Valley surges to 8th-best conference in NET

MBB: After four wins Wednesday, the MVC looks more like a multi-bid league

Drake was one of four Missouri Valley Conference teams to win non-conference games on Wednesday. (Photo: Drake Athletics)

Drake, Northern Iowa, Illinois State and Belmont all won non-conference games Wednesday night helping the Missouri Valley Conference move up to the #8 conference in the most recent NCAA NET rankings.

The NCAA NET rankings are the computer metric that is primarily used to help determine the NCAA Tournament field. In each of the last three years, the #8 team in the NET rankings at the end of the season sent multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament.

Here are the latest NCAA NET rankings through games on December 6th:

16. Indiana State (8-1 overall, vs. #339 Southern Indiana Saturday)

60. UIC (5-3 overall, at #186 Jacksonville State Friday)

75. Drake (8-1 overall, vs. #30 Nevada Saturday)

80. Southern Illinois (6-2 overall, vs. #281 Austin Peay Tuesday)

99. Bradley (6-3 overall, vs. #208 Cleveland State Friday)

110. Evansville (7-2 overall, at #249 Bellarmine Saturday)

113. Missouri State (6-3 overall, vs. #162 Sam Houston Saturday)

154. Belmont (7-3 overall, at #274 Middle Tennessee Saturday)

156. Illinois State (6-3 overall, vs. #205 Norfolk State Saturday)

182. Northern Iowa (3-6 overall, at #95 Toledo Saturday)

210. Murray State (3-4 overall, at #281 Austin Peay Saturday)

300. Valparaiso (4-5 overall, at #71 Virginia Tech Saturday)