Instead of sitting around in a conference room in a St. Louis hotel, the head coaches and beat writers of the Missouri Valley Conference sat in front of their computers Thursday morning for the league's annual media day.
Before the virtual event began, Missouri State was unsurprisingly picked to finish sixth in the league — a year after being picked to win it.
Northern Iowa enters the season as the favorite with Loyola-Chicago right behind it. New faces around the Valley create uncertainty after that.
More:Missouri State men's basketball picked to finish sixth in Missouri Valley Conference
As far as Missouri State goes, the Bears enter the season with seven newcomers on scholarship in Dana Ford's third season as head coach.