(St. Louis, MO) – How will Missouri Valley teams fare against some worthy opponents tonight? We thought we’d check with kenpom.com, the new N.E.T. and realtimerpi.com and get some Wednesday Predictions. What do the experts think?
The Victories – Not So Good – 1 for 4
Of those ‘experts’ kenpom.com and realtimerpi.com each predicts the outcomes of games. Tonight’s games are all against teams picked to finish in the top four in their respective conferences. So none of these are cupcakes.
Four of tonight’s five games are predicted to be wins. None of them are predicted to be blow outs. Indiana State, Loyola and Southern Illinois entertain difficult opponents. SIU’s (5-3) game with Saint Louis (6-1) may be the most difficult of the home games.
Ball State (5-3) travels to Loyola (5-3) for its third game of five against MVC teams. The Cardinals have already defeated Indiana State and Evansville. After tonight’s Gentile Arena game their next two contests are against Evansville and Valparaiso.
Tyreke Key – gosycamores.com
Indiana State (5-1) entertains North Texas. The Mean Green are 8-1 while the Sycamores have won five straight.
Illinois State (6-3) goes on the road to face UIC (3-5). The Flames have split their first two games with Valley teams defeating Bradley and dropping a decision to Loyola. RealtimeRPI.com says the Redbirds will lose this one.
Illinois State, Indiana State and Loyola all lost. Southern Illinois was the only winner here. RealtimeRPI did get the Redbirds loss correctly so they were 2-and-2.
The Defeat – Both Were Wrong
Missouri State (3-5) travels to Western Kentucky (4-3). The Hilltoppers have split their previous Valley conflicts, defeating Valparaiso and losing at Indiana State. The Bears have dropped five straight games.
We’ll grade these Wednesday predictions and evaluate the experts!
Missouri State took care of the Hilltoppers!
Analysis
To be fair, KenPom.com couldn’t have known a game time decision for Loyola’s Porter Moser to sit Bruno Skokna with a hand injury or Dan Muller’s late scratch of Zach Copeland for Illinois State.
The bottom line is that predicting games are hard. One of the most interesting resources for college basketball junkies like us is kenpom.com and RealtimeRPI.com.
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