Northern Iowa provides hope during Valley’s non-conference ups and downs

The Missouri Valley Conference’s men’s basketball power ranking jumped from No. 11 to No. 7 on Friday and slipped to No. 8 on Saturday, which only means don’t pay attention to the RPI until Christmas.

Until then, we’re left to parse wins and losses as wins and losses, not their mathematical equivalent. After completing an important week of tournaments, the MVC seems to be treading water and that might be acceptable, although barely.

Entering Saturday, the MVC didn’t have a win over a ranked opponent and it stood 1-5 against the teams ranked in the top 50 of the warrennolan.com RPI. While that sounds unappealing, it is comparable to conferences such as the Mountain West (0-5 vs. top 50 entering Saturday), Atlantic 10 (0-11), American (0-8) and West Coast (0-8), for what that is worth in these days of RPI volatility.

While those numbers don’t speak to an MVC revival, all is not lost, mainly thanks to Northern Iowa’s grinding steadiness and smart scheduling. It will be a successful season for the MVC if it puts two teams in the NCAA Tournament. As a bonus, somebody needs to emerge as a real challenge to WSU to make January and February more meaningful than last season.

Northern Iowa is on pace to build an NCAA at-large resume with a 6-0 record that includes a win at Stephen F. Austin that is likely worth more than its name recognition implies. UNI routed Virginia Tech and Northwestern in the Cancun Challenge, which is what a good team should do to Virginia Tech and Northwestern. Games against VCU and Iowa are still to come and Sunday’s against Richmond might be helpful.

As billed, the Panthers are deep (a nine-man rotation) and playing improved defense. Opponents are shooting 38.5 percent against UNI and Virginia Tech and Northwestern combined to shoot a measly 16 free throws in those two games. The Panthers appear to be doing a masterful job of playing good defense without fouling.

Illinois State owns the MVC’s lone top-50 win, a 64-45 decision over Old Dominion in the Paradise Jam, which might develop into another sneakily helpful win. Old Dominion is 4-1 with wins over Richmond, VCU and LSU and picked third in Conference USA. The Redbirds are playing the MVC’s toughest schedule, to date, and plays VCU at home Tuesday. A game at Murray State offers more potential. Unfortunately for coach Dan Muller, DePaul and Alabama-Birmingham, games that should help, are turning into potential RPI-killers.

Evansville might be the Valley’s most intriguing team because it’s 4-1 without a heavy home schedule or great scoring efforts from All-MVC guard D.J. Balentine. The Aces haven’t beaten a significant team (Earlham, Miami of Ohio, Fresno State and San Francisco) and their 64-62 loss to Green Bay may be more revealing. Green Bay is the defending Horizon League champion and the preseason favorite. The Aces held up well against Green Bay on a neutral court, an encouraging sign for a team that hasn’t played well away from home in recent seasons.

Balentine is averaging 16.7 points in four games against NCAA Division I opponents and shooting 39.9 percent from the field. That the Aces are winning, even against weak competition, with depth instead of monster games from Balentine is another good sign. Villanova transfer Mislav Brzoja scored 17 points against Fresno State and 11 against San Francisco. Adam Wing, who made 28 percent of his three-pointers last season, is 5 for 7.

Missouri State hasn’t yet developed the bench to succeed against a competitive schedule. The Bears needed 38 points from Marcus Marshall to beat Eastern Illinois 64-53 at home, after trailing 44-35 in the second half. Marshall scored 27 points in an 80-68 loss at Texas Tech. A strained quadricep sidelined him against Colorado State and the Bears lost 76-61. While Marshall’s numbers are impressive (he averages 26 points and is 13 of 18 from three-point range), the Bears need other players to contribute more.

Perhaps the most unfortunate development is that Drake and Bradley are on track to fall into the lower regions of the RPI and turn into devastating losses in January and February. Drake, which played without senior guards Gary Ricks and Karl Madison due to three-game suspensions, was 1-4 entering Saturday night’s game against Portland with losses to Western Michigan and DePaul. Bradley lost to Texas-Arlington and Robert Morris at home.

After November, consider the MVC in a holding pattern with only Northern Iowa and No. 9 Wichita State — as expected — in a strong position. The December schedule will determine if teams such as Illinois State, Missouri State and Evansville can add some intrigue to the conference standings in January and February.

Track and field additions — WSU’s track and field team signed five athletes recently, three from Kansas.

Andale’s Leah Reichenberger won the Class 4A 300-meter hurdles and claims a personal-best of 44.73 seconds in the event. Douglass’ Suzannah Wright has a best of 5:28 in the 1,600 meters and 11:57 in the 3,200. She is the younger sister of WSU runners Savannah and Sarah Wright.

Leavenworth’s Jared Belardo won the Class 5A triple jump (47 feet, 6 3/4 inches) and placed third in the long jump (22-2 3/4) last spring.

WSU also signed sprinters Natalie Halfman from Saint Ansgar High in Manly, Iowa and Morgan Prather of Penney High in Hamilton, Mo.

This story was originally published November 29, 2014 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Northern Iowa provides hope during Valley’s non-conference ups and downs."