1 MVC game Friday 11/30

[Da Coach]

The only MVC game tonight features Drake (3-1) hosting North Carolina Central (1-7) in the 2nd game of the Iowa Realty Drake Tournament at the Knapp Center on the campus of Drake. The NC Central-Drake game starts at 7:30 pm CST.

The first game features 2 undefeated teams Duquesne (5-0) vs. Cal State Northridge (4-0) at 5:05 pm CST

http://www.godrakebulldogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=71122&SPID=8121&DB_OEM_ID=15700&ATCLID=1326773

Drake's opponent, North Carolina Central, has been a Division II team for many years, and this year they are playing in Division I for the first year. Does anyone know why Drake would host a tournament and invite 2 good teams (Duquesne and CS Northridge), and one cupcake? Did another team drop out and NCC was added late? NC Central is 1-7 and currently ranked #289 in RPI.
Here is their website. It is the poorest excuse for a team's official website I have seen in a long time. It hasn't been updated in months, and does not show any of their results yet--

http://web.nccu.edu/campus/athletics/mbbsched.html

It looks like the last article posted was way back on September 29!--

http://web.nccu.edu/campus/athletics/mbbhome.html

But one thing I noticed is that they play some tough teams (Duke, Rutgers, Florida, Wake Forest, Davidson, Creighton), and 16 of their first 17 games are on the road! Their only win was the single home game they had Nov. 21 against Tennessee Tech. They don't play a second home game until Dec. 29.

[DUBulldog]

The only MVC game tonight features Drake (3-1) hosting North Carolina Central (1-7) in the 2nd game of the Iowa Realty Drake Tournament at the Knapp Center on the campus of Drake. The NC Central-Drake game starts at 7:30 pm CST.

The first game features 2 undefeated teams Duquesne (5-0) vs. Cal State Northridge (4-0) at 5:05 pm CST

http://www.godrakebulldogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=71122&SPID=8121&DB_OEM_ID=15700&ATCLID=1326773

Drake's opponent, North Carolina Central, has been a Division II team for many years, and this year they are playing in Division I for the first year. Does anyone know why Drake would host a tournament and invite 2 good teams (Duquesne and CS Northridge), and one cupcake?

Probably to guarantee that Drake makes it to the championship game of their own tournament.

[tornado]

Probably so, but it is obvious that NCC is sacrificing wins to make some bucks on guarantee games, like this team did last year.

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1414

[TheHeemyMonster]

i just was looking at the lines and Drake is a 28 point favorite for tonights game!! I would bet thats never happened before

[squirrel]

Davis and Son have turned Drake into a threat, by way of offensive efficiency. This may be why Dr. Tom's teams have been so good historically, though through his entire career essentially, OE was not measured. Keno has sustained and seems to have maybe improved this. . .the Bulldogs put up some of the best OE numbers in the Valley last year.

Drake and Duquesne are both top 20 Pomeroy teams, and Northridge is top 50 in terms of adjOE, while Duquesne is #20 in adjOE.

Drake is 11th in adjDE.

So, this actually should be a really fun tournament.

I don't think too many would have figured both Duquesne and CS-Northridge to be unbeaten in December.

[MacabreMob]

I don't think too many would have figured both Duquesne and CS-Northridge to be unbeaten in December.

Most people (meaning fans of BCS schools) would not admit they ever heard of CS-Nor or Duquesne.

As for some of the rest of us (like me ), I suppose you're right.... I'm a little surprised Duquesne won at Oakland and/or defeated Niagara at home (ok, not really).... and not only was CS-Nor's win at Pepperdine a (mild) surprise but winning at Cleve St was a biggie!

So even MORE surprised to see CS-Nor lost to Duquesne! Yikes!

[Braves4Life]

The only MVC game tonight features Drake (3-1) hosting North Carolina Central (1-7) in the 2nd game of the Iowa Realty Drake Tournament at the Knapp Center on the campus of Drake. The NC Central-Drake game starts at 7:30 pm CST.


Drake's opponent, North Carolina Central, has been a Division II team for many years, and this year they are playing in Division I for the first year. Does anyone know why Drake would host a tournament and invite 2 good teams (Duquesne and CS Northridge), and one cupcake? Did another team drop out and NCC was added late? NC Central is 1-7 and currently ranked #289 in RPI.
Here is their website. It is the poorest excuse for a team's official website I have seen in a long time. It hasn't been updated in months, and does not show any of their results yet--

http://web.nccu.edu/campus/athletics/mbbsched.html

It looks like the last article posted was way back on September 29!--

http://web.nccu.edu/campus/athletics/mbbhome.html

Not only does NCCU have a poor excuse for a website, but they are a poor excuse for a university, IMO. They are practically right next door to Duke University and there is literally a "night and day" difference between the two schools. Remember, NCCU is the stellar school that produced the Duke Lacrosse rape accuser

I would never feel safe sending a child to that school!

[Da Coach]

Drake covered the 28 point spread! They beat a hapless North Carolina Central team 85-48 tonight. They will play Duquesne tomorrow, and they won't be an easy cupcake win like this was.

This was a massive blowout for Drake. They pulled out to a quick lead and were ahead 44-18 at the half. Their starters played very little.

http://www.godrakebulldogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=71124&SPID=8121&DB_OEM_ID=15700&ATCLID=1330607

Interesting fact-- despite the huge blowout win by Drake, their RPI dropped from #15 (the best in the MVC) to #75! That's the price to pay for scheduling teams like this.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_mvc_Men.html

I am concerned that Bradley's game against SEMO tomorrow will have a similar effect. SEMO is currently at #246.

[Da Coach]

And one more result of tonight's Drake win over North Carolina Central--
The MVC had been the #5 ranked conference in Conference RPI for the past week, but partially because of this game tonight, they fell all the way to 7th.--

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_conf_Men.html

[DUBulldog]

NCCU was real bad. I'd rate Drake's performance as somewhere between below average and poor.....probably a D in school terms. But, they still won by 37, despite lots of minutes for everybody. The Bulldogs will have to play a lot better to beat Duquesne tonight. Duquesne is big, athletic and deep.