Shockwaves

Final: WSU 70, CSU 59. Back to .500.

3:43 remaining: WSU 60, CSU 48. 9-0 run for WSU. Hawkins has four of those points, both on follow shots. He has 10, his first game in double figures since North Dakota on Dec. 22.

7:36 remaining: WSU 54, CSU 48. Murry is 5 of 6 from three for 17 points.

10:09 remaining: WSU 51, CSU 45. Murry with back-to-back threes and nine of WSU’s last 11 points. Durley is passing well out of the double team and getting Toure open shots.

14:55 remaining: WSU 40, CSU 37.

Halftime: WSU 34, CSU 30. The Shockers need better play out of their point guards if they are going to win this game. CSU is making life miserable for Hannah (four turnovers) and Chamberlain with its defense. The Vikings figured something out on offense toward the end of the half. They scored on six of seven possessions near the end of the half.

1:08 remaining: WSU 34, CSU 29.

3:59 remaining: WSU 30, CSU 24. The Vikings have scored on four straight trips. Seven turnovers for WSU. Durley has 11 points.

7:22 remaining: WSU 25, CSU 16. WSU is 11 of 17 from the field. The inside-out game is working nicely. Clemente and Durley established that they can score, so CSU is doubling. That leaves shooters open. Stutz made his fourth three of the season.

11:47 remaining: WSU 15, CSU 9. Durley has six points and a chance for one more at the line. So far, WSU is handling CSU”s defense. WSU is 7 of 11 from the field. Ten of its points are in the lane.

CSU starters – Jackson, Cole, Brown, Bullock, Moore. WSU – Durley, Hannah, Hawkins, Murry, Clemente.

BracketBusters seems to be under fire from fans, media and coaches. I understand it is a sometimes unwieldy and inconvenient game. Would it kill the Valley if it no longer participated? No. Considering commissioner Doug Elgin is one of the guiding forces to the weekend, I don’t expect that to happen. Even with the negatives, I think three things make it worthwhile.

1. It relieves coaches of two games to schedule each season. The No. 1 gripe we hear from coaches is that scheduling is impossible. BB may not give you the perfect opponent, but it is something. I’m sure if an MVC team had Duke on the line, Elgin would let it out of the BracketBusters game.
2. TV. TV. TV. I don’t believe there is a guarantee that the ESPN exposure today is replaced if BB goes away. In some seasons, the day turned into about a 12-hour MVC informercial. The Valley can’t walk away from that, even if it doesn’t happen every year.
3. In years, such as 2005-06, when the Valley is on a high, it’s a fun day with some very good matchups – WSU-Mason among them. Not every year is as compelling, but sometimes it works out.

Big news in Valley baseball. Northern Iowa is dropping its program. This is not much of a surprise. In fact, I’m more surprised when Valley schools put money into baseball, such as Illinois State building a new stadium. The Valley schools in the North are fighting an uphill battle. Weather in those places is rarely going to be nice until the season is almost over. They have little chance to build a fan base or play enough good opponents at home to build a decent RPI. I think Northern Iowa coach Rick Heller did a lot with a little. The Panthers played in a rotten off-campus ballpark, battled bad weather and I’m not sure if UNI handed out the full allottment of scholarships. Heller did a good job wringing whatever he could out of that situation.

With apologies to UNI, I think this is good for WSU.

1. It frees up a weekend to play a better opponent.  The imagination is running wild with the possibility of bringing in another big name for a weekend series. WSU has seven weekends devoted to the MVC.
2. It removes a traditional RPI-drag from the Valley. It is important the other Valley teams – Bradley and Illinois State this means you – don’t use that weekend to play the NAIA school from the next county.
3. WSU no longer has to travel to Cedar Falls, where getting in the full series is always iffy because of the weather.