FanHouse Josh Young

For the majority of each of their games on Tuesday night it looked like Drake and Butler were looking ahead to their Bracket Buster game. Announced on Monday and scheduled for February 23rd, if both sets of Bulldogs keep winning they will have a combined 48-3 record and could secure the winner a three seed come tournament time. Who knows, maybe even higher given their current rankings and the vagaries of college hoops.

That's a lot of ifs, especially after neither team looked sure to get to this morning without another loss. Butler trailed at Valparaiso for the first 39:45 before Pete Campbell knocked down a three to give them their first lead of the night. Valpo's Jarryd Loyd lost the ball on the ensuing possession and the Bulldogs matched last year's 20-2 start. Campbell might have provided the final heroics but it was A.J. Graves who made it possible. He tied the game three times in the final three minutes and drew a double that led to Campbell's open winner.

Meanwhile, the other Bulldogs had their hands full in Normal. They fell behind Illinois State 38-29 at the half with Josh Young missing every shot he tried in the first 20 minutes and, for a time, looked headed to a loss that would keep the MVC a race. Young scored 17 points after the break, including four three-pointers, and Drake rallied for a 73-70 win. They now lead the Redbirds by four games in conference and have the second longest winning streak in the country behind Memphis.

If, for some reason, it hasn't crossed your radar screen just yet, the Drake Bulldogs are the best story of the 2007-08 basketball season. They haven't played in the NCAA Tournament since 1971 but are a six-point road loss at St. Mary's away from an undefeated season. They're 11-0 in the Missouri Valley and were led to their latest win by their walk-on point guard Adam Emmenecker, who scored 12 points in his career high high school performance.

Emmenecker had 20, a college career best, and added eight assists yesterday to lead his squad to a comeback win over Indiana State. The Sycamores held a five-point halftime edge but the Bulldogs got back in the game when Emmenecker set up threes on three consecutive possessions at the start of the final 20 minutes. One by Josh Young and two by Leonard Houston was all the Bulldogs needed to get on track for another win. Drake's return to the tournament is all but assured, will they be joined by another conference team, though?

Illinois State had the inside track on the second spot before a 79-73 loss to Drake started them on a three loss in four game stretch. All the losses were roadies but still diminished the luster of another MVC team looking to end a long postseason drought. They recovered to win at Missouri State yesterday, though, and if they can beat Drake in Normal on Tuesday, they'll have restored their place near the front of the at-large line.

It's fixing to be a pretty memorable week in Des Moines and, for the first time all month, it has nothing to do with Barack Obama. It has to do with Keno Davis, Adam Emmenecker, Leonard Houston and the rest of the Drake Bulldogs. When this week's AP Top 25 comes out, it would be a shocker if Drake isn't included among its ranks for the first time since 1975.

They beat Illinois State 79-73 yesterday to take over sole possession of first place in the Missouri Valley. It was also their 15th straight win and last week's top "Other Receiving Votes" school should leapfrog losers like Clemson and Rhode Island into the rear end of the rankings. That's an exciting start for Davis, who replaced his father as the team's coach this season, and for a school that wasn't picked to do all that much in the MVC this season.

Emmenecker, a former walk-on, had 19 points, six rebounds and six assists and Houston added 19 points of his own. Drake overcame Josh Young's absence for the third straight contest and, for the third straight game, had a different leading scorer. They also overcame a 12-point ISU lead with under 14 to play. The Redbirds had won nine straight behind tight defense and good shooting. The shooting remained strong at 55% but their defense and ballhandling undid them.

What happens when a Bulldog fights a Redbird? I'm not sure who wins but the balance of power shifts in the MVC regardless of the outcome. Drake and Illinois State both improved to 6-0 in conference on Wednesday to set up a seismic battle on Saturday but took very different routes to the game.

The Redbirds dominated Wichita State in Normal, leading 34-18 at the half en route to a 72-51 victory. The Shockers wilted under the ISU defensive pressure, turning the ball over 24 times and making just 35% of their first-half buckets. No surprise there, the Redbirds lead the conference in each metric and are near the top of the national rankings as well. Offensively, they don't set your hair on fire with their scoring totals but every man on the team can shoot and pass which leads to open looks galore. Osiris Eldridge has 21 points, center Levi Dyer had five assists off the bench and the reserves scored 26 as a unit to propel victory 9 in a row.

They'll need all those charms when they head to Drake on Saturday, even after the Bulldogs barely eked out a win in Peoria.

Drake 65, Missouri State 54 - No Josh Young meant some problems for the Bulldogs. They trailed by eight, their biggest deficit of the season, and shot 40% but closed strong enough to earn victory 14. Shane Laurie tied the game at 54 with four minutes to play but his Bears wouldn't score again and watched Drake hit free throws to close the game out. The Bears shot very well from two, 19-of-31, but missed 17-of-20 three pointers which makes their offensive strategy questionable to say the least. Drake's offense showed some depth without Young, out indefinitely with a sprained ankle. Klayton Korver hit five threes and finished with 19 points, Leonard Houston had 16 and Jonathan Cox had 13.

Illinois State 74, Evansville 66 - Osiris Eldridge had 17 points and the Redbirds made 13 free throws in the last three and a half minutes to reach eight straight wins for the first time since 1992. Free throws loomed large for the Purple Aces as well. They made just 19-of-35 in this slow affair and turned Shy Ely's career game into an afterthought. Ely had 28 points but didn't get enough help from his mates to pull out the victory.

There's a very light slate of games around the country this evening and all of them are mid-majors, which should be a good thing for teams looking to gain some exposure. Sadly, few of the games feature anybody all that interesting but that's alright because then you've got no excuse to not watch Siena at Niagara at 9PM. The games on ESPNU and everything, so you needn't be going over the falls in a bucket to catch it.

It should be worth your time for Charron Fisher all by his lonesome. He's the leading scorer in all of Division-I at 27.4 a game and throws in nine and a half rebounds for good measure. He can score any way you like and in the Purple Eagles' uptempo offense, he never lacks opportunities. They spur that offense by being the best rebounding team in the MAAC and that could swing the tide in their favor this evening.

Siena, a smart but slower and more deliberate side, will likely be without Alex Franklin for the sixth straight game. The Saints have lost three of those five and really miss Franklin's rebounding and 15 points a game. Without him on the inside, they'll have to rely on hitting a bunch of threes and slowing down Fisher. That should prove to be too tall an order and give Niagara a leg up on the conference title.

Xavier finished up one of the best weeks in the school's history by routing Auburn 80-57 in Alabama on Sunday. That made them 3-0 for the week with all three wins coming via blowout and coming against Big Six competition. What better way to round into form for Atlantic 10 play? The wins should restore the Musketeers to the Top 25 and should erase any doubts raised by losses to Arizona State and Tennessee.

The Auburn win actually represented a bit of a come-down after the Kansas State and Virginia thumpings. They didn't reach 100 points and only had five players score in double figures instead of the seven they had in each of those games. Those cosmetic differences can't diminish how well Xavier's playing right now. They were 16-of-26 from three for the second straight game, adding another dimension to an already dangerous offense, and recorded assists on all 15 of their field goals in the first half.

Drew Lavender had a lot to do with each of those highlights. He hit five threes and picked up five assists. The latter isn't an overwhelming number but is indicative of how good the 5'7" sprite is at running an offense which operates at an insanely high level. They are the most efficient team in the nation and Lavender is the biggest reason. We'll have a full A-10 preview before conference play kicks off Wednesday but here's a preview - Xavier will be at the top.

The rest of the winners and losers:

By playing the ninth hardest nonconference schedule in the country, Southern Illinois gave themselves a convenient excuse for starting the season 5-6. The reasoning was that losses to Indiana, Saint Mary's and Butler would steel them for MVC play where they would blow past less seasoned competition. It's not working out that way.

They needed everything they had to outlast Missouri State in the conference opener and then lost 61-51 at Drake last night. The loss dropped the Salukis to 1-4 on the road, they won 10 such games last season, and drops them to 1-1 in the MVC. The loss was a reversion to poor form for SIU. Joshua Bone, who finally started hitting some shot in the last two, was 2-for-10 and they shot 39% as a team. They also missed 7-of-13 free throws while their physical defense sent the Bulldogs to the line 30 times.

Josh Young led the way for 2-0 Drake with 24 points. Young spurred the winning rally in the second half when, up 47-43, he scored five points to open an 11-2 run. They're 11-1 overall with their lone blemish a road loss at Saint Mary's and could be poised for a big conference run.

As for SIU, it's hard to predict a complete turnaround at this point. They'd need to win 14 of their remaining 16 to reach 20 wins, so at-large bids are a fantasy, and they'll need to find some consistent backcourt play to make an honest challenge at the MVC crown.

Elsewhere on the mid major hardcourts:

For a week that featured very little college basketball, it was a pretty good one for the mid majors. Binghamton and New Orleans pulled off nice upsets while the A-10 grew in stature thanks to wins from Xavier and Massachusetts. The weekend brings a bit more action although you wouldn't know it from tonight's slate. Eight games are on tap, but only two of them match D-I schools against each other. Hartford figures to be a sacrificial lambs at Villanova but Drake's got more than an outside chance in Iowa City. Their MVC cohorts from Bradley already beat the Hawkeyes at Carver Hawkeye Arena and so did Louisiana-Monroe.

The Bulldogs have another edge over the Hawkeyes. Their coach, Keno Davis, has probably seen more games at Iowa's home than their coach Todd Lickliter. Davis is the son of Dr. Tom Davis, and graduated from Iowa in 1995, so he should feel right at home this evening. If Josh Young and Leonard Houston continue to nail almost 50% of their three point tries, Drake has a good chance to make them Iowa's biggest winner. Until January 3rd anyway.

I've already voiced my displeasure with the inclusion of teams like Xavier among the mid-major morass. They have the tradition, the size and the talent to hang with any of the big boys but the Atlantic 10 is still a bit of a redheaded stepchild. The only way they can defy their label is by winning games, something they've done seven out of eight times this season after beating Creighton 79-66 last night. The deep Musketeers got a typically well-balanced scoring night, led by 28 from Drew Lavender. The 5-7 sparkplug usually finds one of his five teammates who score in double figures but took matters into his own hands from the opening tip. He scored 17 in the first half, hit four threes and still found the time to dish out 10 assists.

XU remains under the radar but is a team that can't be slept on. C.J. Anderson, Josh Duncan and Derrick Brown can beat you inside while Lavender, Stanley Burrell and B.J. Raymond control the perimeter. Few teams, regardless of conference, can match that kind of balanced scoring. We'll see who among Tennessee, Kansas State, Auburn, Virginia and Arizona State can, but first the Musketeers will face Cincinnati in a battle for city bragging rights next week.

Elsewhere on the hardwood: