There was a time early this season when Missouri Valley Conference newcomer Belmont wasn’t thinking about league championships and berths in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
Tested by a non-conference schedule that included early-season losses to Louisville and Iowa and greeted by a 3-3 start in conference play, the Bruins were 7-10 overall following a mid-January MVC loss to Illinois State.
“We were all over the place in our non-conference season and that spilled into our early conference play,’’ Belmont coach Bart Brooks said. “We were really good one day and about as bad as you can get the next.’’
That was then.
This is now.
As Hoops in the Heartland, the Missouri Valley’s postseason tournament that tips off Thursday at Vibrant Arena at the Mark in Moline, begins the Bruins are the hottest team in the conference.
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Belmont won 14 consecutive games since that 14-point loss at home to Illinois State, playing their way into a tie for the Missouri Valley regular-season championship with the Redbirds at 17-3.
Illinois State held the tiebreaker and is the top seed for the expanded 12-team tournament that leads up to a 1 p.m. championship game on Sunday when the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA field will be presented to the winner.
“The Valley is so darn good this year,’’ Redbirds coach Kristen Gillespie said. “The level of play is absolutely outstanding. With the three new teams and influx of new coaches, it’s a challenge. I love coaching in this league because you get put to the test every night.’’
Brooks discovered that as well.
“We knew coming in that this is a good conference but I think it is even better than I thought it would be,’’ Brooks said.
As Hoops in the Heartland tips off in the Quad-Cities for the eighth time, the depth of the Missouri Valley is as strong as ever.
Third-seeded Northern Iowa, fourth-seeded Drake and fifth-seeded Missouri State are all tradition-rich programs. UNI finished one game behind Belmont and Illinois State in the league race at 16-4 and the Bulldogs and Lady Bears shared fourth place at 14-6.
Conference newcomers Illinois-Chicago and Murray State are sixth and eighth seeds for the tourney, with Southern Illinois positioned seventh in coach Kelly Bond-White’s first season.
Northern Iowa coach Tanya Warren, whose team played in the championship game last year at Hoops in the Heartland, likes the way the Panthers have played on their way to a 21-8 record.
Grace Boffeli, a sophomore who prepped at North Scott High School, leads the Panthers with averages of 16.4 points and 9.35 rebounds per game.
“We’re excited to start round three, the postseason, and we’re looking forward to playing Friday night in the Quad-Cities,’’ Warren said.
In playing its conference tournament at a neutral site, the Missouri Valley joins the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern conferences as the only leagues to hold their women’s basketball tournament at a neutral site for more than 15 consecutive seasons.
Given the depth of the league this season, that is more welcomed than ever.
“To have a chance to play at a neutral site, it’s good for everyone,’’ Drake coach Allison Pohlman said. “It creates a special environment and the organizers in the Quad-Cities do such a good job, coming to Moline is something our players really look forward to. It’s a real class act event.’’
Warren said the environment creates the level playing field coaches want for their teams in postseason play.
“With the number of good teams in the Valley, it leads to really competitive games,’’ Warren said.
The Panthers open the tournament playing the late game Friday against the winner of Thursday’s play-in game between Valparaiso or Illinois Chicago. UNI’s quarterfinal won’t tip off until 8:30 p.m. Friday.
“Two extreme opposites in what they do and how they do it,” Warren said of UNI’s potential quarterfinal opponents. “We will really focus on ourselves. We will add a couple of new things and then focus on both opponents equally and then get ourselves to play a very late game on Friday.
“We are excited for the opportunity.”
Four programs have won the last four championships at Hoops in the Heartland. Drake, Missouri State, Bradley and Illinois State have each cut down the nets in Moline since 2018 and only once in that timeframe – Drake in 2018 – has the No. 1 seed won the tournament.
Brooks said Belmont, which features two of the conference’s top five scorers in Destinee Wells and Madison Bartley, looks forward to competing for its first Missouri Valley title.
“We’ve found some consistency. We focused on some things we took for granted as a staff and needed to correct,’’ Brooks said. “We’ve done a better job finding a consistent level of effort and execution and we’ve got some really talented players. When they play well, coaching gets easier.’’
Gillespie, whose team has been led in league play by Paige Robinson, said her ISU team is anxious to play with a second straight NCAA opportunity on the line.
“We have a group of seniors who have given us good leadership all year. They remember that we were at our best last March and know we need to be there again now,’’ Gillespie said. “We’re excited about the opportunity that we have going into Moline.’’
