If I never see or hear the phrase "taking care of business" again, it will be too soon.
This is going to be an interesting stretch. While there is a chance for some separation, the biggest questions I think are going to be who from the bottom can climb to the crowded middle and who from the top will be sucked back to the middle.
A couple of teams are in real trouble, generally speaking, that probably didn't anticipate it. ISUB is in a world of trouble at 1-3 with 5 games left (3 roadies) against CU, WSU and MSU. At this point, just 1-4 in those 5 would be good news. All of a sudden Thursday is an inexplicable possibility for the Trees. UNI is 2-2 and hardly out of anything, but I'm pretty sure they expected to be 4-0, 3-1 at worse at this point, looking to a high conference finish.
SIU's decent play in conference today will eventually fall victim to terrible coaching and program apathy. Bradley's going to finish last. Who are the other 2 Thursday teams? Pretty much everyone outside CU, MSU and WSU can make a good case for Thursday inclusion. If the Redbirds can find a way to add WSU to their impressive start, they will all but pencil themselves into the Friday bracket. Drake has started slow, but the schedule has been brutal.