Coaches adjusting to early conference games

MBB: Murray State opens Valley play November 29th against Bradley

Murray State’s Rob Perry tries to score around four Bradley defenders on January 4, 2023. (Photo: David Eaton/Murray State Athletics)

As we are now just 16 days away from opening night of the college basketball season, we are also only 38 days from another big night on the Missouri Valley Conference schedule. On Tuesday, November 28th, Indiana State will host Southern Illinois in the first Valley game of the year. By the end of that week, all 12 conference teams will have played their first two Missouri Valley games of the season.

In many leagues, conference games don’t begin until January. With the Missouri Valley Conference expanding from 10 to 12 teams before last season, and now playing 20 conference games instead of 18, it became necessary to squeeze those two extra conference games in earlier in the season. The Valley schedule-makers decided to have those games played the week after Thanksgiving. Southern Illinois Head Coach Bryan Mullins doesn’t think his approach to preparing for conference play changes with the earlier start, but he does admit the timing is a little different than the norm.