March 27, 2015

ST. LOUIS – As the final weekend of regular-season play in the Midwest Professional Basketball Association approaches, very little is settled with regard to the playoff picture.  The only sure thing is that the Bloomington Flex, St. Louis RiverSharks and Champaign Swarm have qualified for post-season play—other than that, the rest of the picture is still fuzzy.

Any of the three teams that have already qualified could wind up seeded anywhere from first to third.  And while the Gateway Steam control their destiny in the fourth spot, both the Chicago Force and Windy City Groove can steal that final playoff berth.

Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri is ground zero this weekend for the battle to determine the playoff picture, as the RiverSharks will host the Force at 1:00 p.m.  In the Saturday afternoon matchup the St. Louis RiverSharks will play host to the Chicago Force at 1:00pm.  St. Louis will be without guards Brandon Provost, who was called up to the Erie Bayhawks of the NBA D-League, and Terry Leake, who suffered a leg injury nearly two weeks ago.  The Force enter the game needing to win at least one of their final two games, and get help in the form of Gateway Steam and Windy City Groove losses.

 Also on Saturday at Family Arena, the Steam will host the Champaign Swarm at 4:00 p.m. The Swarm pounded the Steam 123-88 just a few days ago, and with another win, they can get a step closer to the number one overall seed.  If the Steam win one of their final four games, they will secure a playoff berth.  If Gateway is to get that win against Champaign, it will have to find a way to handle the Swarm’s full court pressure, which forced 32 Steam turnovers on Wednesday.

Then on Sunday at Family Arena, the Steam host the Groove at 1:00.  A Groove win would split the season series between the two teams, and give them a chance to steal the fourth seed from the Steam.

The Sunday nightcap at Family Arena is the matchup of the weekend, as the 12-4 RiverSharks look to even the season series with the Swarm.  If the RiverSharks win their final four games, they will be assured of the number one overall seed, as they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Flex, and would have a better overall record than Champaign.  If Champaign sweeps its weekend games in St. Louis, it will need a loss by the Flex to lock down the number one seed, because Bloomington won the season series 3-1 over the Swarm.

Bloomington can also finish in first overall position by winning its final two games, but it would need the RiverSharks to lose one of their final four games to do so.  The Flex, after beating Windy City Friday night in Bloomington, host the Chicago Force on Sunday, and then travel to Windy City on Thursday to close out the regular season.