3 MVC games Wednesday 2/18

[bluedevils1]

We have more quality wins than ISU. They also have lost to InSt. twice.

[bluedevils1]

No, we don't.
Our win over ISU is the only win we have against a team with an RPI less than 90.

ISU manhandled Creighton earlier in the year...and that is their only 'quality win'.

So, it's 1 decent win to 1 decent win in the battle of bad resumes...at this point.

ISU does have games left against UNI, Niagara, and Creighton (plus the Valley Tourney)...so it's certainly possible they could get another decent win or two along the way...while we have no real opportunities left against decent teams until the conference tourney rolls around.

I was exaggerating. Either way, their schedule is not good enough to get thim in unless almost ever conference tourney winner is an at-large.

[pfunk880]

Is this the time we get to talk about how hard it is to beat a team 3 times in a season?

[TheAsianSensation]

ISU isn't even close enough to throw rocks at the fence right now.

(UNI is in quicksand and can't find rocks to throw)

They chopped off their own arms to throw rocks with during the non-con portion of the schedule.

We'll revisit if they win 3 in a row and win the Valley outright. But there is a real scenario where UNI and ISU tie for the title and drop Creighton to 3rd, and that would destroy the league. ISU needs to get out of the way this final week for anything good to happen.

[IlliBraves]

IMO, I figure conference games are different, so it's not so surprising they lost to InSU twice. You have to figure when teams know each other as well as they do in conference play, you're going to see a few losses. Take Davidson. They lost to College of Charleston at HOME, which is a game you wouldn't expect them to lose, but they still have a great team. And I think it's ridiculous to think Dav. wouldn't make the tourney if they don't win their conference tourney. Yeah, they screwed themselves non-con wise, but I still think they have a pretty talented team. The few times I've seen them play on TV, I have been impressed (ISU).

[cpacmel]

ISU has an outside shot at tying for the league title at this point. That would be good for us as ISU would have the #1 seed with their sweep of CU and a possible date with us Saturday, but would be bad for the league as I think CU's at-large chances disappear with losses to MSU and ISU to end the season (which is what has to happen for ISU to tie for 1st). Not sure what to root for (besides BU winning out).

Outside chance? Depends on how you define that. We have 2 games left. We win both those games we are Conference Champs. Doesn't matter what Creighton does against Mo State either. It could be Co-Champs, but we would be the #1 seed if we Win our last 2 games. (vs. UNI and @ Creighton)

[Da Coach]

A few thoughts on last night's games-
Drake 47 UNI 46
Drake scored only 17 points in the first half at UNI and looked terrible. But they came back to win 47-46. Only 5,109 fans attended the big intra-state, MVC "rivalry". I hesitate to call it a true rivalry, because it shouldn't matter where they are in the standings (UNI was in 1st place coming into last night's game!) they should sell more than 5,109 tickets.
UNI's guards shot terribly. Too bad they didn't shoot like that against Bradley. But if there was any remaining hope for UNI to get an at-large bid, this home loss ended that.
Adam Koch may have taken himself out of the POY consideration with a 2 point, 4 rebound, 5 turnover performance. Kwadzo Ahelegbe also had a bad game- 7 points, just 2 assists, and he played only 22 minutes because of foul trouble. Ali Farorkhmanesh was just 2-11 from the floor, and Johnny Moran was 0-4 from three. Since hitting the game-winner against Bradley, Moran is averaging just 6 ppg, and is shooting only 30% from the floor in his last 8 games. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketb...d=200902180418


WSU 59 ISU 74
Only 6,576 fans saw this game. Wichita played pretty well and hung close for much of the game. But it seems they forgot to cover Landon Shipley and the other ISU shooters. Also, Ramon Clemente, who was touted as the best rebounder since Xavier Crawford, had only 3 rebounds in 37 minutes. He has only had fewer rebounds one time this year, 2 against Drake when he played just 15 minutes. ISU outrebounded WSU 35-26.
Freshman of the Year candidate Toure Murry had just 4 points. J.T. Durley had just 1 rebound to go with his 4 points. Sharpshooter Graham Hatch was just 1-6 from the field, and Garrett Stutz played just 8 minutes, and had 0 points, and 1 rebound. If he moves any deeper down the bench, he will fall off.
Also, Aaron Ellis, had 0 points and 3 rebounds.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=200902180269

And Indiana State 78 SIU 72
Nice to see Indiana State win this one on the road. Suddenly, SIU is a better offensive team, but they abandoned their patented defense. InSU shot 50% for the game, and 52.4% from three, and the 78 points SIU gave up to the next-to-last place team is another embarrassment for Chris Lowery. The 82 points they gave up to Creighton on Saturday, and the 78 points last night are, by far, the most points they have given up on their home court this year. This was the 7th home loss this season for SIU, and their 3rd in a row. SIU shot well (52%, 46% from three) and outrebounded InSU, so the difference was their porous defense.
One interesting stat- Nick Evans had 4 fouls in 4 minutes.
Only 4,563 fans showed up for this game.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=200902180528

[BradleyBrave]

What's most alarming is that Drake and Indiana St went in and won at two places we couldn't. Granted, Mullins wasn't playing against the 'Trees, but UNI losing to Drake is just terrible. Looking at the past few weeks of games for UNI and their games since their miracle against us, I think that their magic carpet ride is over. Last night they looked more like the team that muddled through the non-con than the one that could do no wrong in conference.

[Da Coach]

Indiana State is a hard team to figure. They have road wins at Northern Iowa, Illinois State, Missouri State and Southern Illinois this season, yet they have lost 6 of their 8 MVC home games! Their only home wins are against Illinois State and Drake.