Creighton Basketball

Creighton (18-6, 8-4) at Northern Iowa (17-6, 11-1)

Line: Northern Iowa -2

Creighton won their third game in a row on Wednesday at Drake 79-68. The Bluejays shot 50 percent from the field and were led by Booker Woodfox with 23 points. The Bluejays currently sit tied for second place in the conference, three games behind their opponents for Sunday.

It was business as usual for Northern Iowa on Wednesday as they defeated Bradley 61-58. Although the majority of their victories have been tight ones, the Panthers have just the one loss to cellar dweller Indiana State back on Dec. 28 and enjoy a three-game conference lead.

ATS

Creighton is 12-8 against the spread, including 7-3 on the road.

Creighton is 8-2 against the spread against Northern Iowa in their last 10 matchups.

Northern Iowa is 10-9 against the spread, including 4-4 at home.

Although their games have been close, Northern Iowa has found a way at the end of the ball game. Not sure they need to do so here, but I feel good about them finishing tough.  

Dave’s Pick: Northern Iowa -2

See all of Dave's College Basketball Picks Against the Spread at cbbplace.com.

Missouri State (9-12, 2-8) at Creighton (16-6, 6-4)

Line: Creighton -13.5

Missouri State suffered an 11-point loss on the road Thursday to Southern Illinois. It was the Bears sixth straight road loss and seventh out of eight opportunities this season. Missouri State is just not able to score. While the defense is allowing just 61.7 points a game (best in the Missouri Valley Conference), the offense isn’t even reaching that (60.9 points on average).

A pre season favorite, Creighton is seeing its regular season title hopes fade away. With Northern Iowa’s victory on Saturday, the Blue Jays find themselves 3.5 games out of the top spot. Having already lost once to the Panthers, Creighton is positioning itself now for post season play.

ATS

Missouri State is 7-13 ATS, including 3-5 on the road

Creighton is 10-8 ATS, including 4-5 at home

Creighton is 8-2 ATS against Missouri State in their last 10 matchups

Creighton has not covered this amount of points yet at home in the conference season. With the expected low-scoring game, 13.5 becomes much larger.

Dave’s Pick: Missouri State +13.5

See all of Dave's College Basketball Picks Against the Spread at cbbplace.com.

Towards the end of October, I published my preseason Mid-Major Top 25. While I was researching teams, one of the major factors that weighed in on the ranks was where conference coaches picked teams to finish in their league.

I eventually reached one of the top mid-major conferences, the Missouri Valley Conference, and saw Creighton picked to finish fourth. However, I did not notice that this site showed last season's preseason coaches' poll.

As a result Creighton was left out of my Top 25.

A few days after the article was published, some angry Creighton fans commented, asking where their Blue Jays were. They claimed that MVC coaches picked Creighton to best the conference.

I went back and researched again to find that Creighton was indeed picked to beat out Southern Illinois, Illinois State, Drake, and Bradley for the MVC's regular season title.

I want to apologize for my negligence towards Creighton, and hope that this article of praise earns the forgiveness of Blue Jays fans.

So, yes, Creighton is the near-unanimous favorite to win the MVC.

The Blue Jays started the season at home against New Mexico from the Mountain West Conference. Although the Lobos were picked to finish fifth in their conference, the Mountain West is a level above mid-major and has two teams, UNLV and Brigham Young, who are poised to make lengthy tournament runs.

Creighton overcame a nine-point deficit with under four minutes to play, and went on a 19-3 to finish off the Lobos, 82-77.

Sophomore guard P'Allen Stinnett, who was named to the MVC first team, scored a career-high of 30 points for the Blue Jays.

Stinnett averaged 12.6 points per game as a freshman, and shot 31.7 percent of his three-point attempts. The extended arc did not daunt the sophomore in the game against New Mexico. He connected on three of his six attempts from three.

Stinnett has the majority of last year's production to back him up.

Senior Booker Woodfox and junior Cavel Witter are two guards who each averaged about nine points last season.

Woodfox, who scored 26 points in the season opener, shot 42.6 percent from behind the arc last season.

Witter came off the bench to score six points.

Coach Dana Altman brought in a two-time junior college transfer, Justin Carter, to complete his four guard starting lineup. Josh Dotzler, who averaged 3.4 points and 3.6 assists per game in 21.3 minutes per game last season, was the fourth guard in the starting lineup.

Kenny Lawson, Jr. is the starting center. The sophomore averaged 5.9 points and 4.2 rebounds in only 15 minutes of action as a freshman. Now a starter, his minutes and numbers will increase.

The starting lineup is solid, and Witter provides scoring off the bench.

Altman is arguably the best coach in the MVC. Now in his 15th season at Creighton, Altman has averaged over 20 wins per season, with a 282-152 record. The Blue Jays are lucky to be coached by such a talented man.

Altman will help his skilled team through the season with his experience. After all, he has taken his team to a postseason tournament in each of the last 11 seasons.

Creighton's biggest non-conference tests come against Oral Roberts, Nebraska, Saint Joseph's, and Dayton.

Nebraska and Saint Joseph's will be the toughest, especially on the road, but Creighton can definitely upend either team.

By the time conference play rolls around, the Blue Jays will need to worry about Southern Illinois and Illinois State.

The Salukis brought in some top-notch recruits, and the Redbirds have MVC Preseason Player of the Year, Osiris Eldridge.

Almost every MVC coach thought these teams would be mere bumps along the path for the Blue Jays, but only time will tell.

For now, I wish I could squeeze Creighton into the top 10 of my mid-major poll.

Philadelphia-- The 76er's trade of Kyle Korver ended former General Manager Billy King's longtime goal of signing all four Korver brothers. The 76ers acquired Kyle Korver from the Nets who drafted him 51st overall in 2003 for an undisclosed amount of cash.

The 76ers traded Korver to the Jazz for a first round pick and Gordan Giricek. New Sixer's GM Ed Stefanski quickly cleaned up Billy King's mess by ending the 76ers quest to have all four Korver brothers play for the 76ers.

The 76ers had planned on going after two of Kyle's brothers who played each other last night in the Missouri Valley Conference. Kaleb Korver is a freshman guard for the Creighton Blue Jays. He's seeing a modest 12 minutes a game and averages 3.5 points.

"I saw him when he was a freshman back in high school in Pella, Iowa. He looked like he could turn into a lottery pick out of high school, but with the new age rules, he had to go to college. It seems like he might not pan out to be a superstar, but could become a solid role player," says the former GM Billy King.

The 76ers also fell in love with Kirk Korver, a senior at Pella High School who also has a sweet shot. The 76ers think he could have supplanted Kyle as the team's top three point shooter.

"I've never seen a guy shoot the rock like he can," says King, "He will be something special."

The final brother Klayton Korver is a senior three point threat for the Drake Bulldogs which had the 76ers willing to give up everything they had to trade up to the number pick and draft Klayton. Klayton has reached double digit points seven times this year which makes Billy King think he's a project 100% worth developing.

"Some guys come out of school raw despite having four years in college. It will be our job to work him into a better basketball player and into our rotation," says King.

When chairman Ed Snider saw a napkin that Billy King had written down a potential roster containing all four Korvers he fired King on the spot.

"I was getting tired of people thinking we had Ashton Kutcher on the team so the thought of having four players that looked like him was upsetting. I knew right then and there King had to go," says Snider, "I thought King was a great GM despite letting Allen Iverson go and letting the team struggle through one the worst stretches in team history. I hope King can continue his dream to have all four Korver's united under one roof somewhere else."

All quotes are fake. This story is completely fake.