March Madness Continues in the Valley

Well yesterday we had Belmont, Winthrop and Austin Peay punch their tickets to the Big Dance, joining the Ivy Leagu regular season winner, Cornell, as the 4 teams who have clinched their spot in the NCAA Tournament. Today we have another automatic bid up for grabs, but there is a very interesting situation surrounding this game: MISSOURI VALLEY CHAMPIONSHIP: Drake vs. Illinois State Of course we know the Drake Bulldogs are a lock to get into the NCAA Tournament. They`ve been in the Top 25 for the latter part of the season, beat nationally-ranked Butler on the road and dominated the Valley all season. Josh Young has been a scoring machine all year for the Bulldogs and Klayton Korver takes after his brother Kyle is a pure shooter. But now on the other side of the court we have the Illinois State Redbirds. Per Kenpom.com, the Redbirds had an RPI of 33 as of today`s date. And although Illinois State lost twice to Drake during the year, they swept Creighton and Southern Illinois, the other top 2 teams in the MVC this year. The Redbirds don`t score a lot of points but they play suffocating defense, giving up just under 59 points per game this season. They are led by sophomore guard Osiris Eldridge, who averages about 16 points per game, but no other Illinois State player average in double figures. So if Illinois State wins this game, obviously the MVC gets 2 teams into the Big Dance. But what if Drake wins? Do the Redbirds get an at-large? Only the NCAA Tournament Committee can answer that question, but I`m sure those bubble teams will be rooting for Drake.