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)

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

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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)

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

The Missouri Valley Conference is part of the ESPNU Bracketbusters event (February 21st) once again this season and received 4 games on one of the ESPN family of networks:

• Illinois State at Niagara (2/20)
• Miami (OH) at Evansville
• Northern Iowa at Siena
• George Mason at Creighton

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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)

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

The Missouri Valley Conference is part of the ESPNU Bracketbusters event once again this season.  Matchups will be announced on ESPNU at 5:30 on Monday.  With the struggles of this conference this season, it will be interesting to see how many TV games they get this season. 

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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)

1. Northern Iowa (14-6) (8-1)(1)
2. Illinois State (17-3) (6-3)(2)
3. Bradley (12-8) (6-3) (4)
4. Drake (14-7) (5-4) (3)
5. Creighton (15-6)(5-4) (5)
6. Evansville (12-7) (4-5) (6)
7. Southern Illinois (9-11) (4-5) (7)
8. Wichita State (9-11) (3-6) (9)
9. Missouri State (9-11) (2-7) (8)
10. Indiana State (4-16) (2-7) (10)

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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)

1.    Northern Iowa (12-6) (6-1)(1)
2.    Illinois St. (16-2) (5-2)(3)
3.    Drake (13-6) (4-3) (2)
4.    Bradley (11-7) (5-2) (5)
5.    Creighton (14-5)(4-3) (4)
6.    Evansville (12-5) (4-3) (6)
7.    Southern Illinois (8-10) (3-4) (7)
8.    Missouri St. (8-10) (1-6) (9)
9.    Wichita St. (7-11) (1-6)  (10)
10.    Indiana St. (4-14) (2-5) (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:

Creighton 73, Southern Illinois 72 (OT)—Creighton was able to pull a rabbit out of their hat not only once but twice in this game.  They were down 3 towards the end of regulation when Cavel Witter was fouled on a three point shot and made all three to tie and send it to overtime.  Then in overtime, Creighton was down 4 with under a minute to play and a quick steal and a 3-pointer by P’Allen Stinnett and then a huge three by a limping Booker Woodfox and two free throws at the end by Kenton Walker, let the Bluejays escape against Southern Illinois.  This rivalry was as advertised.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK:

Champ Oguchi, Illinois St.—Champ had a great week and was a huge key to the win against Drake this week 65-61.  His 29 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals were the things the Redbirds needed to break a 2-game losing streak from the week before and to get them back into the Valley race.

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This is a huge day here at RTC.  Not only will we be blogging with you all day with this BGTD nonsense, but we’ll also have a presence at ESPN GameDay live from Chapel Hill where our man on the ground will be taking questions and comments from you, the readers, so that you can finally ask Erin Andrews what shampoo she uses and where, exactly, does she find such perfectly fitted tops.  Or anything else you guys may want to know (within reason, of course).

RTC Live: Miami at UNC will be a sticky at the top of the page all day, so be sure to stop by and check it out as you put off going outside into the semi-Arctic environment known as the East Coast Midwest South Mountains USA this lovely Saturday.

As for this post, we’ve got the three-tv setup ready to roll, and with Notre Dame-Syracuse starting off the day in a few hours, we should probably try to get some sleep.  We’ll be back for that one (and all the others), but in the meantime, feel free to peruse our SYT preview of today’s big games.

11:52am – And we’re back.  Let’s get going.  Quick note – lamest sign just spotted at GameDay in CH – Everyone Still Predicts National championship?  Wow, props for creativity there, er, not.

Noon – What’s on your tv right now?  There’s an interesting mid-major on ESPN2 (N. Iowa at Drake).  The Noon FC games aren’t too exciting (Maryland at FSU; Ga Tech at NC State; USF at WVU) – we’ll keep an eye on each, but it’s looking mostly like Cuse-ND and UNI-Drake here.

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Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Big 12 and Missouri Valley Conferences.

Current Records and my standings (Conference Standings) (Last Week)
1. Baylor (13-2) (1-0) (4)
2. Oklahoma (14-2)(1-0) (2)
3. Texas (12-3) (1-0) (3)
4. Texas A&M (14-2) (0-1) (1)
5. Kansas (11-4)(0-0) (5)
6. Oklahoma State (12-3) (1-0) (8 )
7. Nebraska (11-3) (1-0) (11)
8. Missouri (13-3) (0-1) (6)
9. Kansas State (11-4) (0-1)(7)
10. Texas Tech (10-6) (0-1)(9)
11. Iowa State (11-5) (0-1) (10)
12. Colorado (8-6) (0-0) (12)

Though Conference play started this past weekend, really to me, the conference season really starts here on Big Monday with one of the bigger match-ups of the season in Texas and Oklahoma and their “golden boy” Blake Griffin. But let’s take a look at the conference as a whole and see if things are where we expected coming into the season:

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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)

1. Northern Iowa (10-6) (4-1)(6)
2. Drake (13-4) (4-1) (5)
3. Illinois St. (14-2) (3-2)(1)
4. Creighton (13-4)(3-2) (3)
5. Bradley (10-6) (4-1) (4)
6. Evansville (11-4) (3-2) (2)
7. Southern Illinois (7-9) (2-3) (9) 
8. Indiana St. (4-12) (2-3) (10)
9. Missouri St. (7-9) (0-5) (7)
10. 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. 

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Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley and Big 12 Conferences.

Current Records and my standings  (Conference Record)(Last Week Rank)

1. Illinois St. (14-0) (3-0)(2)
2. Evansville (10-3) (2-1) (3)
3. Creighton (12-3)(2-1) (1)
4. Bradley (9-5) (3-0) (5)
5. Drake (11-4) (2-1) (4)
6. Northern Iowa (8-6) (2-1)(6)
7. Missouri St. (7-7) (0-3) (7)
8. Wichita St. (6-8) (0-3)  (8)
9. Southern Illinois (5-9) (0-3) (9)
10. Indiana St. (3-11) (1-2) (10)

The yearly battle in the Valley once again has shown some surprises.  Is the Valley down this year?  Hard to tell.  Check out the teams this week and how they are doing.

GAME OF THE WEEK:

Bradley 60, Wichita St. 58—Bradley got the win on a follow up basket by Sam Singh with almost no time remaining to give Bradley the road win to push them to 2-0 at the time and Wichita St. to 0-2 at the time.  Bradley had held around a 10 point lead the whole game but Wichita St. hung around like they have all season with teams and tied the game with 26 seconds left.   Sam Maniscalco just missed the layup and Singh was there with the rebound and put back to win the game.  As Singh said, “It took a good bounce and I got lucky.”

PLAYER OF THE WEEK:

Osiris Eldridge, Illinois St—Osiris was just dominant this week in Illinois St’s blowout wins against Evansville and Creighton averaging 21 points and 7 rebounds per game.  Illinois St. is still one of 6 undefeated teams in the nation and it has been his stellar play that has helped them dominate games and look almost unbeatable in league play so far.  Maybe they will get that “Undefeated Season” they are talking about…well highly unlikely, but it is nice that they are willing to talk the talk.

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Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the MVC and Big 12 Conferences.

Current Records and my standings (Last Week Rank):

1. Illinois St. (10-0) (1)
2. Creighton (8-2) (2)
3. Drake (9-3) (4)
4. Evansville (8-2) (3)
5. Missouri St. (7-3) (5)
6. Northern Iowa (6-5) (7)
7. Bradley (5-5) (6)
8. Wichita St. (5-5)  (9)
9. Southern Illinois (4-6) (8)
10. Indiana St. (2-8) (10)

The non-conference season for the Missouri Valley Conference basically ended this past week with conference play starting next Sunday.  The non-conference games left for the Valley this coming week are most teams playing lower level competition that should result in wins for the Valley.  Since Conference play will have started by the time I report for RTC, here is a little recap of what I expected versus what we got from the Valley in the Non-Conference.

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