9 MVC games today- Sat. 2/18

[Da Coach]

There are 9 BracketBusters games today, Sat. 2/18, involving MVC teams-

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/scoreboard?d=2012-02-18&refresh=60&c=mvc

Wichita State is playing at Davidson right now, and pulling out to an 8-point lead in the second half. The game is on ESPN2-

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201202180156

Other TV games include-
Drake at New Mexico State on ESPNU at 2 PM
Old Dominion at Missouri State on ESPNU at 4 PM
Long Beach State at Creighton on ESPN2 at 9 PM

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/46675/matchups-for-bracketbusters-released-2

[lefty]

WSU is looking real good right now

[Bravesfan]

A great win for the Shockers as they win going away 91-74. Davidson is still a dangerous team as their win at Kansas showed, but hey have been in a bit of a slump as of late, losing a couple of games to some of the weaker Southern Conference teams. So obviously Davidson needed this game more, and a Shockers loss would have hurt them somewhat. But the Shockers played like a ranked team, and this win will definitely help them in their seeding.

And if the Shockers don't break into the ESPN top 25 this week, something is really wrong here!

[Da Coach]

The Indiana State game at Butler is available free online here at the Horizon League Network-

http://www.horizonleague.org/live/4677

The Southern Illinois game at Ball State is available free here at the MAC-Conference Online Streaming site. The quality is poor.-

http://www.mac-sports.com/Schools/BallState/LiveStreaming.aspx

[Da Coach]

Just watching the Drake game at New Mexico State on ESPNU...Wow, the attendance at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces is abysmal. I've seem more people at some Bradley womens games! The arena is almost empty. They average a little over 5,000 fans per game, but there can't be half that many in attendance today.

[Da Coach]

The Indiana State game at Butler is available free online here at the Horizon League Network-

http://www.horizonleague.org/live/4677

The Southern Illinois game at Ball State is available free here at the MAC-Conference Online Streaming site. The quality is poor.-
http://www.mac-sports.com/Schools/Ba...Streaming.aspx

Indiana State getting blown out at Butler- It's Butler 63-InSU 41 with about 9 minutes to go.

SIU also losing on the road at Ball State- Ball St. 55 SIU 43 with about 8 minutes left.

And New Mexico State is beating Drake 26-16 with about 7 minutes left in the 1st half.

[Bravesfan]

Indiana State getting blown out at Butler- It's Butler 63-InSU 41 with about 9 minutes to go.

SIU also losing on the road at Ball State- Ball St. 55 SIU 43 with about 8 minutes left.

And New Mexico State is beating Drake 26-16 with about 7 minutes left in the 1st half.

No surprise on any of these games as I had them all losing today.

Regarding the sparse crowd at New Mexico State, what was with this team playing against a team called Northern New Mexico the other night??? Are they even a Division I team? Maybe that's why no one showed up today. Plus Drake, while improved this year, is certainly not a team that would draw much interest.

[tornado]

despite all the hopeful "experts" who have been saying the Valley was so danged strong this year - that maybe we'd see 4 teams in the NCAA -
I think we will see what some have said all along - that the Valley has two good teams followed by a bunch of CIT-wannabes...

of the seven BracketBuster games already played or in progress -- Wichita won theirs and the other six have lost or appear to be headed towards a loss
The Butler loss, SIU loss, and Drake loss weren't even close games!

ISU needs to get a tape of the Indiana State loss to Butler and spend a few months studying what Butler did on Jake Odum - they held him scoreless, just 3 rebs, and he never even got to the FT line even one time.

[Da Coach]

Missouri State goes down at home to Old Dominion 73-67. That just about ends their NIT hopes.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201202180551

Illinois State is down 73-72 with 2:07 left. So far the MVC is 1-4 with the ISU-Oakland game nearing conclusion. 3 more games tonight-

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/scoreboard?d=2012-02-18&refresh=60&c=mvc

[AZ BU Fan]

The MVC Commish and the 9 University Presidents/AD Directors need to get together and find a way to improve the quality of bb in the MVC, or, the valley could be left in the dustbin of history.

I can see CU and WSU being absorbed into some mega bb conference, and the other 7 headed to Div II unless they become relevant again on the national landscape.

Facilities, tv exposure, coaches, strength of schedule, booster organizations, pre season tourney participation.....All need to be brought into play to help the quality of baskteball in the Valley...

[Bravesfan]

despite all the hopeful "experts" who have been saying the Valley was so danged strong this year - that maybe we'd see 4 teams in the NCAA -
I think we will see what some have said all along - that the Valley has two good teams followed by a bunch of CIT-wannabes...

of the seven BracketBuster games already played or in progress -- Wichita won theirs and the other six have lost or appear to be headed towards a loss
The Butler loss, SIU loss, and Drake loss weren't even close games!

ISU needs to get a tape of the Indiana State loss to Butler and spend a few months studying what Butler did on Jake Odum - they held him scoreless, just 3 rebs, and he never even got to the FT line even one time.

Well, at least the BracketBuster has the potential to do what it is supposed to do for our two NCAA Tournament teams. Wichita St. won their game at Davidson, and Creighton can get a well needed resume boost by beating Long Beach St. The rest of the games don't matter, though too many losses will hurt the Valley's RPI rating.

[Bravesfan]

The MVC Commish and the 9 University Presidents/AD Directors need to get together and find a way to improve the quality of bb in the MVC, or, the valley could be left in the dustbin of history.

I can see CU and WSU being absorbed into some mega bb conference, and the other 7 headed to Div II unless they become relevant again on the national landscape.

Facilities, tv exposure, coaches, strength of schedule, booster organizations, pre season tourney participation.....All need to be brought into play to help the quality of baskteball in the Valley...

Well, I don't think the Valley is that bad AZ. I think Northern Iowa will be pretty darn good next year, and Creighton will be good too. Wichita St. probably falls back a bit, but Missouri St. and Drake could be very solid too.

Personally I think what the MWC and Conference USA are doing is a recipe for disaster! Too many bad teams at the bottom, and now some teams from the Sun Belt and other conferences want to join this mess. Outside of three decent teams from CUSA (and not including Memphis), and UNLV and New Mexico, this new conference has no punch to it. And there's rumors that they want to eventually go to 16 to 24 teams!! That's beyond mindboggling!

[Bravesfan]

A wild game in Omaha as Long Beach State up on Creighton 57-50 with over 16 minutes to go. Creighton's bad defense looks even worse against a team with a very prolific offense. I can see now why many are praising Long Beach State's potential as they have been almost unstoppable from 3 point land tonight. Doug McDermott for his part has 20 points already, but it might not be enough.

Now 59-52 LB State at the under 16 minute timeout.

Now if only Steve Bardo would quit calling Doug McDermott Greg McDermott!

[Fetz86]

Well, that was an unnecessary court storming if I've ever seen one. Glad they won though.

[Da Coach]

Great ending in the Creighton-Long Beach State game. Creighton was just called for a "phantom" over-and-back call with less than a minute left. The Creighton guard, Austin Chatman stepped one foot over the midline, then stepped back. The other foot, and the ball never crossed into the front court which is required before an over-and-back can be called. Nevertheless, an overzealous official blew his whistle and ruled a critical turnover.

But Creighton overcame the bad call, and just appeared to win 81-79 on a last second shot by Antoine Young. McDermott finished with something like 36 points.

Now officials have ruled there is time left, and 0.3 seconds were put back on the clock. However, students had stormed the floor and teams had gone to the locker rooms. It will take time to clear the floor and mop up ice and water spilled on the floor.