2020–21 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball season

2020–21 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	11
TV partner(s)	CBS, CBSSN, FOX, FS1, FSN
Regular Season
Tournament

2020–21 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 17 Loyola Chicago †	16	–	2		.889			26	–	5		.839
Drake	15	–	3		.833			26	–	5		.839
Missouri State	12	–	6		.667			17	–	7		.708
Indiana State	11	–	7		.611			15	–	10		.600
Evansville	7	–	11		.389			9	–	16		.360
Valparaiso	7	–	11		.389			10	–	18		.357
Northern Iowa	7	–	11		.389			10	–	15		.400
Bradley	6	–	12		.333			12	–	16		.429
Southern Illinois	5	–	13		.278			12	–	14		.462
Illinois State	4	–	14		.222			7	–	18		.280
† 2021 MVC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

The 2020–21 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2020, followed by the start of the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Conference play began in January 2021.

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Preseason

Preseason poll

The preseason awards and coaches' poll was released by the league office on October 14, 2020.

Rank	Team
1.	Northern Iowa (30) 426
2.	Loyola-Chicago (13) 405
3.	Bradley (1) 341
4.	Indiana State 282
5.	Southern Illinois 235
6.	Missouri State 210
7.	Drake 207
8.	Valparaiso 148
9.	Illinois State 112
10.	Evansville 54
(first place votes)

Preseason All-Missouri Valley teams

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Player of the Year	AJ Green, Northern Iowa
Preseason All-MVC First Team	Elijah Childs, Bradley
	AJ Green, Northern Iowa
	Tyreke Key, Indiana State
	Cameron Krutwig, Loyola-Chicago
	Austin Phyfe, Northern Iowa
Preseason All-MVC Second Team	Donovan Clay, Valparaiso
	Marcus Domask, Southern Illinois
	Jake LaRavia, Indiana State
	Roman Penn, Drake
	Gage Prim, Missouri State
Preseason All-MVC Third Team	Trae Berhow, UNI
	Keith Fisher III, Illinois State
	Tate Hall, Loyola-Chicago
	Marquise Kennedy, Loyola-Chicago
	Tremell Murphy, Drake

Regular season

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

	Bradley	Drake	Evansville	Illinois State	Indiana State	Loyola-Chicago	Missouri State	Northern Iowa	Southern Illinois	Valparaiso
vs. Bradley	–	0–0	0–2	1–0	2–0	2–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–1
vs. Drake	0–0	–	0–0	0–2	0–2	1–0	0–2	0–1	0–2	1–1
vs. Evansville	2–0	0–0	–	1–1	0–0	2–0	0–0	0–2	1–1	0–2
vs. Illinois State	0–1	2–0	1–1	–	2–0	2–0	2–0	0–0	0–0	2–0
vs. Indiana State	0–2	2–0	0–0	0–2	–	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–2	0–0
vs. Loyola-Chicago	0–2	0–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	–	0–2	0–2	0–0	0–1
vs. Missouri State	0–0	2–0	0–0	0–2	0–2	2–0	–	1–1	0–1	0–2
vs. Northern Iowa	1–1	1–0	2–0	0–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	–	1–1	0–0
vs. Southern Illinois	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–0	2–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	–	0–0
vs. Valparaiso	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–2	0–0	1–0	2–0	0–0	0–0	–
Total	5–8	10–2	6–6	2–11	8–6	13–1	8–5	4–9	3–8	4–7

Player of the week

Throughout the season, the Missouri Valley Conference named a player of the week and a freshman of the week each Monday.

Week	Player of the week	Freshman of the week