College Basketball's NBA Draft Early Entry Winners and Losers

Now that all the relevant NBA draft deadlines have passed, college basketball coaches can finally have some semblance of roster continuity, barring the occasional homesick/minute-starved transfer.

The players who bailed are off to get (officially) paid for play, so they leave our sphere of discussion. Our examination centers on what they left behind. Is Phil Pressey's alma mater still fielding a solid team next season, or is Frank Haith stitching a lineup together with chicken wire and Duck tape?

Several other coaches are enjoying some surprisingly good news, while still others are headed back to the drawing board. Who's who?

Read on.

Missouri Valley Adds Loyola (Chicago) to Replace Creighton

According to a report from the Chicago Sun-Times, the Missouri Valley Conference has responded to its first membership change in almost two decades.

After Creighton's announcement that it would leave for the new-look Big East, the MVC was down to nine members from the optimum 10 that it rode with since Tulsa left in 1996. The Valley will not, however, play a game as a nine-school league with the addition of Loyola University of Chicago, late of the Horizon League.

The 2012 Bilas Invitational Tournament: Midwest Region Rounds 1 & 2

The fourth and final region in the first round of the BIT is upon us. Read the last several posts for details. And now to the games.

Play-In Game:
Oral Roberts 80, Akron 61
The Zips did a decent job of containing ORU scoring star Dominique Morrison, but Michael Craion's 24 points rendered the effort moot.

Craion drilled 10 of his 11 shots, also pulling down eight rebounds to headline a game in which the Golden Eagles never trailed. 14 of the 24 points came in the first half, helping Oral Roberts to a 38-27 lead at the break.

Akron was led by 14 points off the bench from Demetrius Treadwell. He was the only Zip in double figures. All-MAC selections Nikola Cvetinovic and Zeke Marshall combined for only 16 points and four rebounds, well off their season average of 20.3 and 10.8.

Damen Bell-Holter added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Eagles, while Morrison kicked in 11 points.