Two really interesting games available on TV tonight:

Evansville plays at Indiana on the Big 10 Network at 7:00 p.m. Watch Evansville's sophomore shooting guard D.J. Ballentine. He's 6'2" 210 pounds, and gets to the free throw line like a madman. He's scored 29 points in every one of Evansville's games this year except against Valpo, where he scored 32.

And of course, #12 Wichita State plays BYU at 9:00 p.m. on ESPN2. The Shockers seem to be coming together and hitting on all cylanders right about now, having beat DePaul 90-72 last night. The matchup with BYU is easily their best competition they've played so far this year (BYU beat Texas last night 86-82, and is expected to finish just behind Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference this year). So it should be a really good matchup....

Did anyone else catch that Bradley game last night? OUCH!!! Fans weren't taking it very well on their board!

Tough loss. Their fans on mvcfans.com seem pretty despondent. Something most of us can relate to. KenPom.com had us projected for a 5-13 conference record, but the only solid win was vs SIU at home. After last night, his system has us solidly favored over Bradley at home as well.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

After going 5-11 in the Horizon last year... I would take 5-13 in our first year here! 2-3 road win would be a bonus in my opinion. After catching quite a bit of slack from other members of the league, I would really hate to come into the league and really stink it up!!!

Very little has gone as I expected it going into the season.

I thought you guys would have a few more wins.

I thought the Gargoyles would look like a top 4 contender.

Never expected the Pups to be 6-1.

Didn't expect the Trees to lose to Tulsa.

The Bares are looking much better than I expected this year. Thought next year they'd make their move.

The Cats are struggling quite a bit.

The Pimps aren't very good. But Ballentine can play.

Things I did expect.

The Uglies have struggled.

The Kung Fu Fighters have pretty much sucked.

My Shox are taking care of busienss.

I will admit that the Trees only have the one bad loss and have played fairly well outside of that.

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The Roundhouse

Lordy Guys !! We seem to have another Swella on our hands !! Next thing Sub will tell us is that he has a dog named Earl or somethin' !!!!

Drake is obviously the biggest positive surprise, with a 5-1 record (and a 28 RPI) after being picked for last. I wasn't really impressed by their close win at UIC, but they followed that up with a good showing in a close loss against a very good St. Mary's team and a quality win at Fresno State.

Missouri State is also something of a surprise. They had a very good win against Texas A&M, although they got blown out by Virginia on a neutral court last weekend.

Evansville was looking pretty good until they lost at Indiana (very badly), at Ohio (very badly) and then handed Murray State their first win of the year on Wednesday.

I'm a little befuddled by Northern Iowa. I thought they'd win at Ohio and George Mason. They just lost by 11 at UWM, who is admittedly a better than expected team thanks to Matt Tiby, but I watched that game and it wasn't very much in doubt for the last 10 minutes.

This weekend UNI plays undefeated Iowa State, and Drake plays Iowa. Let's see if their character is better revealed in those games.

As for us, everyone knows we should have won at Tennessee Tech, at Tulane, and at Portland State-- double digit second-half leads in all three games. But for two missed free throws, we could have won at Mississippi State. Our other loss was close throughout, but ultimately winnable. I keep imagining the Alec Baldwin speech from Glengarry Glen Ross-- "coffee is for closers".

Brass Balls!