Post-game Remarks

IUPUI rushed out to a 14-2 lead in Shreveport, but the Gents eventually woke up to make a game of it. They fought to a single digit lead a couple of times in the 2nd half, but the Jags were just too much for them. IUPUI wins, 65-49.

ORU was generally too much for UMKC in the Mabee Center tonight, though the Roos fought hard to make a comeback in the last 5 minutes of the game, cutting the lead down to about 7 points at one point. But it was too little, too late. ORU wins, 86-79.

Western Illinois held its own against Southern Utah in the first half, but in the 2nd half, the T-birds pulled away, and the usual Leatherneck ineptitude took over. They actually made Southern Utah-like comebackc in the final minutes to cut the lead to 2, but they couldn't quite finish, and Southern Utah won, 89-82.

Valpo struggled with CSU in the first half, and while they stepped it up just enough in the second half to win, though David Holston make it as painful as he could, knocking down 3s and off-balance layups. According to Todd Ickow, the Crusaders have no one who can cover him one-on-one. But Valpo hung on for the win, 70-64.

Men's Updated Standings after tonight's games:

        Conf.      Overall      Remaining Conf. Games
School  W L  Pct    W  L  Pct    Home               Away
IUPUI  13 1  0.929  18 7  0.729                     CSU,SUU
ORU    11 3  0.786  16 10 0.615  VU                 CC
UMKC    8 5  0.615  11 13 0.458  SUU,VU             WIU
Valpo   8 6  0.571  15 9  0.625                     UMKC,ORU
SUU     7 6  0.538  9  17 0.346  OU,IUPUI           UMKC
CSU     5 8  0.385  6  18 0.250  IUPUI,OU           WIU
Oakland 4 9  0.308  9  16 0.360                     CC,SUU,CSU
WIU     3 11 0.214  7  18 0.280  CSU,UMKC
CC      2 12 0.143  4  21 0.160  OU,ORU

IUPUI has not yet clinched the outright regular season title, ORU can still share the title. However, the Jags have clinched the #1 seed. IUPUI and ORU split their 2 games against each other and they have now both swept UMKC, but IUPUI is 2-0 against Valpo while ORU is already 0-1 against Valpo and can only reach 1-1.

This also means that ORU has clinched the #2 seed because the best UMKC can do is tie them, and ORU wins the tiebreaker.

The UMKC-Valpo game next Thursday in Kansas City will have a lot to say about who gets the #3 seed, though I think SUU is not completely out of the running for that seed.

Meanwhile, Western Illinois is trying it's darndest to give the #8 seed to Centenary, but the Gents are still slow to take the gift. WIU still controls its own destiny since they swept the Gents. All they have to do is win one more game.