By ISU Sports Information
ST. LOUIS – After earning a share of the 2016-17 Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship, the Illinois State men’s basketball team will aim to defend its title during the 2017-18 MVC season, for which the conference schedule was released by the league office Tuesday.
Start times have not yet been determined.
The Redbirds will tip off MVC play Dec. 23 at Evansville, marking ISU’s first league-opener on the road since the 2013-14 season. Having won 15-consecutive games against conference opponents on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena, Illinois State will try to extend its winning streak when the Redbirds begin the home-league schedule Dec. 31 versus Indiana State in Normal.
In another MVC home game, the Redbirds will host Bradley Jan. 17 as part of the I-74 rivalry series. ISU will later travel to Peoria, Illinois, Feb. 14 to face the Braves. Illinois State and MVC-addition Valparaiso are scheduled to meet in Normal Jan. 27. The Redbirds will visit the reigning Horizon League-champion Crusaders in Valparaiso, Indiana, Feb. 11.
ISU will host its final MVC home game of the season Feb. 21 versus Drake, followed by the regular-season finale Feb 24 at Loyola Chicago. The Redbirds will then travel to the 2018 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, March 1-4 at Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
ISU women
The Redbird women open conference play Dec. 30, when they welcome Bradley to Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena for the annual I-74 rivalry series, which will be the program’s 10th-straight year they open the Valley season at home, and the second-consecutive year Illinois State opens with the Braves. The Redbirds then hit the road for contests at Valparaiso (Jan. 5), the newest member of the conference, and at Loyola (Jan. 7).
The following weekend Illinois State returns home to host Missouri State (Jan. 12) and Southern Illinois (Jan. 14), before heading back to Indiana for games at Evansville (Jan. 19) and Indiana State (Jan. 21).
January ends and February begins with a four-game homestand inside Redbird Arena. The Redbirds first play defending conference champion Drake (Jan. 26) and Northern Iowa (Jan. 28), which concludes the first half of the conference schedule, before playing their return games against Loyola (Feb. 2) and Valparaiso (Feb. 4).
Illinois State returns to the road the following weekend to play Southern Illinois (Feb. 9) and Missouri State (Feb. 11), before concluding the home portion of the schedule against Indiana State (Feb. 16) and Evansville (Feb. 18).
The Redbirds end the regular season with three-consecutive road tilts, as they end the month of February with trips to Northern Iowa (Feb. 23) and Drake (Feb. 25), while the return game in the I-74 Rivalry Series is slated for Saturday, March 3, at Bradley.
For the third-consecutive season, the MVC Tournament will be held in Moline, Illinois inside the iWireless Center, March 8-11.
With the 15-game nonconference schedule, the Redbirds are scheduled to play 29 games in the regular season, with 15 coming at home and 13 being true road contests. The second game at Long Beach State’s Beach Classic in December will be contested a neutral site.
