By Mark Bennett
If the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament
field were locked in today, the Indiana State Sycamores would
be the ninth seed and would play Drake at 7:05 p.m. on March
1 in the Savvis Center at St. Louis in the dreaded Friday play-in
round.
Evansville would be the 10th seed and would
face seventh-seeded Bradley at 9:35 p.m. in the other play-in
game. Those two survivors would then move into the Saturday quarterfinals.
And if the Sycamores beat Drake in that opener, they'd be rewarded
by playing the tournament's top seed, which at this point appears
to be Creighton. That matchup would begin at 1:05 p.m. on March
2.
On the bright side, if ISU would somehow win
those first two games, their semifinal game on Sunday would be
Southwest Missouri State or Northern Iowa.
That's the bright side?
The only way to have a chance of avoiding
a Friday play-in game is pretty outlandish. ISU (5-18 overall,
3-11 in the MVC) would have to win its last four regular-season
games, Wichita State (7-7) would have to lose its last four games,
and Bradley (5-9) and Drake (5-9) could win only one of their
last four.
A 71-66 victory over visiting Bradley on Wednesday
boosted the Sycamores' spirits. Senior forward Djibril Kante,
who scored a career-high 21 points, said they're keeping the
win in perspective, though.
"We were 4-18 before this game, and you
can't change that," Kante said. "All we can look to
is the future."
Around the MVC
-- Maybe the idea of two MVC teams in this year's NCAA Tournament
isn't too far-fetched of an idea.
Creighton's strong run during the MVC portion
of its schedule has lifted the Bluejays into possible at-large
contention, though that's probably a longshot. The Bluejays are
now alone in first place with records of 16-6 overall and 11-2
in the conference. A 95-91 overtime victory over Drake lifted
the Bluejays out of a tie with Southern Illinois. The Salukis
slipped to 21-5 and 11-3 with a 78-71 loss at Southwest Missouri
State.
The Salukis seem likely to get an at-large
berth if they don't win the MVC Tournament on March 1-4 at St.
Louis. The Bluejays could too, if the Selection Committee considers
that standout forward Kyle Korver began the season with an ailing
knee that required midseason surgery. He's healthy now, but some
of Creighton's losses came with him either out or playing at
less than 100 percent.
"I hope that people will take that into
consideration, that he played hurt early and then we just had
to get it fixed," Bluejay Coach Dana Altman said Tuesday
during the Valley's weekly coaches teleconference.
Of course, the prospective teams' rank in
the Collegiate Basketball News Ratings Percentage Index matters
to the NCAA too. This week, Southern Illinois is 57th, and Creighton
is 65th. (Indiana State is 239th for those scoring at home.)
"We can't get too caught up in it,"
Altman said. "We've just got to take care of business and
hope everything works out. We've got to finish awfully, awfully
strong to give ourselves a chance. I think Southern, given what
they've done in the pre-conference schedule, is deserving. And
we've come a long way since Kyle Korver's injury."
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There are signs of hope for next season for
the Indiana State Sycamores. ISU recruit David Moss, a
6-foot-5 senior guard at Thornwood (Ill.) High School, went 4
for 4 from 3-point range to lead the Thunderbirds (ranked 10th
in Class AA) to a 68-50 victory over host 11th-ranked Shepard
on Friday night. Moss had 20 points and seven assists.
In a Chicago Tribune report, Moss was described
as a bargain pickup by Indiana State in the November NCAA signing
period, because major-conference colleges would have caught onto
him by the April signing session.
"I've heard that stuff, but I feel I
made the right decision for myself," Moss told the Tribune.
"I'll have a chance to come in and play some pretty good
minutes right away. Plus, Indiana State was the first school
to recruit me."
ISU senior Djibril Kante now ranks
second in MVC rebounding, averaging 8.4 per game. Kante is also
fifth in blocked shots at 1.2 per game. Teammate Terence Avery
is fourth in field goal percentage, hitting 53.4 percent of his
shots.
Indiana State ranks eighth in the MVC in average
home attendance. Hulman Center crowds are averaging 4,714 fans
per game, compared to 6,056 last season.
Around the nation
-- Former Terre Haute North standout Alan Goff had a decent
statistical line for Lehigh in the Mountain Hawks' 66-61 loss
Saturday to visiting Navy. The 6-foot-4, 185-pound guard-forward
played 16 minutes off the bench, getting six points, three rebounds,
two assists and a steal. Goff is averaging 5.1 points, 2.7 rebounds
and 2.5 assists per game for Lehigh (4-20 overall, 1-10 in the
Patriot League). Lehigh lost 79-40 at Holy Cross on Wednesday.
Maynard Lewis
sat out Purdue 79-43 blowout of Michigan in Mackey Arena on Wednesday.
The senior guard from Terre Haute South injured his kneecap in
the Boilermakers' 69-67 loss at Illinois on Saturday and was
still sore when the struggling Wolverines came to West Lafayette.
Lewis hadn't missed a game this season for Purdue (12-14 overall,
4-8 in the Big Ten). He's averaging a career-high 10 points per
game, along with 2.7 rebounds.
You can see this one coming like a freight
train. What are the odds that the NCAA Selection Committee will
force a reunion between Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers
in the March tournament? Pretty strong. It would be no surprise
to see Knight's impressive reclamation project -- the Texas Tech
Red Raiders, of course -- lined up for a potential Sweet Sixteen
game against Coach Mike Davis' equally surprising Indiana
Hoosiers. The likely site? Kohl Center in Madison, Wis., where
the Midwest Regional semifinals and finals will be decided.
So far, Knight's Raiders are 17-6 overall
and 6-5 in the Big 12 Conference, where they're in fifth place.
Tech probably needs three wins in its last five regular-season
games to get an at-large berth, and three of those matchups are
against the conference's lower-division teams -- Colorado, Texas
A&M and Baylor. Going into Wednesday's game against Wisconsin,
IU is 16-8 overall and 8-3 in the Big Ten, where the Hoosiers
are in tied for first place. They could be a No. 2 seed.
Knight and Davis could finish first and second
in the national coach of the year balloting. Wouldn't that be
special?
Mark Bennett can be reached by telephone
at 1-800-783-8742, Ext. 377, by e-mail at mark.bennett@tribstar.com
or by fax at (812) 231-4321.
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