Jan 21, 2020 at 5:53 PM
PEORIA — Illinois State owns the longest NCAA tournament drought among all Missouri Valley Conference teams, not earning a bid since 1998. And the way this year is going — with the Redbirds off to a dismal 6-12 start and 1-5 in the league — year No. 22 in a row of holding a blank Big Dance card looks imminent.
March Madness is, of course, the last thing on coach Dan Muller’s mind at the moment as he tries to right a Redbird ship that has lost five in a row in the league, four of them by double digits, after upsetting first-place Northern Iowa in the league opener.