Tweet
I'll just post the article since not everyone has insider pass....
Just forget about trying to figure out some sort of home-road trend in the Missouri Valley Conference. Let's just accept that this is a strong league, a balanced league that will be an interesting test case for the selection committee as they try to sort out who should be at-large candidates.
Thursday night provided another example of how difficult it is to make sense of this league.
Northern Iowa won at Missouri State but Wichita State couldn't win at Illinois State. This is the same ISU team that knocked off Northern Iowa at home and the same Illinois State squad that currently stands at the bottom of the Valley standings at 2-6.
The UNI Panthers and Creighton are atop the standings with two losses. Missouri State, the only team in the country to beat Wisconsin, is third with three losses tied with the preseason favorite -- Southern Illinois and Indiana State for third. Sweet 16 teams Bradley (4-4) and Wichita State (3-5), which is tied with Evansville, are next.
Forget the numbers and the RPI and all of that. The subjective thing would be to say that Creighton, Northern Iowa, Missouri State, Southern Illinois and Wichita State have all played like a tournament team at some point during the season. But the closing numbers will be an interesting critique.
"Our league is as good as it's been from 1 to 10," first-year Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. "It used to be there were four or five good teams and then there was a drop off. But that's why Illinois State is able to beat us and Wichita State."
Jacobson said this will be a tough test for the selection committee, especially if there isn't separation of four or five teams atop the standings.
"If everybody keeps beating each other up then we're going to have a different scenario and we'll see how it plays out," Jacobson said.
His pick for the team that nobody better sleep on is still Wichita State. The Shockers, who opened the season with road wins at George Mason, LSU, Syracuse and Wyoming, have dropped 7 of 10 after winning the first nine games.
The Shockers still go to Bradley, Evansville, Northern Iowa, Drake and Creighton and have five home games left, including Southern Illinois and Missouri State.
"If they can survive the next three or four, then they could be OK," Jacobson said.
But no team in the Valley may have as difficult a stretch as the Panthers to win the title, despite having the top frontcourt in the league in Eric Coleman and Grant Stout.
The Panthers won at Wichita State and Missouri State and but still have six road games to go, including Southern Illinois as well as Creighton.
The best nonconference wins are over teams that may not be in the postseason in Iowa and Iowa State as well as Bucknell. The best close loss was at Washington, another team in NCAA trouble.
"We played well there and led the entire game before losing," Jacobson said. "The problem is that we've got 11 league games and everything can change so fast around here. We found that out after our good start and then went down to Illinois State and got beat in overtime and then came home and got beat by Creighton. Everything changes so fast in this league."
Just keep checking the scores and that's becoming obvious every day.
Just forget about trying to figure out some sort of home-road trend in the Missouri Valley Conference. Let's just accept that this is a strong league, a balanced league that will be an interesting test case for the selection committee as they try to sort out who should be at-large candidates.
Thursday night provided another example of how difficult it is to make sense of this league.
Northern Iowa won at Missouri State but Wichita State couldn't win at Illinois State. This is the same ISU team that knocked off Northern Iowa at home and the same Illinois State squad that currently stands at the bottom of the Valley standings at 2-6.
The UNI Panthers and Creighton are atop the standings with two losses. Missouri State, the only team in the country to beat Wisconsin, is third with three losses tied with the preseason favorite -- Southern Illinois and Indiana State for third. Sweet 16 teams Bradley (4-4) and Wichita State (3-5), which is tied with Evansville, are next.
Forget the numbers and the RPI and all of that. The subjective thing would be to say that Creighton, Northern Iowa, Missouri State, Southern Illinois and Wichita State have all played like a tournament team at some point during the season. But the closing numbers will be an interesting critique.
"Our league is as good as it's been from 1 to 10," first-year Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. "It used to be there were four or five good teams and then there was a drop off. But that's why Illinois State is able to beat us and Wichita State."
Jacobson said this will be a tough test for the selection committee, especially if there isn't separation of four or five teams atop the standings.
"If everybody keeps beating each other up then we're going to have a different scenario and we'll see how it plays out," Jacobson said.
His pick for the team that nobody better sleep on is still Wichita State. The Shockers, who opened the season with road wins at George Mason, LSU, Syracuse and Wyoming, have dropped 7 of 10 after winning the first nine games.
The Shockers still go to Bradley, Evansville, Northern Iowa, Drake and Creighton and have five home games left, including Southern Illinois and Missouri State.
"If they can survive the next three or four, then they could be OK," Jacobson said.
But no team in the Valley may have as difficult a stretch as the Panthers to win the title, despite having the top frontcourt in the league in Eric Coleman and Grant Stout.
The Panthers won at Wichita State and Missouri State and but still have six road games to go, including Southern Illinois as well as Creighton.
The best nonconference wins are over teams that may not be in the postseason in Iowa and Iowa State as well as Bucknell. The best close loss was at Washington, another team in NCAA trouble.
"We played well there and led the entire game before losing," Jacobson said. "The problem is that we've got 11 league games and everything can change so fast around here. We found that out after our good start and then went down to Illinois State and got beat in overtime and then came home and got beat by Creighton. Everything changes so fast in this league."
Just keep checking the scores and that's becoming obvious every day.
Comment