Winning is Losing...but Losing is ALSO Losing...

The following is a post about the Drake University men's basketball team and their upcoming slate against Bradley (Saturday) and the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament (March 6-9). This is a Drake student writing about Drake and all things Drake on this occasion. As both a student, fan and broadcaster, I don't want Drake to play Wichita State. The average point loss when the Bulldogs played Wichita State was 23 points. When Drake played Indiana State, who has clinched the #2 seed? Four points. So there's clearly at least a little bit of an advantage to playing the Sycamores instead of the Shockers Two things to be established: 

1) Wichita State has the #1 seed clinched
2) For the teams near the bottom that will be discussed (Drake, Evansville, Loyola), the #7 seed is unattainable. Bradley, at 7-10 in the conference, is two games ahead of both Drake and Evansville, so the three teams to be examined (again, Drake/Evansville/Loyola) are fighting for seeds #8-10. 

Nobody wants to play Wichita State. The following is a HYPOTHETICAL as to what could happen and who would end up having to play the Shockers first.

Bracket (Generic)

If you want to see the detailed MVC bracket, go here.. http://cdn.streamlinetechnologies.com/mvc/081CA563-F63D-444B-9EF7-D3C3B4958BB7/2014ArchMadnessBracket_v1.pdf


Current MVC Standings
Team (MVC Record, Overall Record)

8. Drake (5-12, 14-15)
9. Evansville (5-12, 12-18)
10. Loyola (IL) (4-13, 9-20)


Super Happy Fun Time
Saturday: Drake hosts Bradley, Evansville visits Loyola.
Obviously if you're a Drake fan (like me), you DON'T want to be the 8 or 9 seed, because then if you win you get Wichita State (there's a "shocker", rim shot). If you're an Evansville or Loyola fan, a) THANK YOU FOR READING! and b) HOW DID YOU FIND THIS BLOG? But seriously, thank you for reading.

Anyway, what to make of this final weekend of games?

You want a higher seed in the tourney, but you DON'T want to have to cross paths with Wichita State (at least, not until the MVC Championship Game).

To Drake NOT to play Wichita State in the conference quarterfinals, they need the 10 seed (because the 7 seed, mentioned previously, is out of reach). So let's say Drake loses to Bradley and Loyola beats Evansville. Ok, now all teams are 5-13 in the conference. What now?

MVC Tiebreaker Rules (Super Happy Fun Time PART TWO!)

So the above (hypothetically) happens, Drake/Loyola/Evansville all stand at 5-13 in the conference. TO THE TIEBREAKERS!

"Multiple Ties
 1. If three or more teams are tied, regular-season competition among the tied schools shall be pooled into a “mini round-robin.”  Teams shall be ranked according to their position in such a round- robin.

[Looks at schedules of teams in play, head to head schedule, slams head against desk]

If Loyola beats Evansville on Saturday, ALL THREE TEAMS (Drake, Evansville, Loyola WOULD BE 1-1 AGAINST EACH OTHER. Or in simpler terms, onto another tiebreaker scenario!



 2. If head-to-head competition does not break the tie, the deadlock will be broken by non-conference schedule strength as calculated by The RPI Report on the day before the final day of conference games.  The teams will be seeded in order of their non-conference schedule strength." (via mvc-sports.com)


[Depression hits.]


Following non-conference RPIs courtesy of cbssports.com:

Drake: 84 (for some reason it only has an 8-3 record recorded for non-conference, so maybe the Iowa Weslyan game doesn't count towards RPI since they're not Division 1?)
Evansville: 225
Loyola: 326

So for those keeping track at home, Drake, by virtue of their non-conference RPI (which isn't all that bad), is "awarded" the eighth seed at the MVC tourney. Evansville would get the #9 seed, and Loyola the #10 seed. This all happening, again, if the hypothetical Drake lose/Loyola win happens on Saturday. If Drake wins then we don't have to go through this again. And it means I did all this research for nothing. Dang.


Let me finish this post by saying that I hope the Bulldogs win Saturday for the seniors and get some traction heading to St. Louis. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about Saturday's game, because Drake's body of work doesn't warrant confidence going into ANY Missouri Valley tilt. I prefer to see the glass half full though. Go Bulldogs.