2/1 Valley standings...

[Big Mike]

________MVC____Total
01.UNI...10-1......16-6
02.BU.....7-4.......13-9
02.isu.....7-4.......18-4
02.CU.....7-4.......17-6
05.UE.....6-5.......14-7
06.SIU....5-6.......10-12
06.DU.....5-6.......14-9
08.WS....4-7.......10-12
09.MS....2-9........9-13
09.INS....2-9.......4-18

There is one game remaining....final CU over MS

[BUBraves2006]

Just ran my spreadsheet ... unfortunately ISU is officially in second place. They are killing us in tiebreaker points 63-44.

The official standings are ...

1. Northern Iowa
2. illinois state
3. Bradley
4. Creighton (A Creighton win pushes Bradley to fourth due to head to head, they also lead in tiebreaker points if it came down to that right now)
5. Southern Illinois
6. Evansville (of course, if they beat SIU tonight, they move to 5th - with a loss, they are still in 6th as they've swept Drake)
7. Drake
8. Wichita State
9. Missouri State (A loss to Creighton drops them to 10th as Indiana State leads in tiebreaker points)
10. Indiana State

[georgethedog]

Fact: Tied for 4th would equal the best MVC year under Les. I did not expect any better this year with all the new players.

However, next year is when things better happen (as in winning the MVC). With the addition a healthy Egolf, Warren, our two stud 6'8" recruits (and don't anyone go on with that freshman thing--look at Butler), and our other players with another year of experience, a 4th place finish or lower next year should make even the most loyal Les backer feel a bit uneasy. It would have been nice to have Wilkins, but BU should have enough firepower next year to dominate the league. If they don't, there will be at least one po'd fan, me.

[Bradleyguy10]

Let's keep things in perspective here...it's not JUST Bradley that has the young talented team. SIUC and Creighton both have young teams as well....

[MacabreMob]

Let's keep things in perspective here...it's not JUST Bradley that has the young talented team. SIUC and Creighton both have young teams as well....

True.

But Creighton with Woodfox (as a Sr right) and P'Allen (Mr All-World behind or ahead of King-O) that's gonna go to the next level soon... they are really behind where I thought they would be.

Man... I thought they would be hung with only 1 loss right now (from us, of course).

Growing pains.

[Tulsa Brave]

UNI returns almost everyone next season. Since they are dominating this season, I would think they should be expected to do the same next season.

[georgethedog]

UNI returns almost everyone next season. Since they are dominating this season, I would think they should be expected to do the same next season.

If the league were better, which it should be, UNI would be in the middle of the pack. If we can't start or develop better talent than what UNI has this year, I think I will find another team to follow. I am still convinced UNI is not that good. That team would have finished 4-6 a few years back.

[real fan]

First of all, UNI is not dominating anyone even though they have a 10-1 record, I would wager that they will not win the valley tour. and will not go to the NCAA tour. as they have no signaficent wins . I like Bradley"s chances the next several seasons as we should be better both inside and on the perimeter.

[georgethedog]

First of all, UNI is not dominating anyone even though they have a 10-1 record, I would wager that they will not win the valley tour. and will not go to the NCAA tour. as they have no signaficent wins . I like Bradley"s chances the next several seasons as we should be better both inside and on the perimeter.

Agreed on all accounts.

[audacious_aficionado]

Let's keep things in perspective here...it's not JUST Bradley that has the young talented team. SIUC and Creighton both have young teams as well....

I agree, next year many teams in the valley will be better. although, i don't know if SIU is one of them: they lose mullins, clemmons, and boyle.

UNI returns everyone except carlton reed and travis brown. no big deal at all!
Creighton loses Woodfox and dotzler. meh.
ISU loses Holloway, Oguchi, and Sampay. OE and DO are seniors along with phillips!
Indiana St just loses Tunnell.
Wichita St. loses just Clemente and Griskenas. lots of young guys ready for a big year.


We should be good next year but so should these teams. It will be interesting.

[SaintLouBrave22]

First of all, UNI is not dominating anyone even though they have a 10-1 record, I would wager that they will not win the valley tour. and will not go to the NCAA tour. as they have no signaficent wins . I like Bradley"s chances the next several seasons as we should be better both inside and on the perimeter.

We'll have 1 more 3-pt shooter and guys who can play post and help defense...

How could we not get better next year?!

Also, I believe P. Allen and Osiris will both go pro after this year...call it a gut feeling...so take their names off both of those teams and what do you have?

Another thing...I understand Dillard is going to be a good player, but its gonna be hard to measure up to what Mullins does for that team.

Someone is probable to come out of the woodwork like UNI this year, but a betting man would say its a two team race for next year so far.

[RedbirdFan21]

thanks for giving me a real laugh this morning...

can you list all the 6-2 or 6-3 shooting guards from midmajors that went pro after their sophomore or junior year?

For one of the rare times in the history of the universe ...i am going to have to agree with you.

The only way either leaves early is if they get some REALLY bad advice from someone...

[Murph]

Just ran my spreadsheet ... unfortunately ISU is officially in second place. They are killing us in tiebreaker points 63-44.

The official standings are ...

Thanks for pointing that out before Danny Kooky gets a chance to do it for us....

[PTTB]

UNI continues to play well together. Very good chemistry. They are going to stub their toe sometime, and their schedule really ramps up here over the next couple weeks. They may very well falter at Bradley, as you guys seem to be playing at a high level. UNI's 3's aren't falling recently, and that's going to eventually going to result in a loss. However, their defense has been superb and is keeping them in games when their shots aren't falling. Their defense is not aimed at getting steals, but rather forcing teams into bad shots.

From a primary fan's perspective (regarding UNI), they have everyone back but Travis Brown. Marc Sonnen comes to UNI as the top PG in Minnesota, and is from Tartan HS (same HS as Erik Crawford, Eric Coleman, and Kwadzo Ahelegbe). He has an article on Hoopmasters front page today...had a triple double last week. Also, UNI gets Anthony James from his redshirt year. I honestly don't know how that will pan out with minutes, as I could see all the starters getting a couple fewer minutes, and Travis' minutes distributed to both Sonnen and James. We'll just have to see. I'm honestly not worried about it.

I assume Bradley will be rocking and rolling after this year's strong performance. Illinois State I would assume would be down as they aren't very deep and lose Holloway, Oguchi, and Sampay. Drake loses Cox, and Evansville loses quite a bit in Holsinger and Ely. SIU should be up, as should Missouri State and Wichita. Creighton will continue to be deep, and should be about the same, IMO. It's a long time until next season though.

[Da Coach]

Just ran my spreadsheet ... unfortunately ISU is officially in second place. They are killing us in tiebreaker points 63-44.
The official standings are ...
1. Northern Iowa
2. illinois state
3. Bradley
4. Creighton (A Creighton win pushes Bradley to fourth due to head to head, they also lead in tiebreaker points if it came down to that right now)

Not correct-
the official standings are...
1. Northern Iowa
2. Illinois State
2. Creighton
2. Bradley
5. Evansville
http://www.mvc-sports.com/standings/...EM_ID=7600&KEY=

To clarify, you can think of it any way you want, but there is officially a simple 3-way tie for 2nd place right now.
BU, ISU, and CU are all tied for 2nd, 3 games behind UNI. Tiebreakers do not apply.
The MVC tiebreaker formula does not come into play until all 18 league games are complete, and then it's only used to arrange seeding for the tournament. It does not break ties in the final conference standings.
And it does not break ties at this point of the season, before all games are played, and award 2nd place to ISU, 3rd place to Creighton, and 4th place to Bradley. They are all currently tied for 2nd.
If you look back at past seasons where teams finished tied for 1st place, despite the tiebreaker formula being used for tournament seeding, the 1st place teams are still considered co-champions.