2 Valley Teams in Sweet Sixteen

Yesterday Bradley secured its second tournament upset by defeating Pittsburgh 72-66 in second round action from Auburn Hills, MI. 7-foot center Patrick O'Bryant poured in 28 points in what proved to be his national coming out party. Bradley joins fellow Missouri Valley member Wichita State in the Sweet Sixteen.

MVC Commmissioner Doug Elgin has to be giddy and the NCAA's Craig Littlepage has to be smiling as both are enjoying the sweet taste of validation, if not a tinge of revenge. Littlepage was raked over the coals by Billy Packer and Jim Nantz on Selection Sunday for allowing the Valley the same number of bids as a few of the power conferences. Digger Phelps went on record saying that all four Valley teams would lose in the first round, a not-so-unreasonable prophecy considering that 3 out of the 4 of them had low seeds, with only Wichita State being seeded in the upper half of the brackets, and then just a #7.

You cannot expect computers to always be right. First, the computers overestimated the power of the Big Ten conference. The computers had the Big Ten as the toughest conference this year. The Big Ten has no teams left after the first two rounds. Zero. Nada. Zip.

Not only did the computers overestimate the Big Ten, but they also underestimated the strength of the Valley. The computers had the Missouri Valley as the sixth best conference in the country. The Big East has surely shown themselves to be the strongest conference, with 4 teams among the final sixteen. But after them, the Misssouri Valley is right there with the ACC, SEC, and Pac-10 with two teams still in the hunt. That's ahead of the Big Ten (0) and the Big Twelve (1).

Even if WSU and BU both get blown out by Memphis and George Mason next weekend and have no teams in the Elite Eight, the case is officially closed. The Valley has lived up to all the hype.

I wrote in this blog on March 4th:

"Of course the big question is how many teams should the MVC get into the Dance? 4? 5? Some say they deserve even 6! This from a league that has only sent 3 twice (1999 and 2005)... I personally would love to see them get as many in as possible. That would increase the percentages for one of them to get hot and maybe make the Sweet Sixteen, or, dream of dreams, the Elite Eight (there are no Final Four teams in this conference).

As for how many they probably deserve, I'd say four. Which four? Wichita State, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, and the surging Bradley. Creighton and Missouri State should get high NIT bids."

Turned out I was in agreement with the selection committee in giving WSU, UNI, and Bradley bids, but denying Creighton and Missouri State. Now I have come to believe that Missouri State was truly robbed and Creighton arguably slighted.

I also wrote:

"If two of them can advance past the first round, then this year will be considered a true success."

And:

"OK, MVC...go get them. Give us 2 teams standing among the final 32 and you are truly shedding the mid-major image. Give us another Sweet Sixteen team and you've lived up to the hype!"

Mission accomplished...and then some!!