BracketBuster pairings are leaking out

[lightsout]

Long Beach St. at Creighton

St. Mary's at Murray St.

[lightsout]

UNI at VCU

Nevada at Iona

[Bravesfan]

so much for tweets

Yeah, talk about garbage! Anyway, St. Mary's plays Murray St. and Creighton gets Long Beach St. The way the pundits have been hyping up Long Beach St., maybe this is not a bad pairing. LBS beat Pittsburgh on the road and lost to North Carolina, San Diego St. and Kansas by single digits. They also beat then #14 Xavier and Auburn. It's not the "juicy" pairing that Creighton was hoping for, but it's not that bad either.

The St. Mary's/Murray St. game will be huge for Murray St. as far as seeding in the NCAA Tournament is concerned.

[lightsout]

Wichita St. at Davidson

Akron at Oral Roberts

[Bravesfan]

UNI at VCU

Nevada at Iona

Nevada at Iona should be a great game, especially with Iona's potential three NBA prospects and their top 3 offense in the country. Nevada has not lost since Wisconsin in Chicago. This would be a huge win for both of these teams.

VCU however will probably smear UNI. Not what they wanted, but with the CAA being down this year (ie: very few quality BCS wins), this is probably the best opponent VCU could end up with. It won't do them any good as far as their slim to none at-large prospects are concerned, which is ironic considering that VCU could win the CAA regular season championship this year!

[lightsout]

Drexel at Cleveland State

[Bravesfan]

Wichita St. at Davidson

Akron at Oral Roberts

That's actually a darn good matchup for Wichita St.! Davidson took out Kansas at Kansas earlier this year, and only lost by 4 to Vanderbilt and 13 at Duke. At 9-1 in the Southern Conference and 15-5 overall, Davidson is NOT a team I would want to draw in the NCAA Tournament.

I think what hurt Wichita St. is not only the lost to Drake the other night, but the fact that they still are lacking quality Valley wins. They lost out on an at-large bid last year since they could not beat the top 3 teams in the Valley, and so far are 0-1 against Creighton. I think WSU should not worry about this game yet and just concentrate beating Creighton in a couple of weeks. The UNLV win gets the Shockers into the NCAA Tournament. But beating Creighton gets them a lot more respect in terms of seeding. Then they can worry about beating Davidson which would be a solid win as well.

[lightsout]

Buffalo at South Dakota St.

Old Dominion at Missouri St.

UNC Asheville at Ohio

UT-Arlington at Weber St.

[Bravesfan]

Drexel at Cleveland State

That should be a decent game, but I think Cleveland St. wins going away.

[TheAsianSensation]

So Wichita either got Murray St or got screwed, and Creighton has St Mary's or has a worthless game. Solvent.

kaboom

[Bravesfan]

Buffalo at South Dakota St.

Old Dominion at Missouri St.

UNC Asheville at Ohio

UT-Arlington at Weber St.

ODU at MSU is a good matchup. Two middle tier teams from their respective conferences going at it to help prepare for their respective conference tournaments.

[TheAsianSensation]

That said, I like UNI and MSU getting hitched up with quality CAA programs. Those are games that will be high-quality in 2 years.

[Bravesfan]

kaboom

Yeah, but what do you make of all the national love for Long Beach St. TAS? They seem to be a pretty darn good team that can be dangerous in the NCAA Tournament. Maybe not as bad a matchup with Creighton as some will make it out to be, though admittedly not as good either.

And as I posted above, Davidson is a VERY dangerous team that are capable of beating anyone in the country on any given night. This would be a great win for the Shockers.

[Bravesfan]

That said, I like UNI and MSU getting hitched up with quality CAA programs. Those are games that will be high-quality in 2 years.

Good point!

[TheAsianSensation]

Yeah, but what do you make of all the national love for Long Beach St. TAS? They seem to be a pretty darn good team that can be dangerous in the NCAA Tournament. Maybe not as bad a matchup with Creighton as some will make it out to be, though admittedly not as good either.

And as I posted above, Davidson is a VERY dangerous team that are capable of beating anyone in the country on any given night. This would be a great win for the Shockers.

People got slightly carried away with LBSU. They had a signature win over Pitt, before Pitt stole it and defecated all over it. Xavier was at the height of their turmoil for the other win. Those are still solid wins and the non-con SoS is the type of thing that the committee just gobbles up. But the're more like a pesky 12 seed than anything. Not a lot of value for Creighton. Granted, CU has done very well to be in the situation where nobody but St Mary's is of value to CU.

Wichita St is the one I feel sorry for. They could use a signature win, and Murray St would've been it. Davidson won't really have the value anything more than WSU can get by beating any non-CU Valley team on the road.