Rivalry Week Matchup: Creighton v. Southern Illinois

The archrivals of the Missouri Valley Conference meet up in Omaha this Sunday when the Bluejays host the the Salukis for third place in MVC rankings. There's no doubt that Creighton has an outside shot of making the field of 65 this year, but they'll have to win this game and that will need to snowball into a hot streak. This is a must-have win for the Jays if they don't want to depend on winning the Mo Valley Tournament to sneak their way in.

Despite early tournament predictions, I am confident that two MVC teams will make it into the NCAA tournament this season. Drake is a lock, so there's room for one. Bradley, SIU, Illinois State and Creighton look like the front runners to take that seat. SIU would need to win the conference tournament, but anything is possible with that team. We've seen it too many times to doubt it.

There's a lot of pressure on the Jays right now because they have to be aware that they can still make the field. However, they would have to play almost flawlessly for the remainder of the season and hope either they or Drake win the conference tournament. The game Sunday will tell which directions they're headed - the Big Dance or the NIT (or that new tournament this year that nobody cares about).