The 2016–17

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

men's basketball season began with practices in October 2016, followed by the start of the

2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 11, 2016. The first early-season tournaments were the 2K Sports Classic, Charleston Classic, and Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The season ended with the 2017 NCAA Division I men' ...

in November. Conference play began on December 28, 2016, and concluded in March. Illinois State and

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 ...

shared the regular season championship with matching records of 17–1. Due to tiebreakers, Illinois State received the conference's No. 1 seed in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. Illinois State's

Paris Lee Paris Lee (born April 20, 1995) is an American-born naturalized Cameroonian professional basketball player for LDLC ASVEL of the French LNB Élite and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for Illinois State University. A point guard, Lee ...

was named Conference Player of the Year and Dan Muller was named Coach of the Year. The MVC Tournament was held from March 2–5 at the

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St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. Wichita State defeated Illinois State to win the tournament championship. As a result, the Shockers received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. No other MVC team received a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Illinois State received a bid to the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

. The season marked Wichita State's final season as an MVC member. Shortly after the end of the NCAA Tournament, the Shockers announced their departure for the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

, effective July 1, 2017.

Head coaches

Coaches

''Notes:'' * All records, appearances, titles, etc. are from time with current school only. * Year at school includes 2016–17 season. * Overall and MVC records are from time at current school and are through the end of the 2016–17 season. * Fourth-year head coach

Ray Giacoletti Raymond Bryan Giacoletti (born April 14, 1962) is a former men's basketball coach, having served as head coach at Drake University, and The University of Utah. He played collegiate basketball at Minot State University in North Dakota from 1980 t ...

resigned on December 6, 2016 after the first eight games of the season. Assistant coach Jeff Rutter was named interim head coach.

Preseason

Preseason poll

Source

Preseason All-MVC teams

Source

Regular season

According to college basketball statistical guru

Ken Pomeroy Ken Pomeroy is the creator of the college basketball website and statistical archive KenPom. His website includes his College Basketball Ratings, statistics for every NCAA men's Division I basketball team, with archives dating back to the 2002 ...

, the MVC had "the most unusual conference table in the land" for the season. The co-champions Illinois State and Wichita State were the only two teams that finished above .500 in conference play, each finishing with only one conference loss (splitting their two regular-season matchups). This made the MVC the first Division I conference to have two men's teams finish with no more than one conference loss since the

MEAC The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC ) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the Nation ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, and also marked the first time that a Division I conference with 10 or more members had only two teams with winning league records since the MVC itself in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

(which had a five-team tie for third place at 9–9).

Head-to-head results

Player of the week

Conference Awards

Source

Postseason

Missouri Valley Conference tournament

Teams were seeded by conference record, with ties broken by record between the tied teams followed by overall adjusted RPI, if necessary. The top six seeds received first-round byes.

NCAA tournament

The winner of the MVC tournament received an automatic bid to the

2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 20 ...

National Invitation tournament

One MVC team, Illinois State, received an invitation to the National Invitation Tournament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2016-17 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball season Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball tournament