Showdown Saturday in the MVC 12-22

[houstontxbrave]

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/scoreboard?d=2007-12-22&refresh=0&c=mvc

This Saturday might be the biggest single weekend in the Valley this year, in regards to important games played on the same night.

[BradleyBrave]

A great performance on Saturday and we probably vault back into 6th in the conference RPI. Plus, we add some notable names to the Valley victims list. This is pretty much it for the league if it wants to have any non-conference notoriety.

[mportsch]

Really, there aren't any great opponents in this list, at least not in RPI. Here they are with their RPI's (from Pomeroy):

(95)Arkansas Little Rock at (36)Creighton
(261)Bowling Green at (20Indiana St.
(81)Illinois St. at (310)Ball St.
(76)Missouri St. vs. (91)Alabama (Las Vegas, NV)
(86)Nevada at (115)Northern Iowa
(32Norfolk St. at (24Evansville
(140)UAB at (172)Wichita St.
(84)Virginia Commonwealth at (56)Bradley
(96)Western Kentucky at (107)Southern Illinois

So, the highest rated opponents (in RPI) are:
(84)Virginia Commonwealth
(86)Nevada
(91)Alabama
(95)Arkansas Little Rock
(96)Western Kentucky
(140)UAB

The other three opponents are all 261+ in RPI. Of course, RPI isn't the best measure of a team's worth at this point in the season - Pomeroy's ratings are a better predictor right now:

(116)Arkansas Little Rock at (36)Creighton
(203)Bowling Green at (182)Indiana St.
(73)Illinois St. at (233)Ball St.
(119)Missouri St. vs. (100)Alabama (Las Vegas, NV)
(84)Nevada at (120)Northern Iowa
(315)Norfolk St. at (194)Evansville
(74)UAB at (155)Wichita St.
(61)Virginia Commonwealth at (107)Bradley
(71)Western Kentucky at (117)Southern Illinois

So, ultimately you are right - these are some important games if the MVC wants to improve their overall standing. Bradley, SIU, Wichita St, and Northern Iowa are all playing at home against teams that could conceivably contend for an at-large bid. Missouri St gets a neutral court shot at a BCS team, albeit one that probably isn't going anywhere this season. It's a big weekend all around college basketball, and that definitely applies to the MVC as well.

[houstontxbrave]

That is some seriously good work mportsch.

Other then the Alabama game due to them being in the SEC, it really looks similar to a bracketbuster weekend.

Some of those teams have some really gaudy records, but the records are not equaling good RPI's.

ALR 9-1
Western Ky 8-3
UAB 8-4
Alabama 7-3

Should make for very competitve and important weekend.

But in reality really should just worry about VCU, its really the one that is most important.