Illinois State looks like MVC Tournament’s dark horse

Being labeled the dark horse to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament is great, but Thursday afternoon presented a much more pressing issue for Illinois State.

Such as how the Redbirds were going to beat Evansville, their Friday quarterfinal opponent, for the second time in a week.

But if they do get past the Aces?

“Our singular focus, truly, has been on Evansville,” Illinois State coach Dan Muller said. “If we look past that, we’re in trouble. ... That being said, we want to win three games, as every team does. It’s about playing our best basketball right now, about playing together unnselfishly and learning from what we did well during the regular season.

“I think we’re coming into this weekend with confidence, but also understanding you’ve got to compete at a high level to win games in this thing.”

What the Redbirds did well in the regular season can be framed by four straight wins to finish out the regular season and three close losses to No. 8 Wichita State and No. 11 Northern Iowa. Illinois State (19-11) closed out the regular season with a 69-67 overtime win at Evansville last Saturday.

Muller hopes the season-closing win streak has boosted his team’s confidence.

“I hope (the win streak) has helped a lot,” Muller said. “I think we’ve played pretty good basketball at times throughout the year. We’ve had some losses, even, where I thought we were playing good basketball.”

It’s not hard to infer what Muller is talking about when he mentions playing well in losses.

The Redbirds played Wichita State within single digits twice — a 70-62 loss at Koch Arena on Jan. 4 and a 68-62 loss in Normal, Ill., on Feb. 14. Illinois State lost to visiting Northern Iowa, 54-43, on Jan. 25 thanks to a three-pointer by Nate Buss with 5.1 seconds left.

“Well, we would’ve liked to have won those games,” said Illinois State guard Daishon Knight, a second-team All-MVC pick who leads the team at 13.9 points. “But we watched the film, learned from it and we moved on. Now, we’re trying to come out with some wins.”

An upset run to the title would likely mean the No. 4-seed Redbirds pulled off upsets over two ranked teams — the Shockers are on their side of the bracket, and Northern Iowa went 8-0 against teams on its side of the bracket.

The Redbirds haven’t won the MVC Tournament since 1998 — Muller’s senior season — and lost in the championship game in 2008, 2009 and 2012.

“I would just say we need to prepare the same,” said Illinois State guard Devaughn Akoon-Purcell, the MVC Newcomer of the Year. “We’ve just got to prepare how we’ve prepared in the past and I think we should be fine.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2015 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Illinois State looks like MVC Tournament’s dark horse."