Dave Weaver/AP Photo

The Korver brothers faced off in the big Drake-Creighton showdown.

Key Shot

By Andy Katz
ESPN.com

The most significant result from Tuesday's action came in Omaha, Neb.

Drake's 68-60 overtime win over Creighton should silence any critics who were wondering whether the Bulldogs are serious contenders to win the Missouri Valley Conference.

This isn't meant to be disrespectful to Illinois State, but Drake's victory over the upstart Redbirds probably didn't intimidate any of the Valley teams just yet.

Drake already had beaten Southern Illinois at home. But the Bulldogs had to take out Creighton on the road to prove a bit more.

And they did just that, behind the comeback of the Valley's leading scorer, Josh Young. Young, who took off the walking boot he was wearing to protect a sprained right ankle and will put it on again Wednesday morning, nailed a critical 3-pointer in the win. Drake now is 8-0 in the Valley and 17-1 overall with a 16-game winning streak, the third-longest in the country behind Memphis and Kansas.

Drake, currently ranked No. 23, should continue to climb the polls. The victory at Creighton, one of the toughest places to claim a win, proved how much moxie this group has.

Drake gets Northern Iowa and Creighton at home over the next week before visiting the Valley's fourth-place team, Indiana State, on Feb. 2.

Drake's only loss this season has been to Saint Mary's. But because Drake didn't play a stellar nonconference schedule, the Bulldogs need to do more in the Valley. Halfway through the schedule, it's hard to find another team in a conference comparable to the Valley that has done more.

Getting to the Dance would be a monumental achievement for Drake and first-year head coach Keno Davis. Beating Creighton on Tuesday night was a giant step forward in the process.

Key Notes

By Jason McCallum
ESPN Research

• Looking for the performance of the night? Look no further than Edinburg, Texas, where Texas-Pan American senior guard Paul Stoll scored a career-high 37 points in the Broncs' 82-68 win over Houston Baptist. Stoll was 16-of-16 from the free-throw line and 7-of-9 from 3-point range. He also had nine assists and seven rebounds. His nine attempts from behind the arc were his only field goal attempts of the game.

• Kentucky has taken its lumps so far this season, but the Wildcats have picked it up as of late. From the beginning of last season until the beginning of 2008, they were 0-9 versus ranked opponents, losing by an average of 10.2 points per game. Since the calendar turned, however, Kentucky is 2-0 versus ranked teams, winning each of those games by six points. And both of those games were against teams from the bordering state of Tennessee.

• Clemson junior K.C. Rivers had 19 points and 11 rebounds in the Tigers' five-point overtime win against Wake Forest. It was his fourth career double-double, and -- surprise -- the Tigers are 4-0 in those games. He also had five steals in this one, tying a career high for thefts in a game.

• Clemson shot 43.8 percent from the free-throw line and 47.1 percent from the field in the win over Wake Forest. It was the third time this season Clemson shot better from the field than from the line. The Tigers are 2-0 in such games at home and 0-1 on the road. Since 2000, Clemson has had a higher field goal percentage than free-throw percentage in an overtime game three times. They are 3-0 in those games, two of them against Wake Forest.

• Driving home the point that it is difficult to win on the road in conference play: The teams playing on their home court went 13-2 on Tuesday night.

• Think ranked teams don't take their opponents' best shots on a nightly basis? Think again. Four ranked teams were in action Tuesday, and they went 3-1. But the combined final score in those games was ranked teams 278, unranked teams 268. And two of the three ranked teams had to go to overtime to secure victory.

• Backward stat of the night: Eight players recorded double-doubles in Tuesday night's action. Two of them are teammates; Brian Randle and Rodney Alexander of Illinois reached double figures in points and rebounds. Despite their domination, the Fighting Illini lost their game at Ohio State. The other six players to record double-doubles didn't have teammates putting up equally dominant numbers, but they led their teams to victory. In this case, two was not better than one …

• J.R. Giddens of New Mexico is known as an explosive scorer, but he dished out six assists -- one assist shy of his career high -- in a 77-67 overtime win over Utah. Giddens, who transferred from Kansas after two seasons there, has had at least five assists in 10 games. Nine of those games have come with New Mexico. In 63 career games with Kansas, he didn't have an assist in 22 of them. Since the transfer, he has played 46 games and has had at least one assist in all but five of them.

• Creighton's home venue, the Qwest Center Omaha, opened five seasons ago. Prior to Tuesday night, 18 visiting teams had entered that building with one or zero losses. Creighton handed every one of those teams a loss. Drake, which entered the building 16-1, became the first zero- or one-loss team to defeat the Bluejays as the Bulldogs moved to 17-1.