The MVC Rundown

Below are the chances of each team making it to Saturday, Sunday and winning the whole thing. The data is drawn from Ken Pomeroy’s web site. If you don’t know who Pomeroy is by now, you’re living in the dark ages.

No unexpected results from Saturday’s action, and we’ve reached the end of the MVC regular season.

The final standings:

1. Southern Illinois (25-5, 15-3)
2. Creighton (19-10, 13-5)
3. Missouri St. (21-9, 12-6)
4. Bradley (20-11, 10-8)
5. Northern Iowa (18-12, 9-9)
6. Wichita St. (17-13, 8-10)
7. Illinois St. (15-15, 6-12)
8. Evansville (14-16, 6-12)
9. Drake (16-14, 6-12)
10. Indiana St. (12-17, 5-13)

SIU rides an 11-game win streak into St. Louis, and could feasibly earn as high as a two-seed in the NCAA tourney with another three wins in the MVC tourney.

It’s still fifteen days until Selection Sunday, but it’s the last regular-season game for all MVC teams today.

Wichita St. (17-12, 8-9) at Creighton (18-10, 12-5)

A third straight Bluejays loss today would be devastating. Even though ESPN’s Joe Lunardi still has the Jays in at a eight-seed in the NCAA tourney as of today, stumbling hard down the stretch isn’t something that the NCAA committee likes to reward.

I’m not a fan of round numbers, but everyone seems to think getting to 20 victories is a key — and winning today along with a first-round MVC tourney win would get Creighton to that mysteriously magical milestone.

Missouri St. grabbed its 20th win of the season and secured the third seed in the MVC tourney with a 71-65 win over Wichita State on Tuesday.

The Bears led by one at half, but only scored four points in the first nine minutes of the second half. The Shockers led 46-38 and were in control of the game after Karon Bradley’s three-pointer.

But Missouri St. responded with a 26-9 run over the next ten minutes, and never looked back.

I have no available box score for this game.

Two MVC teams headed into Tuesday’s games with serious aspirations at making the NCAA tourney and were both favored in their respective games.

Instead of strengthening their records and RPI ratings, Bradley and Creighton both lost games and in turn, added another reason for both teams to be left to the NIT when Selection Sunday rolls around.

Both teams led at half — Creighton by 10 at Illinois State, and Bradley by seven at home against Northern Iowa.

But the Bluejays and Braves were outscored a combined 83-47 in the second half.

Every MVC team has played sixteen conference games, and will finish up the regular-season schedule this week.

Southern Illinois (13-3 MVC)can clinch the regular-season title by winning either of its final two games, or Creighton losing either of its final two games.

The Bluejays (12-4) have wrapped up no worse than a second seed in the Valley tourney.

For the other eight teams, some jockeying can take place as several teams are only separated by only one game in the standings.

But the stakes for Missouri St. and Bradley are pretty high regardless of their placing in the standings.

For 29 minutes, Creighton was in control of its game against Drexel Saturday at the Qwest Center in Omaha.

With Creighton leading 41-34 at the 11-minute mark, Anthony Tolliver picked up his fourth personal foul.

Drexel then went on a crippling 23-9 run and never looked back in the 64-58 win. Dragon guard Dominick Mejia scored 13 of his game-high 19 points during the run.

The game featured a technical foul assessed to each coach at different points in the second half.

Bluejay coach Dana Altman garnered his technical for wandering outside of the coaches box at the 8:42 mark, shortly after Tolliver drew his fourth foul.

The MVC earned perhaps its biggest win of the day today when Bradley beat VCU, 73-64 in Richmond, Va.

The Braves trailed by one at halftime, but opened up a 12-point lead by the seven-minute mark in the second half.

VCU never closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Bradley moves to 19-10 overall, and for the BracketBuster weekend, the MVC is now 4-4 with Drake and Creighton still yet to finish today.

Stats not yet available for the game.

Much like Wichita State, UNI will have to win the MVC tourney to earn a bid into the NCAA tourney.

After trailing 33-32 at halftime, Nevada used a 22-4 run to start the second half to blow away the Panthers Saturday in Reno.

Four Wolfpack players scored in double figures, led by Marcellus Kemp’s 18 points. Kemp also had nine rebounds and six assists.

Northern Iowa falls 16-12 overall, while Nevada remains one of the nation’s two two-loss teams at 24-2.

Jamaal Tatum scored 20 points and Matt Shaw added 14 points as Southern Illinois won its ninth straight game, 68-64 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

SIU led by five at the half and extended the lead to as many as ten early in the second half.

Butler cut the lead to 54-52 with about five minutes to play, but six straight SIU free throws put the lead back at eight.

In the final two minutes, the Bulldogs were within three points on several occasions, but SIU hit 8-of-10 free throws in the final minutes to seal the win.