4 MVC games Sat. 2/15

[Da Coach]

There are 4 MVC games today, Sat. Feb., 15-

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard?date=20140215&confId=18

[Da Coach]

The SIU-Indiana State game is on ESPN3.com now-

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/1512460/

[tornado]

Indiana State may be in trouble..they look sluggish - lotta easy shots being missed, SIU is up 3 just before half

[Da Coach]

Great game. SIU lead much of the game at Indiana State, but in the second half the Sycamores gained the lead and barely held on 60-57 as SIU had several shots to tie the game in the final seconds.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400500118

[tornado]

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400500118

SIU had three possessions in the final 16 seconds but did not get the game tying shot to go down.
I think this shows Barry's squad is much improved and Indiana State is indeed very beatable come tourney time

[tornado]

Indiana State beat SIU
BU loses at ISU
Missouri State losing at home by 12 to UNI near end of 1s7 half
Drake winning at home vs. Loyola- up 10 with 5 min to go
..pretty much the only excitement left is rooting to stay out of Thursday for the unprecedented fourth straight year! (we were promised better)


Illini game is kind of a carbon copy of what we just saw from BU..
terrible offense and simply cannot score...just slopped in a three to get to 35 pts and less than 2 min to go...Rayvonte Rice does not help them - not a team player, just jacks shots - assists are not in his repertoire.
Indiana got killed at Purdue...go figure...

[Da Coach]

Another exciting ending- Northern Iowa lead virtually the whole game at Missouri State, but MSU fought back and tied the game in the final seconds. But then UNI scored on a tip in with 1 second left by Seth Tuttle to win 60-58

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400500119

This win by UNI lifts them into a 3-way tie for 3rd, and drops Bradley into a 2-way tie with SIU for 6th. Bradley plays at SIU next, and needs a win for the sweep to gain the tiebreaker against SIU, since the 2nd tiebreaker is non-conference schedule.
Bradley's non-conference schedule is worse than any team except Loyola.

[bigjimmy]

BU's SOS is 248 while SIU's is 238. UNI's by the way is 26. We will certainly have a hard time avoiding the play in game if we lose at SIU on Tuesday but it still could come down to winning at Drake in the last game of the year to decided our fate. ISU Red, UNI and MSU all have games against each other and ISU Blue while the Redbirds and Panthers still play SIU and MSU plays at Wichita. But it would sure help us if we beat the Salukis. In an extra by the way we're not the only ones in the Valley who was bad from the FT line. There were 4 teams who were 60% or under with SIU leading the way at 54%. Only ISU Blue shot it over 70%.

[Da Coach]

According to CBSSports, Bradley's non-conference SOS is 258, SIU's is 244-

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology/sos?&_3:col_1=6&_3:col_2=6

Bradley's Non-con SOS will likely even drop lower (SIU's could, too, just not likely as much) as it has been falling all year. Several of Bradley's early opponents' RPI's are now over 300, and others are dropping.
Sagarin predicts Bradley's final non-conference RPI will be end up at 273, while they predict SIU's will end up at 247.

[bigjimmy]

Those were the figures for SOS that Dave Kaplan and his broadcast partner were talking about near the end of the game so I'm sure they will keep changing.

[tornado]

DR always has some creative SOS figures but any way you look at it we are in the 250 range

[Da Coach]

DR always has some creative SOS figures but any way you look at it we are in the 250 range

Just as I predicted, Bradley's Non-conference SOS apparently took a hit with yesterday's games.
CBSSports now has Bradley's Non-Conference SOS listed at 272 (5th column from the right)-

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology/sos?&_3:col_1=6&_3:col_2=6

On the other hand, SIU's Non-Conference SOS improved to 240.

[Toyota12]

Sos

I don't think we need to worry about our SOS until next year at this point. This years team is just not finishing well with some winnable games. We should probably just get ready for next year but that never happens when have a team and coach fighting to stay out of the Thursday night game.

[tornado]

I don't think we need to worry about our SOS until next year ....

except that the non-conference SOS may be the deciding point on tiebreakers and could make the difference between 3rd and 8th place since only one & two games separate all those teams

[Da Coach]

Yes, the SOS's effect on our seeding is what those comments were about. Especially in regards to SIU, who we are now tied with for the all-important 6th seed. Tuesday's game is very important to Bradley, since a win would give us the #1 tiebreaker over SIU, while a loss would move to the #2 tiebreaker, non-conference SOS. Though a lot could change in the final 4 games, it seems almost certain the non-conference SOS will come into play for the seeding for some teams, and nobody wants to get bumped to the 7th seed.