Team to Watch: Valpo Basketball

This year hasn't exactly been the best year of college basketball in Illinois and the Greater Chicago area. The state's two Big Ten teams, Illinois (16-8, 6-5 in the Big Ten) and Northwestern (14-9, 4-8), are not living up to their preseason expectations. Several of the Chicago schools are in the middle of rebuilding projects such as UIC (7-19, 2-12) and DePaul (6-17, 24 losses in a row in the Big East), and Chicago State (6-19). All three of those schools have first year coaches. In the Horizon League, Loyola (13-12, 4-10) is barely better than UIC.

In the MVC, Bradley (8-17, more here) has suffered injuries, and ISU (11-14, 3-11) has taken a step back. Southern Illinois, who has made several NCAA tournaments in the past decade, ditto (11-14).

Across the state, as you can see, teams are struggling. Two teams in the Chicago area, albeit in Indiana, Notre Dame and Valparaiso are having very good seasons. Notre Dame gets plenty of attention as the #7 team in the country, improving to 21-4 after beating South Florida today . Under the radar, Valparaiso, (18-7, 10-3 in the Horizon) is in first place and in control of their destiny.

During the preseason, the Crusaders was picked to finish fourth in the Horizon, which was expected to be dominated by Butler again who won last year's Horizon League regular season and tournament. After losing to Butler in the season's first match up, Valpo beat the Bulldogs for their first win over Butler since joining the Horizon League in 2007-08.

Lead by guard Brandon Wood (16.3 ppg), Valpo ranks 23rd in the nation in assists per game, and 24th in field goal percentage. Valpo is also receiving votes in the national polls for the first time since 2002, and could potentially finish the season as a Top 25 team if they keep winning.

Valpo plays host to Wright State tonight, as they look to improve their lead in the Horizon League. One of the cool things about the Horizon League Tournament is that the top two teams get a double-bye into the semifinals (in most conferences, the best teams just get a single-bye), which will make the Crusader's chances of making an NCAA tournament even easier if they finish the season strong.

Next Saturday, February 19th, Valparaiso will play Missouri State at 4 PM on ESPN2, as part of its BracketBusters series, which matches up teams from strong non-BCS conferences.