2010 Missouri Valley Conference Basketball

Wichita State vs Drake Basketball Recap

Drake 78, Wichita State 64

It's great to have a balanced and endlessly competitive conference in which every team has a shot to win on any given gameday afternoon.

Except when the top teams in your league prove to be a bit more vulnerable than you might have hoped.

The Missouri Valley Conference has consistently been one of the better mid-major conferences in college basketball over the past several years. The MVC memorably got four teams into the NCAA Tournament in 2006, but the league brought only one team to the Big Dance last season for one very simple reason: cannibalism.

The Valley ate itself up last year, as no team proved to be safe. Northern Iowa won the conference tournament in St. Louis, but when Illinois State crushed Creighton in the MVC Semifinals, the Bluejays - the one team that had a case for an at-large bid - dropped off the map of the selection committee. When everyone bloodies up everyone else, it's very hard to become a multi-bid mid-major conference in college basketball.

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After this dynamic performance by Drake, that storyline is increasingly likely to define yet another year of Valley hoops.

Wichita State walked into Des Moines, Iowa, fresh from its conquest of league-leading Northern Iowa. The Shockers, under Coach Gregg Marshall, were just beginning to put together the pieces of a sufficient at-large portfolio. A non-conference conquest of Texas Tech, supplemented by the victory over Northern Iowa, provided ballast and balance to WSU's tournament resume. Going up against the 9-11 Bulldogs, Wichita needed to show a characteristic that elite basketball teams manage to bring to the table: namely, the ability to back up one big result at home with another successful outing on the road. The Shockers also faced the equally urgent need to treat a downmarket Drake team with the same respect they evidently devoted to Northern Iowa, the class of the conference.

Would Wichita find form and focus on the road? Would Marshall's men reveal the steadiness and consistency of a team that understands the bigger picture?

Evidently not.

Coach Mark Phelps diagrammed and devised a thoroughly effective halfcourt offense for a Drake team that hit 55 percent of its shots (22 of 40) and drained 27 of 33 free throws. The Bulldogs jolted the Shockers and busted out to a 21-6 lead in the first 12 minutes, and maintained that cushion well into the second half. Wichita State - behind a defense that regrouped midway through the second half and denied Drake a made field goal for just over six minutes - sliced a double-digit deficit to just seven points with 7:10 left, but Drake's 81-percent outing at the foul line enabled the home team to pull off the upset and put Wichita's at-large hopes in jeopardy.

One day's five-star game against Northern Iowa all too often becomes a weekend snooze against Drake. Now that they've been ambushed, perhaps the Shockers - squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble - will treat their next low-key road trip with a little more respect.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Staff Writer