Opening tip

Granted, it's still early in the Missouri Valley Conference basketball race, but there has already been plenty of surprises.

Creighton, nearly a unaminous pick to win the league, is 2-2 and muddled in the middle of the pack.

"I've said all along this team has a long ways to go, but I'm not sure anybody believed me," Creighton coach Dana Altman said after Tuesday's home loss to Northern Iowa. "I think they do now. We haven't made the progress we need to make."

Southern Illinois, picked second, has dropped two league home games and is off to its worst MVC start in 20-plus seasons at 1-3. The Salukis are relying on a slew of underclassmen.

"We're experiencing some things we haven't experienced," SIU coach Chris Lowery said. "We have some very experienced teams in our league. We've always been very experienced, and it hasn't been like that this year."

Meanwhile, Bradley, UNI and Evansville have all been pleasant surprises. The Braves, who knocked off previously unbeaten Illinois State on Tuesday, are 4-0 in the league. Bradley is getting it done with defense, holding opponents to 57.5 points and 36 percent shooting per game in league play.

"I told the guys in the locker room when they're locked in on defense, they're a dominant, disruptive team," Bradley coach Jim Les told reporters Tuesday night.

The Panthers won in Carbondale, Ill., and Omaha in the same week - two venues they hadn't won at in more than a decade.

Evansville, picked eighth in the preseason poll, snapped a 16-game road losing streak in conference play at Indiana State on Sunday. The Aces, off to their best start since the 1999-00 season, are 11-3 after Wednesday's overtime win over Missouri State.

3-point shots

- UNI freshman Johnny Moran's debut against Creighton was eerily similar to former Panther guard Brooks McKowen. Moran buried six 3s and finished with a career-high 22 points Tuesday. McKowen, in his first game versus the Bluejays in January 2004, made six 3s and had then a career-high 24 points. More importantly, both players saw their teams prevail.

- Illinois State's Champ Oguchi, the team's second-leading scorer at nearly 16 points per game, suffered a back spasm during practice Monday. He was limited to 16 minutes and 1-for-7 shooting Tuesday at Bradley.

- Bradley guard Andrew Warren, sidelined since the start of the season with a stress fracture in his right foot, won't play this season and plans to apply for a medical hardship. Warren, who averaged 13.2 points per game last season and the fourth-leading scorer returning in the Valley this year, will have two years of eligiblity remaining.

Did you hear?

Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall, disappointed by his team's second-half performance at UNI last Saturday, put his team through a workout after it arrived in Wichita around 2 a.m. Sunday. The Shockers were coming off their most lopsided loss of the year, 78-54.

"There's consequences for losing," WSU's Graham Hatch told the Wichita Eagle. "He wants to win. We have to work at it. He's not giving up."

Chalk talk

"I went to my son's basketball game in Bloomington last week and someone wrote 'Go Birds' on my car. … I looked at 'Go Birds' for about a week now. I'm glad (the guys) were ready to play because I was ready to play."

Bradley coach Jim Les after Tuesday's win over the previously unbeaten Illinois State Redbirds