#10 VALPARAISO Beacons
- Last season, Valpo (11-19, 9-9 MVC) matched its best finish and best record in MVC play since joining the Valley, going 9-9 in conference action and finishing in sixth position.
- It will be a revamped squad on the floor for head coach Mary Evans in 2022-23, as the Beacons return just 32.1% of their scoring, 38.1% of their rebounding, 24.4% of their assists and 35.9% of their minutes played from last year’s squad.
- Valpo does return a pair of starters among its seven returning letterwinners. Olivia Brown earned a spot on the MVC All-Newcomer Team, averaging 6.6 points per game overall and 9.5 points in Valley play. Also returning is Leah Earnest. Earnest averaged 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game last season.
#11 BRADLEY BRAVES
- Bradley welcomes back one starter from last season’s 4-24 (1-17 MVC) team.
- The 2022-23 season starts the Kate Popovec coaching era at Bradley. The former Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Northwestern, Popovec (Northwestern ‘13) was named Bradley’s 10th women’s basketball head coach April 5, 2022.
- The 2021-22 MVC Freshman of the Year, sophomore guard Caroline Waite was the top scoring underclassmen in the MVC last year at 13.0 points per game and she led the league in three-point field goals per game (2.89).
#12 UIC Flames
- UIC (2-25, 1-20 Horizon) ushers in a new era of women’s basketball in their first season as members of the Missouri Valley Conference, as Ashleen Bracey was announced as the 13th head coach in program history on March 28.
- Junior Jaida McCloud returns to the lineup after earning All-League Second Team honors a year ago. One of two players on the team to start in all 27 games a season ago, McCloud led the team in scoring and rebounding last season, averaging 16.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.
Preseason All-MVC Team
Non-Conference Schedule by the Numbers
The 2023 MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament will return to Vibrant Arena at The MARK in Moline, Ill., for the eighth-straight season. Affectionately coined “Hoops in the Heartland,” the four-day event (Mar. 9-12) will showcase all 12 MVC schools as they compete for The Valley’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
With its 2023 neutral site championship, The Valley becomes the only Division I stand-alone women’s basketball event to be held in the same city eight or more consecutive years. In fact, Hoops in the Heartland 2023 will match the ACC, SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 Conference Tournaments, as the only Division I stand-alone women’s basketball championships to be held at a neutral site for more than 15 consecutive years.
The 2023 MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament title game on Sunday, March 12, will be aired on ESPNU for the second-straight season. The first 10 tournament contests will be shown exclusively on ESPN+.