Bradley’s Demarion Burch, right, and Duke Deen, left, try to take the ball from Drake’s Atin Wright in the first half of their Missouri Valley Conference basketball game Saturday at Carver Arena in Peoria. (Photo courtesy: Peoria Journal Star)

Jason Barnes
Staff Writer

The Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball week began with big news for league-leading Indiana State. The Sycamores, who racked up two more wins last week to extend their win streak to nine games, and are now 22-3 on the season and 13-1 in league play, were ranked in the Top 25 in both major national polls.

In the Associated Press poll, Indiana State made its debut at No. 23, while the USA Today Coaches poll had the Sycamores at No. 24. Indiana State was also ranked in the CBS Top 25+1 poll at No. 19.

It’s the first time the Sycamores have been ranked since the 1978-79 season — a year which ended with an ISU team led by Larry Bird playing in the national championship game against Magic Johnson and Michigan State.

Indiana State will get to show off how worthy of its new rankings it is when it hosts Illinois State, Tuesday night at the Hulman Center.

The other big news, which came from last weekend, was Drake taking firm hold of second place in the MVC standings. The Bulldogs won a barnburner of a game, last Saturday evening, 74-67, against Bradley.

The Braves could have tied the Bulldogs for second place, but Drake pulled away late to pick up its 20th win of the year and move two games ahead of Bradley for second place.

The top two spots in the MVC standings seem locked pretty good, but there is a major logjam for spots three through nine.

Bradley is third at 9-5, Southern Illinois is fourth at 8-6, then there’s a three-way tie for fifth between Belmont, Northern Iowa, and Murray State, who all have 7-7 conference records. And just behind them are Evansville and Missouri State, who both have 6-8 marks.

Each team has six conference games left. So there’s still time to make up ground. But somebody in that group needs to get hot if they’re going to make a move up the standings.

Arch Madness is less than a month away and it should be quite an event with eight of the league’s 12 teams having winning records.

Player of the Week: Darnell Brodie, Drake
Brodie averaged 18.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists across two wins last week going a combined 13-15 from the field. He scored 18 points (6-7 FG) with eight rebounds and one assist in the 92-88 OT win over Southern Illinois on Wednesday.

Brodie scored Drake’s final 13 points in the 74-67 win at Bradley on Saturday, outscoring the entire Braves team 13-11 over the final 7:19 of the game to end up with 19 points and eight rebounds. Brodie enters the week ranked third in NCAA Division I men’s basketball field goal percentage (66.1%). His field goal percentage last week tied for second-best in the nation as the Bulldogs knocked off the third- and fourth-place teams in the league race.

Newcomer of the Week: Malik Dia, Belmont
Dia averaged 20.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.0 blocked shots per game as Belmont defeated Murray State and Valparaiso this past week. Dia had a game-high 25 points on 8-for-14 shooting at Valparaiso. The Murfreesboro, Tennessee native had 15 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots vs. Murray State. Dia ranks among league leaders in scoring, rebounding and free throw rate.

Freshman of the Week: Cooper Schwieger, Valparaiso
Schwieger enjoyed another big week, averaging a team-high 16.5 points per game to go along with 3.5 rebounds per game. He shot at a 53.6 percent clip over two games for the Beacons, making 15 of his 28 field-goal attempts.

Schwieger started the week by tallying 17 points and five rebounds while shooting 8-of-16 in a road game against first-place Indiana State on Wednesday. He followed that up by once again leading the team in scoring on Saturday vs. Belmont, when he accrued 16 points on 7-of-12 from the field. Schwieger has scored nine points or more in 10 straight games including three straight with 16 points or more.

Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Schedule Tuesday, February 13

Away	Home	Time	Location	Links
Illinois State	Indiana State	6:00 PM	Terre Haute, Ind.	TV: ESPN+
Drake	Evansville	7:00 PM	Evansville, Ind.	TV: ESPN+

Wednesday, February 14

Away	Home	Time	Location	Links
Southern Illinois	Belmont	6:30 PM	Nashville, Tenn.	TV: ESPN+
Missouri State	Murray State	7:00 PM	Murray, Ky.	TV: ESPN+
Illinois-Chicago	Bradley	7:00 PM	Peoria, Ill.	TV: ESPN+
Northern Iowa	Valparaiso	7:00 PM	Valparaiso, Ind.	TV: ESPN+

Saturday, February 17

Away	Home	Time	Location	Links
Valparaiso	Missouri State	1:00 PM	Springfield, Mo.	TV: Bally Sports
Indiana State	Southern Illinois	6:00 PM	Carbondale, Ill.	TV: ESPN Plus

Sunday, February 18

Away	Home	Time	Location	Links
Evansville	Illinois State	TBA	Normal, Ill. (Conf.)	TV: ESPN+
Murray State	Drake	1:00 PM	Des Moines, Iowa (Conf.)	TV: MVC TV Network
Bradley	Northern Iowa	1:00 PM	Cedar Falls, Iowa (Conf.)	TV: ESPN2
Belmont	Illinois-Chicago	1:00 PM	Chicago, Ill. (Conf.)	TV: ESPN+

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN’S BASKETBALL STANDINGS

SCHOOL	MVC	PCT.	HOME	AWAY	STREAK	OVERALL	PCT.	L10
Indiana State	13-1	.929	7-0	6-1	W9	22-3	.880	9-1
Drake	11-3	.786	7-0	4-3	W2	20-5	.800	8-2
Bradley	9-5	.643	5-2	4-3	L2	17-8	.680	7-3
Southern Illinois	8-6	.571	4-3	4-3	W1	16-9	.640	5-5
Belmont	7-7	.500	5-2	2-5	W2	14-11	.560	4-6
Northern Iowa	7-7	.500	4-3	3-4	L1	13-12	.520	6-4
Murray State	7-7	.500	3-4	4-3	W1	10-15	.400	4-6
Evansville	6-8	.429	5-2	1-6	L1	15-10	.600	5-5
Missouri State	6-8	.429	3-4	3-4	L2	14-11	.560	5-5
Illinois State	5-9	.357	2-5	3-4	L3	11-14	.440	3-7
Illinois-Chicago	3-11	.214	2-5	1-6	W2	10-15	.400	2-8
Valparaiso	2-12	.143	1-6	1-6	L6	6-19	.240	2-8