Missouri Valley: Best conference you've never heard of

Way back when, the Missouri Valley Conference was as feared a league as existed in college basketball.

Twice in two years, Cincinnati upset Ohio State in the national-championship game, and that was after Oscar Robertson was a Bearcat. Ralph Miller pressed people into oblivion at Wichita State. Bradley was a place you didn't want to visit. So were sites like St. Louis, Drake and Louisville (yes, Louisville; even then, the geography of college conferences was quirky).

Now it's half a century later, and the Valley, as they like to call it, is abloom again. Here's some advice for a team like Washington or Gonzaga that might draw one of its teams in the NCAA tournament:

Be very afraid. Or at least, wary.

"This league is good, from top to bottom," said Mark Turgeon, former Oregon assistant who coaches Wichita State. "The coaching is good, the players are good. I wouldn't have said that three years ago, but I really believe it now."

This is probably the Valley's greatest strength since the 1950s and '60s. The signs are all over.

The league is ranked No. 5 nationally in the Ratings Percentage Index computer, with the Pac-10 seventh. Remarkably, five teams are ranked in the RPI top 30. The MVC is 3-3 against the computer's top league, the Big Ten.

This week, Joe Lunardi, who does the popular "Bracketology" NCAA-tournament forecast for ESPN.com, put four Valley teams in the field, heady stuff even for a league that has had multiple NCAA bids seven consecutive years.

Its coaches, naturally, have no trouble talking up the league, especially because most of what they say is true.

"When we have an opportunity to play the larger schools, they see the difference is just not there," said Creighton coach Dana Altman. "Basketball is a home-and-road sport and, traditionally, the big schools have always played at home. Now when the smaller schools get them on a neutral court, the gap is not what the public perceives it to be."

As March approaches, expect to see a lot of Valley teams in the discussion for the tournament. Northern Iowa is 16-3, Southern Illinois 13-4, Wichita State 14-4, Creighton 12-4 and Missouri State (formerly Southwest Missouri State) 11-4.

Credentials include Creighton's 26-point lacing of nearby Nebraska. Northern Iowa split with Iowa and Iowa State and beat Louisiana State, while Wichita State lost by a point at Illinois. Indiana State is 1-6 in the Valley but beat Indiana.

Barry Hinson, Missouri State coach, said Kansas coach Bill Self spoke to his team before the season and provided a pep talk.

"He said, 'You guys have more to play for,' " Hinson recalls. " 'Every one of you guys would have liked to play at Missouri or Kansas or maybe at Big Ten schools. I think that's a lot of the motivation for you.' "

It was pretty much that way for the Northern Iowa player who might be the league MVP. Ben Jacobson is a 6-foot-2 guard from Sioux City, Iowa, who paid most of his attention to the state power, Iowa State, and to Kansas because he has the same hometown as guard Kirk Hinrich.

Then Greg McDermott, the UNI coach, got the job late in Jacobson's junior year, called Jacobson that night and offered him a scholarship. Done deal.

"The only scholarship offers I had were Drake, UNI and Creighton," Jacobson said this week.

"He was just a scrawny high-school kid," McDermott said. "But he had a way about him. He was able to win games at the end."

Jacobson bulked up and last year averaged 17.9 points for the Panthers, who are tracking their third consecutive NCAA-tournament appearance. Although they're without guard Erik Crawford (broken foot) for several weeks, they're a veteran team that will be a testy draw for somebody in March.

Said Jacobson, "We feel our league can compete with the top conferences in the nation."

The coach at Drake is ex-Stanford head man Tom Davis, now in his third year with the Bulldogs. So far, he hasn't been able to break into the elite in the Valley.

Boy George

Boise State (8-7) isn't having much of a season, but Coby Karl is. The son of Denver Nuggets and ex-Sonics coach George Karl, a 6-4 junior guard, leads the Broncos in scoring (15.5), rebounding (4.9) and assists (4.3).

"He's taken much better shots than he did a year ago," BSU assistant Andy McClouskey said. "He reminds you of Brent Barry. He tries to make big plays. He's not afraid to gamble."

McClouskey said the senior Karl manages to attend most of Coby's games.

Small Ball

Or, why it's a good idea to bring it every night. The season's strangest results:

Cal-Davis 64, Stanford 58

Elon 74, Clemson 69

Tarleton State 68, Texas Christian 59

Carnegie-Mellon 51, Princeton 46

Gardner-Webb 73, Minnesota 72

Utah Valley State 75, Arizona State 71

Sam Houston State 80, Missouri 77

Hurts so good

It's bound to happen: On one of those ungainly, pregame chest bumps, somebody is going to land wrong, and voila, blown ACL or high-ankle sprain.

Players won't be dissuaded, however, by what happened last week to Clemson guard Vernon Hamilton. Chest-bumping 6-10 teammate Steve Allen before the Duke game, Hamilton hit his forehead on Allen's chin.

Hamilton dashed to the locker room for three stitches, breaking a streak of 31 straight starts. Then he hit 14 of 19 field-goal tries for a career-high 31 points.

And What's More . . .

• Publicists at Hawaii should provide player biorhythms instead of stats. Always homebodies, the Rainbows began the season with a 22-point lacing of Michigan State, then lost their next game on the road to UNLV (9-7). They've been true to form in Western Athletic Conference play, beating league favorite Nevada in Honolulu and losing to Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State on the road.

• The Pac-10 isn't the only Western league that's down. Mountain West tri-leader Air Force is 15-2, but the other two at the top, San Diego State and Wyoming, have combined for 14 losses, while perennial power Utah is only 8-7.

• When Kansas State (11-4) upset Kansas (10-6) last week, it broke a 31-game losing streak in the series. The Jayhawks have held the national lead at times in field-goal-percentage defense, but so far, it hasn't meant much.

• Streaks? Not at Saint Louis, where, after Wednesday's loss at Richmond, the Billikens have won and lost every other game.

• Nobody takes care of the ball quite like Temple, which averages a national-low 7.6 turnovers. Still, the Owls are only 9-6.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com