MVC Schedule Announced For UE Men’s Basketball
LOUIS – One of the top turnarounds in Missouri Valley Conference history saw the University of Evansville men’s basketball team make a 7-game improvement last season while clinching one of the top six seeds. The Purple Aces look for more as they head into the 2021-22 campaign.
On Tuesday, the MVC announced the league portion of the schedules. Conference play opens for UE on Wednesday, December 1 with a contest against Southern Illinois inside the Ford Center. It will mark the earliest MVC contest in program history, surpassing a Dec. 8 contest in 1999 at SIU.
After wrapping up its non-conference slate, the Aces open the New Year on January 2 with a visit to Northern Iowa. The Panthers have had a solid mark against Evansville inside the McLeod Center, winning the last seven matchups with the Aces last win in the building coming on Jan. 9, 2013. UE remains on the road to take on Indiana State on the 5th. The Hulman Center is another facility where the Aces look to end a streak with the Sycamores winning the last 10 games in Terre Haute.
The first home game of the new year will see the Aces welcome Illinois State on 1/8. In last year’s scheduling of back-to-back games, UE split a home series against the Redbirds. A stretch of three out of four games on the road will conclude on Jan. 12 with a trip to Bradley.
Following the trip to Peoria, UE will host the top two conference squads from last season – Drake and Loyola. The Aces face the Bulldogs on the 15th inside the Ford Center before taking on Loyola three days later. Drake made the NCAA Tournament last season with a 26-5 overall and 15-3 league mark. Taking on former conference foe Wichita State in the tournament, the Bulldogs picked up a 53-52 win. The Ramblers were 16-2 in the MVC while going 26-5 overall. They advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament with wins over Georgia Tech and Illinois.
UE returns to the road on the 23rd for a trip to Redbird Arena to face Illinois State before finishing the month at home against UNI (1/26) and on the road at Missouri State (1/29). Evansville swept a 2-game series from the Panthers at the Ford Center in 2021 while splitting its series versus the Bears to complete the 2020-21 regular season.
February opens at Valparaiso on the 1st. It will mark the first trip to Valparaiso since January of 2020 as Valpo was one of four trips (UNI, MSU, and Illinois State being the others) that the team did not make last season due to the COVID scheduling. Two home games follow with the Aces facing Bradley (2/5) and Indiana State (2/9) before the team travels to Southern Illinois on the 12th. In the last trip to Carbondale to open the 2020-21 MVC schedule, the Aces halted a 19-game conference skid against the Salukis. Four days later, the squad returns to Iowa to take on Drake.
Two of the final three regular-season games will take place at the Ford Center with the Aces playing host to Valpo on Feb. 19. UE faced the Beacons in a pair of home games last year, taking both contests. The road finale will see the Aces head to Gentile Arena on 2/23 to face Loyola before hosting Missouri State on Feb. 26 to close the regular season.
Season tickets for the 2021-22 season are on sale now and can be purchased by calling the UE Athletics Ticket Office at 812-488-2237. Individual game tickets go on sale on Monday, October 11 and can be purchased at the Carson Center Ticket Office, Ford Center or on Ticketmaster.com.
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