Missouri Valley Conference commissioner Doug Elgin is resigned to the likelihood that for the second straight year he'll have one representative in the NCAA tournament.

Northern Iowa (23-10) is prepared to go it alone after beating Illinois State 60-57 in overtime for the conference tournament championship this afternoon, perhaps as a 13th seed befitting its 68 RPI.

The conference is also campaigning for a bid for Creighton, which shared the regular-season title with Northern Iowa and has a league-best 39 RPI while hoping for a minimum of upsets in other conference tournaments.

It was perhaps a telling sign that coach Dana Altman declined to campaign for himself after the Bluejays' 73-49 loss to Illinois State. Creighton (26-7) had been peaking, carrying an 11-game winning streak into that dud.