Shockwaves

Here’s a clinic on how to win road games by never giving the home team a real chance. WSU’s four road wins:

At Cleveland State (69-54)

• Took lead for good: 17:20 remaining in the first half
• Closest second-half margin: 13 points

At UMKC (73-52)

• Took lead for good: 14:47 remaining in the first half
• Closest second-half margin: 13 points

At Missouri State (65-62)

• Took lead for good: 15:57 remaining in the first half
• Closest second-half deficit: 1 point

At Indiana State (84-73)

• Took lead for good: 19:45 remaining in the first half
• Closest second-half deficit: 5 points.

In those games, WSU trailed once, for two points at UMKC for 1:59. In three of those games, the oppnent never came close to having the ball with a chance to lead in the second half. Against Missouri State, the Bears had possession with the chance to lead one time and failed to do so.

Around the Valley

• Good day in Omaha. The Bluejays defeat Southern Illinois on a buzzer-beater. And they land a big man for next season to team with Kenny Lawson.
• SIU coach Chris Lowery credits Creighton’s Antoine Young with an unexpected move to get the game-winner. Is Lowery a candidate for the vacant job at DePaul? These reports can’t help a difficult season in Carbondale.
• Illinois State wins despite another miserable shooting night for Osiris Eldridge. As everybody expected, Alex Rubin is filling the void.
• The bad news for WSU is the win over Texas Tech is looking less important with each Red Raider loss. It’s early to get too concerned about bracket predictions. However, the ones I’ve seen are not good for the MVC. Jerry Palm has Northern Iowa as a No. 10 seed and no other MVC team. Joe Lunardi has UNI as a No. 8 seed and the lone MVC rep. It appears there is not much room for error for WSU in building an at-large resume. Lunardi goes eight deep in teams close to the bracket and doesn’t list an MVC team. MVC teams won a lot of non-conference games. Apparently, they did not win enough against good teams.