The wild, weird and wacky Missouri Valley Conference keeps getting more and more interesting.
For weeks, the assumption was that the MVC, the nation’s best mid-major conference, had a good shot at an astounding four NCAA bids: Northern Iowa, Creighton, Southern Illinois and Wichita State. Then, lo and behold, Missouri State played its way into consideration, and the whispers began: could the MVC get five teams in? The conference’s .500 performance in BracketBusters caused some to lose faith, but in this year of the “weak bubble,” others kept talking about five bids.
Then yesterday, disaster struck. Southern Illinois lost at Evansville, a conference bottom-feeder. It was the Salukis’ fifth loss in seven games, and needless to say, it seriously hurt their at-large profile. “The Five-Bid Valley: wonderful idea in theory, but it proved to be a complicated Rube Goldberg device with far too many moving parts,” wrote Kyle Whelliston at The Mid-Majority. “Last night, the spoon-lever designed to move the golden egg from the mini-seesaw to the hamster wheel was smashed to pieces.” Heh. Bottom line: without a deep run in the conference tourney, SIU is probably out.
So, does that mean the MVC is back down to, at most, four bids? Not so fast! Check out this final score from tonight’s action: Bradley 71, Northern Iowa 49 — at Northern Iowa.
Are you kidding me? It’s awesome, baby! :) Bradley, sitting in sixth place in the conference standings, is now officially a serious at-large contender in its own right. (Northern Iowa is considered the conference’s one mortal lock for an NCAA bid, so this loss really only hurts the Panthers’ seeding, not their tourney chances.)
So… the “Fab Five”… Northern Iowa, Creighton, Wichita State, Missouri State and Bradley? Could be. One thing’s for certain: the MVC tournament, next Thursday through Sunday, is going to be nuts. I’m half-tempted to suggest to Becky that we make a road-trip to St. Louis. :)
P.S. Also tonight, Wichita State clinched a share of the regular-season conference title. Congrats to the Shockers, who, if they haven’t joined NIU in the “mortal lock” category yet, certainly are close.
P.P.S. For more on MVC hoops, visit The Valley Ledger.
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February 23rd, 2006 at 9:57:52 am
Resident MVC fan here…in the words of the mortal Keith “Action” Jackson….WHOOOOOOA NELLY!
Our good teams are fading down the stretch and the teams like Missouri St and Bradley *shudder* are making serious runs. Bradley’s RPI is now in the low 50’s or high 40’s which is going to be tough to overlook. The problem is, until last night, they couldn’t buy a road win. Now all of a sudden they go to UNI (not NIU, it’s University OF Northern Iowa) and whoop them, bad on their senior night and the night that they close their old gym.
The tournament is going to be crazy. If you do go, let me know, I’d like to meet you as I’ll be there cheering on my last place Redbirds.
Go MVC!
February 23rd, 2006 at 10:04:57 am
Here are the updated RPI’s and MVC records of the top 6. You tell me who to leave out of the Big Dance:
21 Wich St 13-4
32 Creighton 12-5
24 Mo St 11-6
28 UNI 11-6
45 SIU 11-6
41 Bradley 10-7
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:58:42 am
Selection Sunday is going to be very interesting this year. The Big East has 8 teams in the current RPI top 64.
All we need now is 2 or 3 bottom teams to win their conference tourneys and somebody deserving is going to be left out.
FYI, The Pac 10 may get two teams, heh.
February 23rd, 2006 at 12:02:03 pm
A few weeks ago, I would have agreed with you… but UCLA, Arizona and Washington are all going to get in, barring an apocalyptic collapse by either of the last two. (UCLA is a mortal lock.) Cal is a question mark, I’ll give you that, and Stanford is probably out.
Then again, I think there is a VERY good chance a non-at-large-worthy team will win the Pac-10 tourney. That league is absolutely nuts, in terms of the parity. Anyone can beat anyone, anywhere, anytime. USC vs. Wazzu in the final? ASU vs. Oregon? Why not? :)
February 23rd, 2006 at 9:16:08 pm
Arizona is a lock? How do you figure? Cal is in better position going into today than Arizona is, although Arizona has the easier schedule, so Arizona should finish strong. Stanford has stumbled badly; they’ll need a solid run in the Pac-10 tourney to make it to the NCAA tournament.
I’ll say it again: Pac-10 teams that get to 20 wins will almost surely get in the Big Dance. If USC can beat the two Oregon teams and either Stanford or Cal, they’ll have 19 wins. Two wins in the Pac-10 tourney should vault them into the NCAA tourney.