The second round of the 2012 Missouri Valley Conference tournament begins early Friday afternoon with a matchup between the No. 1 seed Wichita State Shockers and the No. 8 seed Indiana State Sycamores. The Sycamores knocked off the No. 9 seed Southern Illinois Salukis 65-51 on Thursday night, thanks to 17 points and eight rebounds from sophomore guard Jake Odum, 15 points from Dwayne Lathan and 12 more from Myles Walker. Now the Shockers get their chance to reassert dominance in the MVC.
Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall recently won Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year honors for leading his team to a 26-4 record and No. 14 national ranking. Senior guard Joe Ragland and senior center Garrett Stutz were named to the All-Valley First Team as well, and have each helped lead the Shockers to the eight-best team field goal percentage in the nation (49.0%) and the 15th overall mark in points per game (78.3).
Wichita State won both regular season matchups against Indiana State this season, taking the Jan. 15 road contest by a score of 75-65 and then winning a close 71-66 game at home on Feb. 4.
The full tournament bracket can be found here, and below is the information on Friday game:
Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, Game 3
#1 Wichita St. Shockers (26-4, 16-2 MVC) vs. #8 Indiana St. Sycamores (18-13, 8-10 MVC)
Game Time, Date: 12:05 pm CT, Friday, March 2, 2012
Location: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO
TV: MVC TV Network
For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation St. Louis. For the complete bracket and schedule, you can click here. For more on college basketball, you can check out SB Nation's college basketball news hub.