3 MVC games Saturday, Feb. 21

[Da Coach]

There are 3 MVC games today, Sat., Feb. 21

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard?date=20150221&confId=18

[tornado]

Indiana State beats SIU by 20
that kinda locks them in at 3rd or 4th - get to be home team in the tourney..
- they are now 2 games ahead of ISU with 3 to go for ISU, and Indiana State also owns the tiebreaker.
So likely ISU will get Evansville in St. Louis - and then they face Wichita...

[Da Coach]

Indiana State pulled away in the first half and beat SIU easily 78-58.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400586467

Poor Barry. He has not got any significant talent other than Anthony Beane. His team isn't very athletic, doesn't rebound well, doesn't pass well, and they struggle to score.

It is amazing how weak and low scoring the bottom 5 teams in the MVC have become. SIU, Bradley, Missouri State, Drake, and Loyola all average between 54.3 ppg and 56.7 ppg in MVC play, which separates them from the top 5 teams by a significant margin.

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/CONFONLY.HTM

And it's no surprise that those 5 teams that score in the 50's are the 5 worst teams in the MVC, and the only 5 with losing records-

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/CONFSKED.HTM

[isufan]

Indiana State beats SIU by 20
that kinda locks them in at 3rd or 4th - get to be home team in the tourney..
- they are now 2 games ahead of ISU with 3 to go for ISU, and Indiana State also owns the tiebreaker.
So likely ISU will get Evansville in St. Louis - and then they face Wichita...

if we wind up the 3 seed, we'd play the 6 seed, which probably won't be Illinois State or Evansville.

[tornado]

difference watching ISU is while BU was recruiting single digit scorers out of HS and juco, ISU was landing guys like Akoon-Purcell and Knight who were putting up 25-30 points...

[bigjimmy]

ISU Red improves to 9-7 in the Valley as they beat Loyola 67-60. The Ramblers led for the 1st 14 minutes until ISU was able to take their 1st lead and they never trailed the rest of the way. The Redbirds led by 4 at the half and their lead seesawed between 4 to 9 points for most of the 2nd half. Loyola was able to cut it to 2 with about 4 minutes left but could never get over the hump and ISU was able to pull away. Daishon Knight led ISU with 21 while Christian Thomas led Loyola with 14.

[mvcfan]

The officiating in the ISU/Loyola game was interesting. A lot of odd calls that seemed to kill the flow. Several of the calls left the fans confused on how someone could miss such an easy call. Muller stuck with the shortened bench that only gave Hunter 3 minutes and Wills 0. Hunter's 3 minutes of play quickly validated Muller's decision to shorten his minutes.

[Da Coach]

Muller stuck with the shortened bench that only gave Hunter 3 minutes

Bobby Hunter, the Redbirds' 4th leading scorer did not play at all against Bradley. So maybe there is more to it than just a slump.
Of course Bradley fans may not have realized-
Hunter never got off the bench because the game story in the PJ Star never mentioned it.

But then that now seems to be norm for the PJ Star.
Their game story for the Missouri State game never mentioned that Marcus Marshall did not play

their game story for the Evansville game never mentioned that Mockevicius did not play

their game story for the Loyola game never mentioned that Milton Doyle did not play.

Does anyone find that a bit unusual to write entire game stories and never bother to mention that significant players, in many cases, the opponent's best player, did not even play against Bradley? IMO, it is not just an inexcusable omission, but a case of bias.

[tornado]

they sure mention when Bradley has someone who doesn't play