FanHouse Samuel Haanpaa

With Christmas in the offing, gifts are on my mind. And when you're talking about college basketball, the most sought after gift is an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Every conference gets its representation but the elusive multiple bid is why teams go out and play all comers in the first two months of the season. It's still too early to know anything for sure but with the nonconference season winding down, I thought we'd take a look at Conference RPI and see who is looking like they're being nice enough for Santa to remember them come March.

Missouri Valley (Conference Rank: 7) - The early season buzz is that the MVC will struggle to get a second team into the tournament but that seems a bit capricious. Creighton has opened the season very strong and Drake sits at 40th overall in RPI but the early struggles of Southern Illinois has lowered expectations for the conference. They had an impressive win against Western Kentucky over the weekend and play Butler in a massive game on Friday. SIU is the only team with the nonconference strength of schedule that raises eyebrows, though. The MVC's quest for a second bid will have a lot to do with how well they play in conference.

One of the best moves the Horizon League has ever made was their decision to welcome Valparaiso to the fold this season. The Crusaders helped the conference to a 5-1 mark in games played Sunday and they are 10-1 after routing Chicago State 90-61. The vowel obsessed Samuel Haanpaa hit 10 three-pointers and finished with 32 points to lead Valpo to their eighth straight victory. The Finnish sharpshooter and the rest of Homer Drew's crew will have to be at their best over the next two weeks to keep the winning streak alive. They play at Wisconsin and then travel to Chapel Hill on December 30 in games that could go a long way toward deciding how many Horizon clubs make the Big Dance.

Butler will certainly be one of them. A.J. Graves shook off his recent struggles and buried seven threes of his own to lead the #19 Bulldogs to a 79-68 win over Florida State. The win, technically a neutral siter despite being in Indianapolis, puts the loss to Wright State well into the rear-view. Those Raiders had another impressive win, coming back from 16 down to beat Miami of Ohio 58-57. Illinois-Chicago beat DePaul for Windy City bragging rights while their Land of Lincoln compatriots at Loyola knocked off Northern Illinois to round out a great day for the Horizon.

The rest of the winners and losers after the jump.

It doesn't get the hype of the Big 10-ACC Challenge nor the television coverage but last night four schools flew their conference banner and did battle to determine Midwestern mid major supremacy. It ended in a draw. Bradley, representing the MVC, beat Wright State 72-65 in Dayton but their conferencemates from Evansville couldn't hold up their end of the bargain. Valparaiso, newest member of the Horizon, defended their league's pride with a 75-67 win.

Bradley nearly knocked off Michigan State last week and came from nine down in the last six minutes to force overtime against a Raider team flying high off their upset of Butler. Andrew Warren led the Braves with 23 points but it was Daniel Ruffin and Theron Wilson's heroics in the extra period that gave Bradley the victory. The Braves will focus on finals for the next week before heading into another pride battle. They'll travel to Butler and by the transitive property of wins, they'll escape with a victory. In Valparaiso, meanwhile, Samuel Haanpaa had 20 points and Urule Igbavboa had 18 points (and my keyboard just gave out) to lead the Crusaders to their ninth victory in 10 games.

Elsewhere on the mid major hardcourts: