Point Spreads - NCAA, Final Four, College Basketball, NBA, MLB, World Series, NFL, College Football, BCS & Super Bowl Point Spreads

Nationally ranked Southern Illinois (No. 11 AP/USA Today) finds itself in a familiar spot as the Salukis have earned the top seed for the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament for the fifth time in the past six years.  The Salukis have earned an outright regular-season title and a No. 1 seed for this year’s tournament, which began on Thursday, March 1, at Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Wichita State was the top seed last year, while SIU won regular-season crowns and the top seed for four-straight years from 2002-05.  Notably, the top seed of the league men’s basketball championship has not won the title since Illinois State swept regular-season and tourney titles in 1998.

 The tournament, which features nine games in four days, culminates on Sunday, March 4, with a nationally televised championship game on CBS Sports at 2 p.m. EST.

Top seed Southern Illinois starts off today’s action at 1 p.m. EST by playing the Drake Bulldogs as a -8 ½ point favorite. SIU has won 11-straight games, the longest winning streak of the season and tied for the longest in the head coach Chris Lowery’s era. The Bulldogs earned their way into today’s game by defeating the No. 8 Evansville Purple Aces on Thursday by a score of 101-96.

  No. 4 seed Bradley and No. 5 seed Northern Iowa go head to head in Friday’s second game at 2:30 p.m. EST. Bradley is only favored in the game by a -1.0 chalk. The total is set at 136 ½.

 No. 10 seed Indiana State survived in first round action on Thursday by upsetting No. 7 seed Illinois State 68-65. With the win, the Sycamores get to play the No. 2 seed Creighton Blue Jays Friday night at 6 p.m. Creighton is favored in that game by a -10 ½ point chalk.

 No. 3 seed Missouri State is favored over No. 6-seed Wichita State by -5 points in the nightcap at 9 p.m. All lines and totals on the MVC tournament can be found at offshore sportsbook BoDog.com.

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