Yesterday we went to the Missouri State Bears’ next-to-last home game of the season — the “Bracketbuster” game sponsored by ESPN. The game was live on ESPN2 and the opponent was the Nevada Wolfpack. They’re a good team and really were in control for most of the game. Nevada was up by 10 with about 6:30 left but the Bears found a way to come back and win by two points thanks to a pair of ice-cold free-throws by Nafis Ricks with the game time at 60 with 3.4 seconds left.
It was one of the best games we’ve been to in the last few years. We left the building almost in disbelief that they won the game. Even though the Bears had a really hot 9-1 start to the season, their middling .500 record in Missouri Valley Conference play has ensured they won’t be picked as an at-large team for the NCAA tourney. Their only hope to go to the dance is winning the MVC tourney in St. Louis in a couple of weeks. As I said on the podcast with Allen Vaughan a few weeks ago, I think the Bears have what it takes to reach the title game of the tourney and put themselves in position to win it and get the automatic bid the big tournament. When they turn it on, they can finish, but they just haven’t done that enough this year.
I hope Saturday’s big win will propel them into the conference postseason. They have two more conference games left, one home and one away. They’re 18-10 overall, so they have a shot at a 20-win season. We’ll be in St. Louis the weekend of the MVC tournament and I hope to get tickets to Sunday’s title game. Here’s hoping the Bears will be on the court that day…
