2 MVC games Saturday, 2/8

[Da Coach]

There are 2 MVC games today, Sat. 2/8-
Missouri State at SIU in a battle of the maroon teams (though we now have a 3rd maroon team- Loyola)
Wichita State at UNI - maybe the last good chance for WSU to be beaten? Their final 5 games will be at home vs. SIU and Drake, and at Evansville, Loyola, and Bradley.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard?date=20140208&confId=18

[bigjimmy]

SIU pulled away from Missouri State in the 2nd half to beat the Bears 72-54. The game was close throughout the 1st half with MSU getting their only lead late in the half but SIU was able to get a 2 point lead at the half. SIU held the Bears to just 9 points in the first 12 minutes of the 2nd half and eventually expanded their lead to 23. Anthony Beane led the way for SIU with 26 points while Jamar Gulley had 15 for the Bears. MSU's other staters combined for just 10 points. UNI is hanging so far with Wichita down 2 with around 5:00 left in the 1st half. Game is on ESPN 2.

[Da Coach]

Wichita has pulled out to a 14 point lead in mid 2nd half, and now Fred Van Vleet has hurt his right knee and is coming off the floor.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400500108

[BU-Bball]

Hes checking back in. It looked like it was a knee on knee with the uni defender. Carter would have been a huge get for us ! So close

[bigjimmy]

Wichita rolls to a 25-0 record with a 82-73 win at UNI. 5 Players for the Shockers scored in double figures. Tekele Cotton had 18, Cleanthony Early scored 16 (all in the 1st half), Darius Carter scored 15, Fred Van Fleet had 14 and Ron Baker had 12. They shot 54% while holding UNI to 42%. This was only the 4th game this year the Shockers gave up over 70 while they have scored over 70 19 times. Matt Bohannon led UNI with 17 while Seth Tuttle had 16. Wichita led 44-37 at the half and led by as much as 16. Their next game is at home against SIU, the next hottest team in the Valley. Will be curious to see how SIU can do. The rest of their season goes like this:

at Evansville
at Loyola
home against Drake
at BU
home against Missouri State

Looking like 31-0 going to Arch Madness.

[Bradleyfan1]

Go ahead and crown them.

But I'm not set on 31 and 0.

SIU is read hot and Barrys gonna have em ready and Peoria has been a hard place to get a W for awhile now, but got to get a real streak goin as in through the end of this season and headed into MVC next yr.

Will get you next time Gadget.

KOOL AID anyone?

[tornado]

I think with a good game plan we can beat them -- they will be coasting and looking past us - and resting their key players...
They are NOT deep - they have been fortunate and avoided injury, but have only five guys who produce --
again tonight - five guys went 23-38 & 75 pts, while the rest of the squad went 3-10 & 7 pts...

SIU drew 6,249, UNI drew 7,150 - Indiana State is averaging 6,496 in MVC play - who was saying everyone's home attendance is down -- both of those first two teams are .500 and under seasons!
Our home average is 6163.

[bigjimmy]

Marshall will not have them coasting. He realizes the significance of being undefeated. It will be, pun intended, Shocking if the Shockers lose before the NCAA tournament. I get that Wichita hasn't shown a lot of depth but they haven't needed it because of the core 4 of Early, Van Fleet, Baker and Cotton. They all average over 10 points a game and play defense like someone stole their lunch money. I still say it's going to take a Valley team to have their best offensive game to have a chance to beat them. I would love to see a BU win but Wichita does what it does and so far have done it good enough to win their first 25.

[Chico]

I think with a good game plan we can beat them -- they will be coasting and looking past us - and resting their key players...
They are NOT deep - they have been fortunate and avoided injury, but have only five guys who produce --
again tonight - five guys went 23-38 & 75 pts, while the rest of the squad went 3-10 & 7 pts...

SIU drew 6,249, UNI drew 7,150 - Indiana State is averaging 6,496 in MVC play - who was saying everyone's home attendance is down -- both of those first two teams are .500 and under seasons!
Our home average is 6163.

Pretty hard IMO to find a negative after every win by Wichita but somehow you always find one.

[Chico]

Go ahead and crown them.

But I'm not set on 31 and 0.

SIU is read hot and Barrys gonna have em ready and Peoria has been a hard place to get a W for awhile now, but got to get a real streak goin as in through the end of this season and headed into MVC next yr.

Will get you next time Gadget.

KOOL AID anyone?

Yeah a really hard place to play. Ask the Indiana alphabet schools how hard it is to win in Peoria.

[tornado]

I guarantee you Geno and every other coach also looks for whatever weak spots they can exploit - so thanks for the compliment

[Chico]

I guarantee you Geno and every other coach also looks for whatever weak spots they can exploit - so thanks for the compliment

And Geno and every other coach would be happy to be 25-0. If it were the Braves, we wouldn't care who scored what.

[bu fan 9]

We have no chance against WSU

[Da Coach]

We have no chance against WSU

According to this graphic on ESPN last night, Bradley has a 6.7% chance to upset them, which makes WSU's game at Bradley the toughest game left on their schedule.