First it was Missouri Valley Conference afterthought Indiana State stunning #14 Butler, the first loss of the season for a Bulldogs team that has beaten Notre Dame, Indiana, Tennessee, Gonzaga and Purdue. Now, a week later, another MVC afterthought has joined the party. Drake overwhelmed Iowa, 75-59 on Saturday, ending a 27-game losing streak to its in-state rival. Granted, the Hawkeyes are 5-6, but as the Valley Ledger says, “anytime you beat a Big 10 team with ease, it’s not a bad thing.” The Ledger has gone so far as to rank Drake, which finished 5-13 in conference play last season, fifth in the MVC pecking order — ahead of Northern Iowa, which went to the Big Dance last year, and Creighton, which just barely (and unjustly) missed out. (Iowa, incidentally, is 0-2 against MVC competition, having also fallen — albeit in a close game — to its other in-state rival from the Valley, Northern Iowa.)

It’s clear that the MVC is quite good, again, this year. (Though, alas, Southern Illinois didn’t help the case by losing to Indiana yesterday.) The big question is, how good are they, and in particular, how good is Wichita State? The Shockers — who hung 102 points on hapless Maryland-Eastern Shore yesterday — are 8-0 and ranked #8 in the AP poll. But are they a legit Top 10 team? Ken Pomeroy takes a fair & balanced look at that question.

One thing I certainly agree with Pomeroy about is this statement: “We know the MVC shouldn’t be held to mid-major status anymore, but as long we are beholden to Nantz and Packer on Selection Sunday, that will be the perception.” Heh.

Oh, and speaking of teams that shouldn’t be considered mid-majors anymore, I neglected to mention that Gonzaga on Saturday suffered its worst loss of the season, a 96-83 shallacking at the hands of unranked Georgia. As I wrote in comments on a previous post:

I’ve watched a bunch of [Gonzaga] games this year, and they’ve been inconsistent. When they’re on, they’re great. See: wins over North Carolina, Texas and Washington, all in VERY impressive fashion. But they’ve also laid some eggs, with today’s being BY FAR the biggest. (Butler and Wazzu, both of which are quality teams this year, flat-out beat the Zags… this time, they beat themselves. Where was the effort?)

It’s hard to get a handle on this year’s team. In a lot of ways, they’re better than last year: more balanced, more defense, less standing around looking at Adam Morrison. Derek Raivio is playing much better, Pargo is really coming along, and Heytvelt is a beast. They’ll be even better once Micah Downs gets back. But the inconsistency is concerning.

All three of Gonzaga’s losses have come after big wins. In fact, they’re the very three wins I mentioned above: UNC, Texas and UW. They lost to Butler two days after stunning the then-#2 Tar Heels; they Coug’d it against Wazzu three days after destroying Texas; and they got embarrassed by Georgia seven days after giving rival Washington an almighty beatdown. (The long layoff between games was because of final exams, and that’s been causing a lot of discussion, as the Zags tend to play terribly in their first game after finals. Not that that’s an excuse, of course — all teams have finals — it’s just an annual pattern that’s interesting, and frustrating for Zags fans.)

The good news is, the Zags have tended to play well immediately after a loss, so hopefully that bodes well for the big game against Duke on Thursday at Madison Square Garden. GO ZAGS!!!

P.S. Really, I think the problem is that Gonzaga can’t beat other teams with the nickname “Bulldogs.” First Butler, now Georgia. Heaven help them if they have to play the aforementioned Drake Bulldogs in the Big Dance! ;)