Wichita State - An impressive second half on the road against the Ramblers and the same at home against Bradley keeps WSU undefeated. They’ve still yet to put together two great halves in conference play, but their dominance in spurts is reminiscent of last season. They play Southern Illinois and at Evansville this week.

Indiana State – The Trees are the surprise of the MVC in early conference play. This week they beat Missouri State at home convincingly and picked up a three point road victory coming from behind at Southern Illinois. The 4-0 Sycamores have a home rematch with Illinois State and a roadie at Drake in the upcoming week with a chance to go to 6-0 in conference before they get to the tough part of their schedule (7 out of 8 games against Top 100 RPI teams).

Northern Iowa - UNI cruised to two easy wins on the week, hosting SIU and visiting Drake. The Panther defense allowed only 39.5 ppg in the two drubbings, as they climbed back near the top of the league with a 3-1 conference mark. UNI will travel to Bradley and host Missouri State this week.

Illinois State – With a blowout win at home over Drake and an impressive road win at Missouri State, the Redbirds have evened up their conference record at 2-2 and continue to get healthier. Extremely long and athletic guard DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell may be nearing a return to the lineup, center Reggie Lynch was able to rest his aching back against Drake, and forward Deontae Hawkins continues to nurse a foot problem. ISU travels to the other ISU and faces Bradley at home this week.

Evansville – After a really tough last second loss at home to Loyola, the Aces bounced back with a solid win at Bradley to even their conference record at 2-2. The Bradley game was very physical, and saw D.J. Balentine have to leave the game banged up for a time, and a Bradley player incur a bloody nose. Evansville travels to Missouri State before facing Wichita State at home this week, nearly mandating a win at MSU to keep a .500 conference pace.

Missouri State – A 2-0 start to conference play in week one surprised a few folks around the league, but the Bears fell to 2-2 with losses against the two ISUs this week. They now enter a stretch of games against the league’s best, hosting Evansville and traveling to UNI this week.

Bradley - The Braves played great at Wichita State for the first 25 minutes, but ended up getting blown out by 20 as the Shockers put the hammer down. Add a 10-point loss at home to Evansville, and the Braves are 1-3. They’ll play UNI at home this week before travelling down I-74 to face the Redbirds.

Southern IIlinois – Now 0-4 on the season with losses at UNI and home to Indiana State, the Salukis have lost six in a row. They’re playing teams close at home and getting blown out on the road. Last year’s standout player Anthony Beane has been inconsistent lately, scoring only one against UNI and held to 11 points vs. Indiana State.

Drake – The Bulldogs put together their best game of the year in a losing effort to open conference play against Wichita State, but in the three games since they’ve averaged only 40.7 ppg on offense while losing by an average of 28.3 points per game. Their losses this week at Illinois State and home against UNI were blowouts by 35 and 24 points. They’ll face Loyola in Chicago and return home to host the surprising Sycamores this week.

Thanks again, JCT. Makes everything much more interesting. Just starting to getting into watching the other MVC game outcomes.