2011 MVC Wrap Up

March 7th, 2011

This weekend was my annual trip to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. I came to the realization that I’ve been to 7 consecutive conference tournaments and 9 out of the last 11. It’s shocking to me how old I’m getting. I was there to cheer on my Alma mater, Missouri State, and consume mass quantities of alcohol. Pretending you are still a college student for 3 days a year is still socially acceptable I think.

Despite 12 years of missing the NCAA Tournament (hello Barry Hinson era) I had reason to be hopeful for the Bears chances this year. Coach Cuonzo Martin had the team playing well and they managed a 15-3 record and their first ever MVC regular season title. Things were looking up for the program. But the MVC was down this year as it has been recently and it was looking like a 1 bid league again. So the only way for the Bears to make the NCAA tournament was to win the MVC outright or sit on our (pretty weak) resume and pray for an at large spot.

Day 1
The Bears had the #1 seed in the tournament and drew Southern Illinois who is an absolutely terrible team and had just lost to MSU by 20 points. We weren’t worried. I kicked the day off at 9am with my old roommate Jon and served up some beer, mimosas, and bagels. Things were looking good for some epic belligerence. This game was a lot closer than it should’ve been. The Bears could not make a shot. It was awful. We actually left our seats in disgust with 2 minutes to go and the Bears down by 9. After a last second change of heart we stayed in the arena and watched the game from the SRO section. Thank God we stayed. The Bears finally put it all together and went on an 11-0 run to win the game 58-56. We were pumped but definitely worried about the next game. On the way out I think I managed to berate (good naturedly) both Springfield broadcasting “legend” Art Hains and former AD Bill Rowe. Good times.

Now the fun really started. We met one of my coworkers (an SIU alum) in the Scottrade garage to gloat and do a little post-game drinking. They all seemed relatively happy since this now means they can fire their coach Chris Lowery. Somehow (and this is where I’m getting hazy) we managed to get into a suite for the second game. Here’s the view:

Since there was free beer I was ready to hunker down for rest of the afternoon. That was until Jon said “Dude let’s get out of here.” I didn’t get it. Then he said “Let’s get out of here NOW!” Ok then. So we left and when we hit the street I realized why. Jon proceeded to projectile vomit about 30-40 feet. I mean this was a rocket. Totally epic. We were also in a crowd of people so we got the hell out of there real quick.

Now let me tell you about Jon. His situation (read: WIFE) doesn’t allow him to drink very often so when he decides to throw down it usually goes horribly wrong. He even found out he had a curfew of 8pm (yes that is true) so he wanted to stay out longer. Which led to this:

He took a little nappy at Houlihan’s. But then he still wanted to stay out. So we ended up going to my new favorite bewb-tastic restaurant Show Me’s. It’s sort of like Hooters except the food is 100% inedible and the waitress are at least semi-attractive. Jon eventually gave up so we did manage to get him home by his curfew and spare me the wrath of another pissed off wife.

Day 2
The coeds were looking good on Saturday:

On day 2 I tore one off again. This time with my brother and dad. It was a similar story for Missouri State. They shot like crap and generally played poorly but still won. This time over Creighton 60-50. My dad can keep up with us (at least he thinks so) so it was a pretty good time. We took the Metrolink back to Show Me’s to see the sights then we went to Morgan Street and had some drinks and (possibly?) danced around like idiots. Soon we had to send daddy back home to St. Charles County on the train. He was done for.

This would’ve been a good place to stop but since we had to miss Mardi Gras this year we called a few people over to my house for a Hurricance. Somehow this lasted until 2am. Not a good idea. A (nameless) few of us were non-functional by Sunday.

Day 3

By day 3 I was dogging it and so was everybody else. We met up with about 10 people who had driven in from various parts of the state to see this championship game. They would have to face the long drive home disappointed.

Again the Bears looked like garbage. After shooting 19% in the second half (yes that is accurate) they somehow still had a chance to win. But Jermaine Mallet dribbled the ball off his foot with 3 seconds left for the turnover. Talk about a kick in the stomach.

So now we sit on the bubble again. Yahoo, Pat Forde, Joe Lunardi and The KC Star have us out of the NCAA tournament. It could be the 4th snub in 12 years for these Bears. That sucks.