One of the best mid-major tournament finals you'll see takes place Sunday afternoon in St. Louis when top-seeded and No. 20 DrakeIllinois State (24-8) in the final of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
Drake, in the MVC tournament final for the first time, is one of the best stories in the nation this year. Saturday's 75-67 semifinal win over Creighton was the Bulldogs' 27th victory, breaking a school record set
by the 1968-69 team that advanced to the Final Four.
The Bulldogs had long been an MVC doormat, forced to play in the lead-in game of the four-day tournament nine of the previous 11 seasons, until their surprise emergence under first-year coach Keno avis.
They are led by 6-foot-1 senior Adam Emmenecker, a former walk-on and bench warmer his first three seasons who was the Valley's player of the year this season. He had 20 points and a career-high 11 assists in Saturday's semifinal.
The Bulldogs are one win away from officially clinching their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1971 and first-ever MVC title (they'll get in even if they lose), but the top seed has not won the MVC tournament since 1998. Only three of the Valley's last 17 regular-season champions have won the postseason tournament and league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament since 1991."I know there was a lot of people that have talked about the No. 1 seed and not having won the tournament, we've answered the questions, but that's really not been our focus." Davis said. "Our focus is to see how hard we can play, and it seems pretty simple. But if we came in that locker room with that kind of effort and it wasn't enough, I would be just as proud."
Drake, which split its last six games of the regular season, went 9-for-23 from 3-point range Saturday to increase its school-record total to 275.
Illinois State reached the final with a 56-42 win over Northern Iowa, reaching the title game for the first time since 1998 when it won both the regular-season title and tournament. ISU, though, was swept by Drake during the season and had only one game scheduled against a BCS-conference opponent this season. ISU beat Cincinnati, but the Bearcats are outside the RPI top 100. So the Redbirds, who have won six games in a row, may be sitting squarely on the bubble; they can eliminate any doubt with a win today.
Illinois State held Northern Iowa to 31.8 percent shooting and has held its last four opponents below 60 points.
Both the Redbirds' losses to Drake were close: 79-73 on the road Jan. 19 and 73-70 on Feb. 5. Sophomore guard Osiris Eldgridge is ISU's best player, averaging 16.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. He had 13 points and eight rebounds against Northern Iowa and totaled 37 points in the two losses to Drake this season on stellar 15-for-24 shooting.
Bet on March Madness at WagerWeb.com (27-4) faces second-seeded
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