RSC Men's Basketball Weekly Report: Week 9 -- Feb. 3, 2017 #RSCMBB #RSC
RSC Men's Basketball Weekly Report: Week 9 -- Feb. 3, 2017 #RSCMBB #RSC
FLORENCE, Ky. -- Week 9 of the River States Conference Men's Basketball Weekly Report comes to you on the first weekend of February as the conference season hits the final stretch. Look for this weekly feature at RiverStatesConference.com.
DIVISIONAL TIME
As the calendar turns to February, every conference game from here on out will be played within each of the RSC East and West Divisions. It's time for schools to play the second half of the home-and-home series between divisional opponents. The races are tight both at the top for the division titles and at the bottom for the last couple playoff spots.
RSC East Division teams all have five conference games remaining as we head into the weekend. RSC West teams have five or six games left with that division having an extra team than the East. Almost all of the conference teams are still in the playoff hunt, and the divisional games provide a chance to gain ground head to head versus divisional opponents.
STANDINGS SHUFFLE
The RSC men's basketball standings experienced a shuffle at the top over the last week. That was with the combination of No. 22 WVU Tech's continued conference win streak and (RV) IU Southeast beating No. 7 IU East last weekend.
WVU Tech (19-5, 11-1 RSC) upped its win streak to 10 straight to take over first place in the RSC East Division. That was after coming away with an 86-84 win at Cincinnati Christian in its last RSC game.
Making way for the Golden Bears to move into first place in their division was (RV) IU Southeast beating No. 7 IU East, 105-94, last weekend. The Grenadiers (18-4, 12-1 RSC) backed that up with a home win over IU Kokomo Tuesday to assume the best current RSC record in the conference at 12-1.
IU East (19-6, 10-2 RSC) has been on the road for both of its conference losses -- at WVU Tech and at IU Southeast. It was the only matchup with the Grenadiers last weekend although the Red Wolves will be hosting WVU Tech for part two of that season series next weekend Feb. 11.
These three teams have the edge in claiming their respective divisional titles and the No. 1 playoff seeds in their half of the postseason bracket. Whichever school ends up with the best record in RSC play will get home court advantage throughout the playoffs and also have a guaranteed spot in the NAIA Division II national tournament.
PLAYOFF RACES
With just three weekends left in the regular season, the races are tight to claim each of the four playoff spots in the divisions. As mentioned above, No. 7 IU East, No. 22 WVU Tech and (RV) IU Southeast are all secure in their placments. The rest of the conference has almost everybody still alive for the last two or three playoff spots in each division.
The RSC East Division has Ohio Christian (7-5 RSC) holding third place but with just a game lead over Rio Grande (6-5 RSC) as we enter the weekend. Point Park (4-8 RSC) and Carlow (2-9 RSC) are on the outside looking in and need to put together victories fast or else will play themselves out of contention. OCU, Point Park and Carlow will each play two games in Pittsburgh this weekend, and Rio Grande has a key game Saturday at WVU Tech.
The RSC West Division has five teams teams separated by just 3.0 games in places two through six. Those teams are battling for the other three playoff spots with IU Southeast in control of the first one. Asbury (7-6 RSC) has won four in a row to move into second place. Likewise, Alice Lloyd (6-7 RSC) has won three straight and Cincinnati Christian (5-7 RSC) has won two straight to move into playoff positition in third and fourth place currently. Brescia (5-8 RSC) and IU Kokomo (4-9 RSC) are knocking on the door, and Midway (2-12 RSC) is not totally eliminated as the weekend begins.
This Saturday has three RSC West matchups with the top six of the seven teams in action. (RV) IU Southeast at CCU is the RSC Game of the Week. Also on tap is Brescia at IU Kokomo with the loser falling further out of the playoffs. The third matchup is Asbury at Alice Lloyd in a battle for second place.
NAIA DII TOP 25 POLL
There was no NAIA Division II Men's Basketball Top 25 Poll this week as it was the week off in the NAIA's new format this year of releasing rankings every two weeks. The next poll will coming out Tuesday, Feb. 7. The RSC was heavily mentioned in the last poll release Jan. 24 with three teams in the top 26 places -- No. 7 IU East, No. 22 WVU Tech and (RV) IU Southeast (No. 26 overall). The results of the past 10 days as well as this coming weekend will play into the next national rankings.
STRETCH INTERNET
Five of the eight games on the schedule Friday and Saturday will be broadcast on Stretch Internet, the official video streaming provider of the RSC and the RSC Championships. Log on to the RSC Game Central presented by Stretch Internet to keep up with broadcast listings at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/RSC. Stretch Internet is also the video home to the NAIA NAIANetwork.com.