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Missouri Valley Basketball Weekly Recap
Scores Tuesday, January 3 Creighton 76, Drake 59 Wednesday, January 4 Southern Illinois 74, Bradley 65 Northern Iowa 65, Indiana State 48 Wichita State 67, Evansville 66 Illinois State 68, Missouri State 60 Saturday, January 7 Creighton 92, Bradley 83 Missouri State 69, Indiana State 63 Illinois State 75, Evansville 73 Wichita State 83, Southern Illinois 73 Northern Iowa 83, Drake 68 The Missouri Valley Conference just doesn't want to make life easy for itself, and it's all because the teams in the middle of the league just don't want to be held down. This is going to be a recurring point of focus over the next two months as the Valley tries to sort itself out: The top teams in the league - the ones with the capability of making the 2012 NCAA Tournament - need to have relatively clean resumes, the kinds of balance sheets with few bad giveaways or any setbacks that will make the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee think twice about its choices on Selection Sunday. Yet, the flow of action in the Valley is preventing that very reality from unfolding. It's just not the kind of season so far that league commissioner Doug Elgin can get excited about - hopes for three or four teams in the NCAA Tournament have been reduced to what is in all likelihood a two-team haul, and that's if Creighton does not win the league tournament in March.
Yes, at this point in the season, Creighton is the one team in the Valley that looks fairly solid in terms of an at-large bid, though that's hardly a guarantee with two full months yet to go before Selection Sunday. The Bluejays decked Drake and bounced Bradley to calm any fears that they had lost the mustard on their fastball after losing a home conference game the previous week. Creighton's attack is an up-tempo one. The Jays don't play the rugged style of most Valley teams - they don't want to have anything to do with plodding contests that linger in the 50s and 60s. The Jays, under coach Greg McDermott, want to push the pace and register lots of possessions, and that's what they did this past week, especially against Bradley this past Saturday. Wichita State also won a pair of games this past week to shore up the Valley's cause, but WSU experienced a few bad losses in late December, so the Shockers are still playing catch-up. Northern Iowa won two games this past week, but the Panthers' 0-3 start in the Valley has likely prevented them from being a serious contender for an NCAA at-large berth. The truly negative aspect of this past week in the Valley was the intertwined story involving the Missouri State Bears and the Indiana State Sycamores. Missouri State lost to Illinois State in the middle of the week, hurting its own case for an NCAA bid, but the Bears then knocked off Indiana State to give the Sycamores their second loss of the week; ISU had lost to Northern Iowa a few days before. Indiana State entered the post-Christmas portion of its slate with a lot of momentum. The Trees had knocked off Vanderbilt on the road and had a resume worth touting; now, they've lost three Valley games and cannot view their at-large situation with much confidence. The fact that Missouri State and Indiana State are struggling is precisely what is shrinking the Valley's at-large pool.
By: Matt Zemek |