Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Big 12 and Missouri Valley Conferences.
Current Records and my standings (Conference Record)(Last Week Rank)
- Northern Iowa (10-6) (4-1)(6)
- Drake (13-4) (4-1) (5)
- Illinois St. (14-2) (3-2)(1)
- Creighton (13-4)(3-2) (3)
- Bradley (10-6) (4-1) (4)
- Evansville (11-4) (3-2) (2)
- Southern Illinois (7-9) (2-3) (9)
- Indiana St. (4-12) (2-3) (10)
- Missouri St. (7-9) (0-5) (7)
- Wichita St. (6-10) (0-5) (8 )
So many things have happened this week and the Valley power has shifted this week. Thus life in the Missouri Valley Conference.
GAME OF THE WEEK:
Bradley 56, Illinois St. 52—Bradley won this one in a grind it out affair. Holding Illinois St. to 37% shooting for the game and 23% from 3-point land helped knock off the last non-major conference undefeated team. Champ Oguchi was held to 3 points in this game which was key since he has been a major part of helping get this team to where it is.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Adam Koch, Northern Iowa—In the two wins this week for UNI, Koch averaged a double-double going 13/9 against Creighton and 22/11 against Missouri St. along with averaging 4.5 assists per game. Though awkward at times, he has had a great past couple of games compared to the rest of the season. His production will be a key to UNI’s success for the rest of the season.
TEAMS PLAYING WELL
Southern Illinois (2-0 this week)—You knew it was going to happen—Southern Illinois is starting to make a resurgence. Wins against Wichita St. and Evansville is helping build the confidence of the remaining players on the team.
Northern Iowa (2-0 this week)—Northern Iowa won in against Creighton for the first time in the last 9 tries and the first win in Omaha in 12 years. The Panthers also had their 2nd best shooting performance in school history shooting 70.5% against Missouri St. This team is on fire after an opening loss against Indiana St. in double overtime.
Drake (2-0 this week)—Drake is quietly showing it may not be a one year wonder as they have won 4 straight conference games after an opening loss at Evansville. However, their competition this week was bottom of the league Indiana St. and Wichita St. It gets a little tougher this coming week as they take on Illinois St. and Northern Iowa.
UP AND DOWN
Bradley (1-1 this week)—Bradley took down their rival Illinois St. and gave them their first loss of the season , but then that victory must have taken a lot out of them as they lost to a regrouped Creighton team.
Creighton (1-1 this week)—Still suffering from the hangover of the Illinois St. loss, Creighton looked totally lost and did not play team ball and surprisingly game up a home game to Northern Iowa. However after a lot of soul searching and even without the services of Booker Woodfox, was able to get contributions from all in a win at Bradley. As a writer from Peoria mentioned, this team showed championship character. Southern Illinois comes to town on Wednesday and then on the road to Wichita.
Evansville (1-1 this week)—Evansville is really the epitome of up and down this week as they beat bottom feeder Missouri St., but then could not steal a win in Carbondale this season like everyone else seems to be able to do. The key for Evansville is for a fast start in games, and they did not get that against SIU.
Indiana St. (1-1 this week)— Indiana St. took advantage of a down Illinois St. team in overtime to steal a win this week, so they are still a spoiler. Though the Sycamores have been playing well since the return of Harry Marshall, they may be without him again as he strained his hamstring in the game.
TOUGH WEEK
Illinois St (0-2 this week)—After all of the Redbirds talk of an undefeated season, it finally caught up with them as they got kicked in the mouth on two road games this week. First, against rival Bradley and then by bottom of the league Indiana St. Last season, the loss against Bradley was the beginning of the unraveling of the Illinois St. team. Injuries and illnesses might have been a factor for the Redbirds this week. A big matchup with Drake this week will show us which way the Redbirds want to go.
Wichita St. (0-2 this week)—No change here. Still same team. Changing the lineup won’t help at this point.
Missouri St. (0-2 this week)— Broken record. They will fight with Wichita to see who can finish worst. Chris Cooks has been suffering from concussion like symptoms and missed the first sets of games of the conference season. Even his return probably won’t help the Bears.
GAMES OF INTEREST THIS WEEK
As the crazy Valley season continues, check out these matchups:
- 1/14, Southern Illinois @ Creighton (Fox Sports Net)—Southern is on a roll right now and they have been pretty successful at the Qwest Center
- 1/14, Drake @ Illinois St.—Both teams are going in different directions lately.
- 1/17, Northern Iowa @ Drake (ESPN2)—Battle for 1st place again. Seems to be a matchup like this every week so far.
- 1/18, Bradley @ Southern Illinois (ESPNU)—Will Southern Illinois give up another home loss in conference play.