Above: An MVC fan pleads his case to the selection committee. Below: A wide view of the multicolored crowd (yellow for Wichita State, blue for Creighton, bright red for Bradley, dark red for Southern Illinois and Missouri State) during the first quarterfinal session.


As we engaged in a daylong marathon of basketball-watching at the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis on Friday, Becky and I were witnessing an historic moment in mid-major college basketball:

This might have been the Valley’s biggest day since Larry Bird hung up his Sycamore shorts for the last time in 1979. Four games, all with NCAA Tournament implications. Six teams, all entering play with legitimate NCAA at-large hopes. No alleged mid-major conference has ever had a day like this, with bids on the line from noon ’til midnight.

Kyle Whelliston, who helped convince me to come to this tournament, agrees that it is huge:

There’s no question that the Missouri Valley’s “Arch Madness” in St. Louis will provide the most highly-anticipated [conference tournament] results of the weekend — very few tourneys at any D-I level will have as much impact on the final NCAA bracket. Consider all the potential at-large bids at stake. Two? Three? Four or five!? Most likely one of the first couple of numbers, but it will be a matter of how the Arch Madness bracket plays out.

And we’ll be able to say that we were there. :)

Alas, truth be told, this was not, by any stretch of the imagination, the MVC’s greatest day in terms of the quality of play — particularly the quality of the offenses. Wichita State came out flat and sleepwalked through the first 30 minutes or so, before finally putting away Indiana State, 81-63 (it was 30-24 at halftime). Neither Bradley nor Creighton could hit the broad side of a barn (shooting 31.7% and 30.0%, respectively), but Bradley pulled it out, 54-47 — the Braves’ lowest offensive output of the season, in a win or a loss (!). Southern Illinois had trouble closing the deal against an inferior Evansville team, letting the pesky Aces hang around far too long before ultimately winning, 71-55. And then in the nightcap, the Valley’s hottest team over the last month, Missouri State, went ice-cold, shooting 28.8% en route to a 57-42 loss to Northern Iowa — the team which, IMHO, looked the best of the eight squads in action (their low point total was due mostly to good Missouri State defense in the first half and a slow-it-down, run-the-clock strategy in the latter part of the second half).

Total points scored: 470, an average of 58.75 per team. Composite shooting percentage: 37.2% (156 of 419). Whether the MVC gets three, four, five or six NCAA bids, they won’t get a single NCAA win playing like that.

But of course, it’s clear that these teams usually don’t play like that; the scores of their previous games are enough to demonstrate that. So perhaps it’s something in the St. Louis water, or that flu bug going around. Or maybe the players are all really concerned about the U.A.E. ports deal and the U.S.-India nuclear pact, and thus can’t focus on their games. :) Regardless of the reason, I hope the semifinalists take it up a notch tomorrow. I came to St. Louis already a Valley believer, and remain so; but Becky came here a Valley agnostic, and after a day, I think it would be fair to count her a skeptic. A couple of well-played semifinals would change all that.

(Becky and I are both, it should be noted, having a great time. I daresay Becky is rarely happier than when she’s nitpicking teams’ basketball flaws. Heh.)

Looking past the poor shooting — which can be such ephemeral thing — I thought Bradley looked pretty good (I like their aggressive guard play, their quick passes and their shot selection, even if they weren’t hitting those shots in this instance), and as I mentioned before, Northern Iowa looked good, too. Not great, but good. I’ll definitely give both the Braves and the Panthers some serious consideration as potential upset picks if they make the NCAAs. (The jury is still out on Wichita State and Southern Illinois, whom I haven’t seen play anybody good yet — a problem that will soon be remedied.)

Speaking of Northern Iowa, here’s a picture I got of UNI’s Brooks McKowen nailing a 3:

More pictures to come in an eventual full photo gallery of our weekend here.

Oh, and if you’re wondering how the heck I took the action shot below with my cell phone… I didn’t. I took it with my digital camera using a telephoto lens, and then I downloaded it to my computer once we were back in the car, and took a picture with my cell phone of the photo on my computer screen. :) Here’s the original.

P.S. Oh, I almost forgot to mention… my bracket is looking pretty good. :) Go Bradley & UNI!!!