Drake won 20 of their first 21 games because of the way they closed out games. They made their shots and made their stops down the stretches of games and that turned a team with average talent into a world beater. In two of their last three games, though, the Bulldogs haven't been quite so steely in the final minutes. Against Southern Illinois they couldn't get a late shot to fall and they let Bradley score the final nine points last night to pick up their first home loss. Two losses in the face of 14 wins doesn't seem like anything to get in a twist about, especially when you are 15th in RPI and playing in one of the ten best conferences in the country. Thing is, there's definitely a school of thought among college basketball cognoscenti that Drake isn't all that good and didn't do enough to guarantee a NCAA bid. If Butler beats them badly on Saturday, that feeling will grow. If they lose one of their final two MVC games, it will grow exponentially. If both those happen and they don't win the MVC tournament, they will officially be on the bubble.
I think that's ridiculous. There's no way the auto bids can shake out that there will be 34 teams more deserving of an at-large bid than the Bulldogs. Somehow I don't think my reassurances will mean much to Keno Davis if his boys don't win a few more games though.
