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Missouri Valley Tournament Basketball Weekly Recap
Scores Tuesday, December 6 North Carolina 97, Evansville 48 Bradley 79, Northeastern 68 Northern Iowa 80, Iowa 60 Wednesday, December 7 Illinois State 78, Morehead State 73 Wichita State 77, Tulsa 67 Western Kentucky 62, Southern Illinois 55 Oklahoma State 72, Missouri State 67 Thursday, December 8 Drake 66, Eastern Michigan 53 Saturday, December 10 Saint Joseph’s 80, Creighton 71 Indiana State 68, Maryville 57 Northern Iowa 67, Milwaukee 51 Missouri State 68, Arkansas-Little Rock 60 Evansville 86, North Carolina A&T 65 Wichita State 83, Utah State 76 Sunday, December 11 Western Michigan 54, Southern Illinois 43 The Missouri Valley is putting up a good fight so far this season. Another week of non-conference college basketball competition showed that the Valley is hardly stuck in the same rut that other leagues are complaining about. If you look across the country, you’ll see that leagues such as Conference USA, the Horizon, the WAC, and the Mountain West just aren’t as deep or as formidable as they used to be. In the Missouri Valley, it’s hard to say the same thing. This conference just might be deeper than many of its mid-major brethren. Just consider what happened over the past seven days.
Northern Iowa was the non-Butler darling of the 2010 NCAA Tournament. The Panthers stunned top-seeded Kansas in the second round and fashioned the kind of underdog moment which makes March Madness the special sports experience it is. This season’s UNI squad isn’t as balanced or as potent as the 2010 team was, but it has just finished off two convincing wins against teams that should be able to pull in better talent than what the Panthers currently have. Northern Iowa plays in Cedar Falls, Iowa, a far cry from the University of Iowa in Iowa City or the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, now referred to as (simply) Milwaukee. Nevertheless, coach Ben Jacobson got his Panthers to trounce Iowa by 20 and Milwaukee by 16. Milwaukee is the same team that won the 2011 Horizon League championship and stood one win away from potentially knocking Butler out of the 2011 NCAAs. Northern Iowa treated Milwaukee (also nicknamed the Panthers) like a rude young child, spanking the boys from the beer capital of the United States. The 20-point win over Iowa might have underscored the Hawkeyes’ weaknesses as they try to transition to a new system under coach Fran McCaffery, but it also showed that Northern Iowa is very much a force to be reckoned with inside and outside the Valley. Creighton, the preseason favorite in the league, lost at St. Joseph’s, but that setback won’t be too damaging to the Bluejays, who already own an impressive road win against San Diego State. Moreover, the Missouri Valley’s cause was enhanced this past week by Wichita State. The Shockers took down Tulsa and then Utah State to bolster their confidence as Christmastime comes. Illinois State’s win over 2011 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament champion Morehead State should not be forgotten, either.
By: Matt Zemek |