Mvc! Mvc! Mvc!

[BUSongwriter]

Great afternoon for the Valley as both UNI and Wichita win! Northern Iowa looked great, and Wichita did what it had to in beating the Big Ten's Indiana.

Let's get one, or both, into the Sweet 16 and keep making noise. Good luck to MVC teams still playing in the other tourneys as well.

NOTE -- I had MVC in all caps in the title....program took 'em out.

[Fetz86]

Would love to see KU get knocked out by an MVC team again.

[tornado]

UC- Irvine is playing right even with Louisville...tied in the 2nd half....

remember - UC-Davis swept these guys twice in blowouts this year

[ollienanyes]

MVC men's programs have been perfect: 2-0 NCAA, 2-0 EIEIO, 1-0 NIT.

Tonight, I watch the Wichita Women on ESPN3; they are playing at Cal Berkeley.

Women: UNI lost to Missouri 69-61 in the NIT; Missouri State and Drake play NIT games tonight.

[tornado]

UC- Irvine is playing right even with Louisville...tied in the 2nd half....

remember - UC-Davis swept these guys twice in blowouts this year

Irvine loses a very close one to Louisville but also got hosed on a couple calls down the stretch

https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/579061879319871489

after the game Pitino even concedes his player was TRYING to FOUL because they had a couple fouls to give, so they clobber the guy at mid-court & knock him over - yet the ref calls nothing.

[ollienanyes]

rough day for MVC women: in the NIT Missouri State lost to Tulsa (78-72), Drake lost to Eastern Michigan 80-70 and in the NCAA, Cal beat Wichita 78-66 (was 78-58 with just about 2 minutes to go and Cal put everyone in the game).

The men are doing well though.

[bigjimmy]

Good luck to UNI in their game against Louisville and to Wichita in their game against Kansas. I think if UNI does what UNI does they will beat Louisville. They are just a better team. As far as Wichita goes can they compete with the much bigger front court of Kansas. And Ron Baker needs to wake up from his shooting slump. If they can do both things the Shockers will prevail.

[Da Coach]

I second that!

[bigjimmy]

Wichita just needs to make their FT's and handle the rock and it's on to Notre Dame and the Sweet Sixteen!

[bigjimmy]

1 down, 1 to go. Wichita shocks Kansas 78-65. GO UNI!

[bigjimmy]

It took a while but once Wichita State got it rolling there was nothing Kansas could do about it. The Shockers did struggle for the first 15 minutes as it looked like the length of Kansas bothered them. Perry Ellis especially bothered Wichita. But Ellis went out with a bloody nose and it seemed to spark the Shockers as they outscored Kansas 27-8 from the 4:28 mark of the 1st half to the 14:45 mark of the 2nd half to go up by 11. Kansas was never able to get it under 8 the rest of the game. All 5 starters for Wichita scored in double figures, led by Tekele Cotton, who played his best game of the year, with 19. Fred Van Fleet had 17 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals. Ron Baker had 12, Darius Carter had 10 and Evan Wessel had a career game as he had 12 points, all from 3, 9 rebounds and played tough defense against Kansas's front court. Up next, Notre Dame which is definitely a winnable game. Go Shox!

[Da Coach]

The MVC, in this case Wichita State, again had to prove to the NCAA that their seeding is a joke. Wichita should not be a #7 seed, and by easily handling #2 seeded Kansas today, they showed again why the non-Big 5 conferences gets screwed every year by the seeding.

[Tommy]

The MVC, in this case Wichita State, again had to prove to the NCAA that their seeding is a joke. Wichita should not be a #7 seed, and by easily handling #2 seeded Kansas today, they showed again why the non-Big 5 conferences gets screwed every year by the seeding.

Amen to that. It seems to be getting worse every year.

[bigjimmy]

Well MVC is 1-1 in the NCAA tournament tonight as Louisville beats UNI 66-53. Louisville a little better than I thought but UNI probably played their worst game of the season. UNI got a taste of their own medicine as they shot just 39% from the field and were just 6 for 19 from 3. Louisville didn't give UNI many open looks and the Panthers couldn't contain Terry Rozier who had 25 to lead all scorers. Louisville's starting linup had 61 of their 66 points. Seth Tuttle ends his UNI career with a team high 14 points but the interior defense of Louisville pretty much bottled him up in the 2nd half as UNI, who was down by 9 at the half, couldn't get any closer than 8 in the last 10 minutes.

[tornado]

When they were trailing by 10 in the 2nd half, UNI just kept trying the same thing over and over with Washpun dribble driving into the paint and tossing up something wild...maybe shooting FT occasionally.
It wasn't working yet they kept trying even when they needed 10-12 quick points late in the game.
Would have loved to see what might have happened had they tried a few more 3-pointers at that point.

UNI made two 3-pointers right off the bat and took a 10-5 lead, and were within 3 pts (22-19) on a Wyatt Lohaus 3-pointer.
But then other than a desperation 3-pointer right at the end - they went the final 7 minutes attempting only two from the arc.