Four Teams Could Go

The Missouri Valley is becoming the conference nobody wants to play.

The best of the mid-majors landed three schools in the NCAA tournament last season for the third time in conference history. This year, greed has set in -- the league has a legitimate shot at an unprecedented four spots.

“Right now, four teams, people should be saying it’s a lock,” Missouri State coach Barry Hinson said. “The debate is whether it should be five teams.”

No. 25 Northern Iowa leads the pack. Creighton, Wichita State and Southern Illinois also received votes in the latest AP poll, and the Valley had five teams in the top 40 in the RPI. Two schools, Northern Iowa (15) and Creighton (16), were in the top 20.

Because their teams are so strong, conference coaches feel the league deserves quality seeds, perhaps better than the No. 7 that Southern Illinois received last season.

“It’s just great to see how the coaching and recruiting is growing by leaps and bounds,” Southern Illinois Coach Chris Lowery said. “We’ve just got to win games when we get there.

“If we get four or five teams in and we don’t win any games, those guys will say, ‘I told you they weren’t good enough.’ ”

Northern Iowa, Creighton and Southern Illinois made it to the tournament last year but had pretty quick exits. Southern Illinois was the only team to advance to the second round, where it lost to Oklahoma State.

This season, the Valley has been as high as fifth in the conference rankings. That is up from a respectable eighth, which matched the conference’s best at the end of last season. This week it is sixth, ahead of the Pac-10, Mountain West and Atlantic-10, and right behind the Big 12.

The only other conferences they trail in prestige are so-called power leagues: Big Ten, Big East, ACC and SEC.

It hasn’t lost its competitiveness, either.

Northern Iowa cracked the top 25 last week for the first time in school history, and promptly lost at Creighton. But that competitiveness combined with the respect the Valley has earned didn’t bounce the Panthers, who began the week at 20-4, from the rankings.

“We lost a game but we stayed in the rankings because our league is so good,” Northern Iowa Coach Greg McDermott said. “Obviously, people understand how good Creighton is and know that a loss at Creighton isn’t the end of the world.”

Northern Iowa has impressive victories over Iowa at home and LSU on the road. Creighton beat Nebraska by 26 and Atlantic-10 contender Xavier, in addition to winning at Colonial-leading George Mason.

Wichita State lost to No. 10 Illinois by a point, and pressed Michigan State on the road. Fifth-place Missouri State lost by four at Arkansas. Even Drake and Indiana State have hit high notes: Drake lost by five to Iowa, three to Boston College and took Creighton to overtime.

Indiana State, though trailing in the Valley standings, has an upset over Indiana. Earlier this month, the Sycamores ended Southern Illinois’ 33-game home-court winning streak, which was the longest in the nation.

That’s enough to scare the power conferences into seeking guaranteed games elsewhere.

“They don’t want anything to do with us,” McDermott said. “In terms of trying to get any sort of home and home deal, it’s virtually impossible.”

The Valley used to be a training ground for coaches. Now, they’re sticking around. McDermott has been at Northern Iowa for five seasons and Creighton’s Dana Altman, who had a stint in the Big 12 at Kansas State, has resisted opportunities to make a move and is having another strong season without injured standout guard Nate Funk.