Loss leaves Missouri State dangling
BY BERNIE MIKLASZ, Post-Dispatch Sports Columnist St. Louis Post-Dispatch Posted: Monday, March 7, 2011 12:20 am
By winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament Sunday, Indiana State received an expenses-paid trip to the NCAA Tournament. Larry Bird U. is going dancing with the stars.
And by losing to Indiana State, the Missouri State Bears have been sent to the corner to wait, worry and wonder if the NCAA Tournament will still have room for them. A mixture of anxiety and anger is MSU's reward for a superb 15-3 league record, a first-place finish and 25 regular-season wins.
Unless every bracketologist is completely wrong, the NCAA won't be sending an invitation to Springfield, Mo. Those at-large invitations will go to the also-rans in the power conferences. That's the way it works in the NCAA college-basketball cartel. Too many mediocre teams can hide behind their conference affiliation, which provides shelter and security.
This is why Missouri State fans were stone-cold silent at the end of Missouri State's 60-56 loss to the Sycamores. Bears fans have seen this movie before. They know how it will end. The town will not be saved from the monsters of the Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, etc. The power conferences will big-foot their way to most of the NCAA at-large bids.
Minutes after Sunday's excruciating defeat, Missouri State coach Cuonzo Martin posted up in the interview room, his face scrunched. The man appeared to be suffering from an instantaneous, massive headache. Martin knows the deal, too. As a player and assistant coach at Purdue, he's lived on the other side of this equation.
But not now; these days he's carrying the MVC banner. And the Valley is facing a fourth consecutive year of putting only one team in the NCAA Tournament.
"I wish more people would fight for this level," Martin said, referring to the MVC and the other mid-majors. "And I'm not just saying that because I'm in it."
Welcome to the mid-major conundrum.
Missouri State does just about everything right for five months. The Bears win games on the road. They win close games, tough games, every type of game. They dominate their conference by carving out an outstanding .833 winning percentage.
The Bears win the MVC regular-season championship for the first time in school history. They have the conference player of the year in senior forward Kyle Weems. They have the coach of the year in Martin. Going into Sunday, MSU was only one of 19 Division I teams with 25 wins or more.
And in 20 minutes ... it's all gone.
In Sunday's second half, Missouri State turned colder than the hearts on the NCAA Tournament selection committee. The Bears made six of 31 shots and basically turned into Kim English. And as each brick fell, as each piece came out of the wall, MSU's NCAA chances began tumbling down.
Yes, Indiana State played smothering defense. But that doesn't entirely account for the normally reliable Weems missing 13 of 16 shots or the Bears heaving so many errant 3-pointers, making only eight of 27.
One bad half ... poof.
There is little if any forgiveness for a mid-major that stumbles.
Unlike the BCS conference programs, you don't see second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh chances given to an MVC school.
It's just a little different in the Big 12. Missouri can play weak, soft-headed basketball on the road all season, going 1-7 in the conference away from home. Mizzou can lose its last three regular-season games, have a 5-6 record since Jan. 29, decline to rebound or play defense and finish 8-8 in Big 12 play. And that's fine. Nothing to worry about. MU is safe, according to the pundits. Cleared for the NCAA Tournament.
It's pretty much the same with Illinois in the Big Ten. The Illini are 6-9 since Jan. 11. They're 9-9 in the conference standings. But that's OK. According to conventional wisdom, Illinois is all but assured a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
It's the power-conference protection plan.
Missouri and Illinois have it.
Missouri State doesn't.
Every MVC regular-season champion since 1993 has advanced to the NCAA Tournament, but Missouri State is hearing the bad buzz around them: that the Valley will get only one team there this time. And Indiana State clinched that spot Sunday.
"What I go back to, is there a set criteria? Can anybody say, 'This is the criteria for getting into the NCAA Tournament?' So it's hard for me to really say, one way or another," Martin said. "This is a mid-major plus league. It's not a low-major league. It's a very competitive league, and it's tough to get teams to play us. I think we stack up against anybody, win or lose.
"I just think with 25 wins, and winning the Valley outright, it just speaks volumes of what we've done over the course of the season as opposed to being gauged on one game or a weekend. What is the point of having a regular season if it comes down to this? It just doesn't make a lot of sense."
Intellectually, I understand why Missouri State will probably be excluded. MSU doesn't have a signature win. The Bears' strength of schedule is weak at No. 150 overall, and No. 189 nonconference.
Valley programs aren't having much luck in convincing the big boys to schedule them — too risky — but available opportunities must be exploited. Accordingly, the Bears could have enhanced their profile by beating two power-conference opponents but lost to Tennesee and Oklahoma State. And there were also terrible losses to Tulsa and (worse) Valparaiso.
Of Missouri State's 25 wins, 22 came against teams ranked 101 or poorer in the RPI. At least Mizzou has a couple of wins over top 30 RPI teams (Vanderbilt, Old Dominion). The Tigers have seven wins against the top 100. Illinois has 10 wins against the top 100, including victories over North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan State.
And of course, it came down to this: All Missouri State had to do Sunday is make a few more shots in the second half, and it's on to the NCAA Tournament. But the Bears mostly shot blanks, and that's their fault.
Again, I get it.
Still, I still don't like a system that rewards .500 teams in power conferences while squashing mid-majors that have one rotten half. But that's life as a mid-major. Missouri State doesn't have power-conference insurance. And you don't leave home and head to the NCAA Tournament without it.
BY BERNIE MIKLASZ, Post-Dispatch Sports Columnist St. Louis Post-Dispatch Posted: Monday, March 7, 2011 12:20 am
By winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament Sunday, Indiana State received an expenses-paid trip to the NCAA Tournament. Larry Bird U. is going dancing with the stars.
And by losing to Indiana State, the Missouri State Bears have been sent to the corner to wait, worry and wonder if the NCAA Tournament will still have room for them. A mixture of anxiety and anger is MSU's reward for a superb 15-3 league record, a first-place finish and 25 regular-season wins.
Unless every bracketologist is completely wrong, the NCAA won't be sending an invitation to Springfield, Mo. Those at-large invitations will go to the also-rans in the power conferences. That's the way it works in the NCAA college-basketball cartel. Too many mediocre teams can hide behind their conference affiliation, which provides shelter and security.
This is why Missouri State fans were stone-cold silent at the end of Missouri State's 60-56 loss to the Sycamores. Bears fans have seen this movie before. They know how it will end. The town will not be saved from the monsters of the Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, etc. The power conferences will big-foot their way to most of the NCAA at-large bids.
Minutes after Sunday's excruciating defeat, Missouri State coach Cuonzo Martin posted up in the interview room, his face scrunched. The man appeared to be suffering from an instantaneous, massive headache. Martin knows the deal, too. As a player and assistant coach at Purdue, he's lived on the other side of this equation.
But not now; these days he's carrying the MVC banner. And the Valley is facing a fourth consecutive year of putting only one team in the NCAA Tournament.
"I wish more people would fight for this level," Martin said, referring to the MVC and the other mid-majors. "And I'm not just saying that because I'm in it."
Welcome to the mid-major conundrum.
Missouri State does just about everything right for five months. The Bears win games on the road. They win close games, tough games, every type of game. They dominate their conference by carving out an outstanding .833 winning percentage.
The Bears win the MVC regular-season championship for the first time in school history. They have the conference player of the year in senior forward Kyle Weems. They have the coach of the year in Martin. Going into Sunday, MSU was only one of 19 Division I teams with 25 wins or more.
And in 20 minutes ... it's all gone.
In Sunday's second half, Missouri State turned colder than the hearts on the NCAA Tournament selection committee. The Bears made six of 31 shots and basically turned into Kim English. And as each brick fell, as each piece came out of the wall, MSU's NCAA chances began tumbling down.
Yes, Indiana State played smothering defense. But that doesn't entirely account for the normally reliable Weems missing 13 of 16 shots or the Bears heaving so many errant 3-pointers, making only eight of 27.
One bad half ... poof.
There is little if any forgiveness for a mid-major that stumbles.
Unlike the BCS conference programs, you don't see second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh chances given to an MVC school.
It's just a little different in the Big 12. Missouri can play weak, soft-headed basketball on the road all season, going 1-7 in the conference away from home. Mizzou can lose its last three regular-season games, have a 5-6 record since Jan. 29, decline to rebound or play defense and finish 8-8 in Big 12 play. And that's fine. Nothing to worry about. MU is safe, according to the pundits. Cleared for the NCAA Tournament.
It's pretty much the same with Illinois in the Big Ten. The Illini are 6-9 since Jan. 11. They're 9-9 in the conference standings. But that's OK. According to conventional wisdom, Illinois is all but assured a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
It's the power-conference protection plan.
Missouri and Illinois have it.
Missouri State doesn't.
Every MVC regular-season champion since 1993 has advanced to the NCAA Tournament, but Missouri State is hearing the bad buzz around them: that the Valley will get only one team there this time. And Indiana State clinched that spot Sunday.
"What I go back to, is there a set criteria? Can anybody say, 'This is the criteria for getting into the NCAA Tournament?' So it's hard for me to really say, one way or another," Martin said. "This is a mid-major plus league. It's not a low-major league. It's a very competitive league, and it's tough to get teams to play us. I think we stack up against anybody, win or lose.
"I just think with 25 wins, and winning the Valley outright, it just speaks volumes of what we've done over the course of the season as opposed to being gauged on one game or a weekend. What is the point of having a regular season if it comes down to this? It just doesn't make a lot of sense."
Intellectually, I understand why Missouri State will probably be excluded. MSU doesn't have a signature win. The Bears' strength of schedule is weak at No. 150 overall, and No. 189 nonconference.
Valley programs aren't having much luck in convincing the big boys to schedule them — too risky — but available opportunities must be exploited. Accordingly, the Bears could have enhanced their profile by beating two power-conference opponents but lost to Tennesee and Oklahoma State. And there were also terrible losses to Tulsa and (worse) Valparaiso.
Of Missouri State's 25 wins, 22 came against teams ranked 101 or poorer in the RPI. At least Mizzou has a couple of wins over top 30 RPI teams (Vanderbilt, Old Dominion). The Tigers have seven wins against the top 100. Illinois has 10 wins against the top 100, including victories over North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan State.
And of course, it came down to this: All Missouri State had to do Sunday is make a few more shots in the second half, and it's on to the NCAA Tournament. But the Bears mostly shot blanks, and that's their fault.
Again, I get it.
Still, I still don't like a system that rewards .500 teams in power conferences while squashing mid-majors that have one rotten half. But that's life as a mid-major. Missouri State doesn't have power-conference insurance. And you don't leave home and head to the NCAA Tournament without it.
