Two games on Valentines Day.

Illinois State @ Indiana State - 605 tip on Comcast Chicago. ISUb is trying to get out of Thursday and pretty much have to win out to avoid it. ISU is competing for 3rd and hoping not to fall back into the mess that is right below them. They're on the road though and that hasn't been a good place for them. I do believe they're the better team though.

Prediction - ISUb by 4

Creighton @ Southern Illinois - 705 tip on KMTV. Creighton is looking to end it's three game skid and recover from the beatdown they recieved on national television on Saturday. SIU is trying to finish the season strong. They have a few nice pieces but shouldn't be able to stop CU. If CU can get their offense on track it should win easily. Can they do that? I don't know.

Prediction - Creighton by 5

Three on Wednesday

Drake @ Bradley - The MVC game of the week (7pm on FSN).... So teams are guaranteed to play on TV a certain amount of times. Drake has some fire power. Bradley, not as much. Drake should handle this one. I haven't heard if Simons is back or not and to what degree. But even without him they should be fine in this one.

Prediction - Drake by 18

Missouri State @ Wichita State - 705 tip can be seen on Cox in KS and parts of OK and AR and whatever KYTV reaches. MSU is looking for payback after the Shox walked out of Springfield with a victory. Weems will be looking for one final regular season shot at beating the team that never offered him a scholarship. I think that still bothers the young man. Wichita is looking to finish strong and show they belong in the Top 25.

Prediction - Wichita by 12

Northern Iowa @ Evansville - No TV for this 705 tip. Not sure anybody would want to see it anyway. Both teams have been up and down and hard to get a good read on. UNI started strong in the noncon but haven't been able to put it together in Valley play. Evansville has underperformed expectations.

Prediction - UNI by 2

ISUb won 83-77 in OT. Odom had a chance to win it in regulation but missed both FTs with only seconds remaining. He still ended up with 34 points, 7 boards and 7 assists and surprisingly, only 1 turnover. ISU had nice balance but couldn't pull it out. The young freshman PG had 16 points and 7 assists.

Creighton shot lights out and still struggled much of the game because they can't defend. Final was 88-69, but it was closer than that most of the game. They set an NCAA record shooting 77.5% on 31 of 40 shooting and also shot 85.7% from three on 12 of 14. They did turn the ball over 16 times while only forcing 6 and gave up too many offensive boards. SIU took 20 more shots because of this and as bad as they are, managed to make half.

Wichita has a chance to wrap up at least a share of the Valley title tonight with a victory over MSU.

Wichita just wrapped up at least a share of the Valley title last night with a big 73-58 victory last night in a sold out Charles Koch Arena. The big fella got his 10th double/double of the season and went 4-4 from deep. Mr. Do Everything, Toure' Murry had a career high 8 assists as Wichita put the hammer down and look to finish strong. MSU remains in 3rd place.

Drake never could put Bradley down and held on to win 62-55 as Jordan Clarke dominated the glass with 16 boards. The Bulldogs move into a tie for 4th with the win and await the return of Mono stricken Ben Simons. Walt Lemon Jr. continues to put points on the board for the Braves with 22 last night. The Braves have 10th place locked down.

Evansville banked in a last second three to knock off UNI 63-62 in Frostbite Falls. Evansville moves into a three way tie for 4th at 8-8 while the Panthers fall into a tie for 7th with ISUb at 7-9.

The teams now get a conference break as we spend the weekend playing in Bracketbusters... Have I mentioned how much I dislike Elgin for this?