Games of Interest, Wednesday 12/19

[shaunguth]

Bradley opponents coming into today.......

Non-Conference: 64-67 (.489)

Missouri Valley: 56-32 (.636)
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illinois state (7-3) @ Dayton (8-2), 6:00pm CT (Comcast SportsNet Chicago; WJBC Radio)

Mississippi Valley State (0-6) @ Bradley (7-2), 7:00pm CT (WMBD Radio)

Eastern Illinois (3- @ Saint Louis (6-3), 7:00pm CT

Samford (2-10) @ Tennessee-Martin (3-, 7:00pm CT

Texas-Pan American (4-7) @ Tulane (7-3), 7:00pm CT

Tulsa (6-4) @ (17)Creighton (10-1), 7:05pm CT (ESPN3)

North Carolina Central (5-5) @ Drake (4-5), 7:05pm CT

Cal State Bakersfield (4-7) @ Colorado State (7-2), 8:00pm CT

Northern Iowa (6-4) @ (21)UNLV (9-1), 9:00pm CT (Time Warner Cable SportsNet)

North Florida (3-7) @ Portland (5-6), 9:00pm CT

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[Bravesfan]

Finally a great win for the Valley tonight as Illinois St. beats a very solid Dayton team on their home court 74-73. I'm not sure if this win would make up for that close loss to Louisville earlier this year (a win over them would have put ISU in great shape for at-large consideration), but they will definitely be in the discussion with this win over Dayton.

Unfortunately, it's not happening for Northern Iowa tonight as they are getting drubbed at UNLV 41-22 late in the first half in a game they absolutely needed to win. So short of a huge comeback, UNI will now need to win the Valley regular season and/or tournament to go dancing. A regular season championship will probably require them to beat Creighton and/or Wichita St. once or twice, which could put them back into the at-large discussion, but they have blown a lot of opportunities for great wins which one or two wins over the best of the Valley might not make up for. UNI's horrible 203 RPI and 0-2 record over RPI team's 101 to 150 won't help either.

[Da Coach]

The MVC goes 4-1 in games Wednesday night-

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/scoreboard?d=2012-12-19&refresh=60&c=mvc

[tornado]

ISU's win over Dayton might just be one of the top wins the MVC has...it was on the road and even tho Dayton isn't a BCS or a Top 50 RPI team currently - we need a few more of these wins - so let's get out and beat Virginia Tech and hope WSU knocks off Southern Miss, Indiana State knocks off Ole Miss, the Aces can pull the upset at Butler, & UNI picks off St. Mary's

[tornado]

as I look at last night's scoreboard - a couple results surprise me..

--What's up with UNC?? First they get beat by Butler - then humiliated by 24 pts in the Big Ten Challenge, now losing by almost 20 to Texas - who's not exactly having a great year - (loss to Chaminade)..
BTW - Texas is also going to lose their best player for the ENTIRE SEASON as the NCAA is suspending Myck Kabongo for taking money from agents..

--uh oh - who was it saying Marquette was going to be good?? Green Bay 49 - Marquette 47..this is NOT good...only 16 2nd half points for Marquette

--And Clemson losing by 23 to Coastal Carolina??

--Remy Abell 12 pts (5-5 and shooting 60% on the seaosn plus 65% from 3-pt), 6 rebs, 4 asst and played just half the game

--PTownHawkeye can attest - there was a while when Hawkeye fans were wondering about Fran McCaffery - but he's got the Hawkeye's doing pretty well now!!
They won by 44 last night to go to 10-2

--West Virginia really struggled to get past Oakland - and Oakland is having a very down year with only two very close wins over bad D-I opponents..

--I had just seen a writeup about Eastern Kentucky (Dr. Glasser's last gig) being really good this year off to a 9-1 start...losing only last Sunday to Illinois...
but unlike the guy writing the glowing column....I kinda knew it was smoke & mirrors since those 9 wins were largely over teams nobody's ever heard of like Cincinnati Christian,
Kennesaw State, Towson, Radford, Norfolk, Delaware State, Western Carolina, NC-Central, Chattanooga...this is Jank-style scheduling
Well - their balloon kinda burst with that loss to the Illini - now they're totally exposed with a loss to NC A&T...

--and I know NIU is bad - but...they played Seattle - a transtitioning D-I team who has only two wins over D-I opponents, both of whom were over 320+ RPI opponents.
...and NIU got clobbered badly - 75-48, they were losing by more than 20 in the 1st half!!

[Bravesfan]

--and I know NIU is bad - but...they played Seattle - a transtitioning D-I team who has only two wins over D-I opponents, both of whom were over 320+ RPI opponents.
...and NIU got clobbered badly - 75-48, they were losing by more than 20 in the 1st half!!

Thank God for the NIU football team!