Bradley plays Loyola in BracketBusters

[Da Coach]

Official release from Bradley- BU will play Loyola Saturday, Feb. 18, at 7 PM-

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205370853&DB_OEM_ID=3400

[Da Coach]

The BracketBusters people have not done Bradley any favors the past few years, and this year is no different. The initial design of the BracketBusters was to pair up teams with similar RPI. And there were a number of other midmajor teams in the midwest with closer RPIs.
But getting Loyola is a bit of a screw job for Bradley- Bradley's RPI is 198, and Loyola's is 302. It might be hard to find any BracketBuster game this year or past years that has this much disparity in RPI.

[Da Coach]

Here is the complete listing of BB games-

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/46675/matchups-for-bracketbusters-released-2

http://espnbracketbusters.com/site/about/tv-schedule?id=12

TV games-
Friday, Feb. 17th
ESPN2 – 7 pm ET – UNI @ VCU
ESPNU – 9 pm ET – Valparaiso @ Loyola Marymount

Saturday, Feb. 18th
ESPNU – 11 am ET – Drexel @ Cleveland State
ESPN/ESPN2 – 12 pm ET – Wichita @ Davidson
ESPNU – 1 pm ET – Buffalo @ South Dakota State
ESPN/ESPN2 – 2 pm ET – Akron @ Oral Roberts
ESPNU – 3 pm ET –Drake @ New Mexico State
ESPN/ESPN2 – 4 pm ET – Nevada @ Iona
ESPNU – 5 pm ET – Old Dominion @ Missouri State
ESPN/ESPN2 –6 pm ET – Saint Mary’s @ Murray State
ESPN3 – 7 pm ET – UNC Asheville @ Ohio
ESPN3 – 8 pm ET – UT-Arlington @ Weber State
ESPN2 – 10 pm ET – Long Beach State @ Creighton

Non-TV games-
http://espnbracketbusters.com/site/a...schedule?id=12

[lefty]

hmmm....Mo and WIU go to Evansville

[Bravesfan]

The BracketBusters people have not done Bradley any favors the past few years, and this year is no different. The initial design of the BracketBusters was to pair up teams with similar RPI. And there were a number of other midmajor teams in the midwest with closer RPIs.
But getting Loyola is a bit of a screw job for Bradley- Bradley's RPI is 198, and Loyola's is 302. It might be hard to find any BracketBuster game this year or past years that has this much disparity in RPI.

Yeah, I'm starting to agree with some of the posters on the Valley message board who are pleading with Doug Elgin to have the Valley cut ties with the BracketBuster. All this year's matchups have done is busted most Valley team brackets before the games have even been played! UNI caught a break as both they and VCU will be good when they play the return game in the upcoming years. But the rest of the teams seemed to be royally screwed this year!

Oh well. At least Bradley should get a relatively easy win out of this! Plus that will give us Chicago area fans a chance to see Bradley here again within the next year or two. Otherwise, I don't see Loyola improving all that much by the time we play them again.

[RaiderOfBradley]

Well, we've done no favors for ourselves over the past two years when it comes to the BB. Our record isn't going to garner us a high profile team and I am sure that is something that comes into play when they are looking at pairings.

I'm not excited about the Braves playing L-C either, but the records are comparable, the teams are both in the bottom half of the RPI and, considering how travel is important to collegiate programs nowadays, makes sense.

I think the other MVC matchups are pretty good, nowhere near a "screw job." The LBC-Creighton matchup is two teams in the top 50 RPI, Missouri State's game against ORU will be a good one and Wichita State against Davidson might be good. The InSt/Butler looks promising, as InSt has a three game win streak against them, and Northern Iowa against VCU could also be a great game.

The only way we will improve our positioning in the BB is to have a better record. Hopefully in the near future we'll have that.

[BUFanatic]

Oh you have GOT to be kidding me.

Okay for those of you who are in on this (Stop reading if you want a commentary on this matchup)

I go to Valparaiso but I am currently thinking about transferring to Loyola or Bradley. Way back in the fall when the Horizon League tournament was taking place at Top Seeded Valparaiso, it turned out that the 6 Seed Loyola would play the 1 Seed Valparaiso. I went to that match, and I said that if Valparaiso won, I would stay and if Loyola won I would transfer to Loyola. I really don't like it here, so I took that back. Guess what happened? Loyola beat Valparaiso on PKs.

Freaky? Okay try the next bit. I said IMMEDIATELY after the game, wow, that would be freaky if Bradley gets drawn to play Loyola first round in the NCAA tournament. Well, we all know that that did INDEED happen. I almost made the wager again, but I rescinded on it. If you're keeping score (By bracket) Bradley won, which should mean I go to BU, freaked me out. But I thought it was over.

Now THIS!? Bradley-Loyola..... I'm seriously thinking about making this wager again.... what are everyone's thoughts? lol

[Da Coach]

I know Bradley can't complain, but here is the list of the MVC matchups with the RPI as of last night when the pairings were determined and announced. Who got the biggest screw job?-

#34 Long Beach State at #14 Creighton (RPI disparity 20)
#31 Wichita State @ #67 Davidson (RPI disparity 36)
#57 UNI at #84 VCU (RPI disparity 27)
#129 Old Dominion at #79 Missouri State (RPI disparity 50)
#97 Drake at #90 New Mexico St. (RPI disparity 7)
#113 Indiana State at #124 Butler (RPI disparity 9)
#131 Oakland at #118 Illinois State (RPI disparity 13)
#180 Western Illinois at #162 Evansville (RPI disparity 18 )
#232 SIU at #220 Ball State (RPI disparity 12)
#302 Loyola at #198 Bradley (RPI disparity 104)

Many fans in the MVC are grumbling. ISU fans are upset and feel they deserve better than the #6 team in a lesser conference. However, their RPI is only the 7th best in the MVC, and Oakland is the #4 best RPI team in the Summit, so by comparison to most matchups, it is one of the more fair pairings (RPI disparity of only 13). Every team except Drake and SIU play a team that is lower than them in the RPI. Missouri State fans have reason to be quite upset as they play ODU, a team that is 50 slots lower than them, when they have a chance to finish "on the bubble". UNI is the other MVC team that has a chance to make it's way "on the bubble" but playing #84 VCU on the road could hurt them more than helps. Both Creighton and Wichita State deserved better than being assigned to play teams with RPIs more than double what theirs is, but they have strong enough resumes it shouldn't hurt them much.

But again, Bradley's opponent is 104 slots lower in RPI, more than twice the disparity of any other MVC school. I cannot find any team that is assigned to play another team over 100 RPI slots lower.

Overall, IMO, there just is not any significant advantage for any of the 10 MVC teams with these matchups. Not one of the MVC teams will benefit significantly by this year's BracketBuster in improving their RPI or boosting their resume to help their at-large chances. Considering the travel involved for some teams (WSU has to travel about 1500 miles each way and UNI about 1200 miles each way) this just isn't worth participating in unless at least 1 team might benefit.

[TheAsianSensation]

As I mentioned elsewhere, the benefit might be the return games - UNI and MSU are locked into quality rematches in 2013, heck even Oakland is an upgrade for a Jank schedule.

As usual, the problem is that the MVC has too many mouths to feed compared to the rest of the teams. Who's UNI going to play that helps them more than VCU? Davidson? But they're serving Wichita. Murray St? They need St Mary's. There's no one else. UNI actually did well to secure a chance at a road top 100 win which the committee will value.

And poor Wichita. What other option do they have? Tell me any other pairing that doesn't hurt as much as Davidson. ESPN always pairs #1 home against #1 road. That's St Mary's/Murray St (sorry Creighton).

Again, MVC needs to bail on BB because they always have too many teams at the top. It's too unequal for us. I don't care if it sounds arrogant, but the MVC is too good for this competition now. We can't get value from it anymore.

[it's boogie time]

If the Valley is a better conference this year and the rpi is any indication, then they should get 7 or 8 wins. The schedule looks good for a good showing.

I like the bracketbusters. It's something different. It's not a cure-all to make the tournament. It's one non-conference game at an odd time and a return game for each team. The week leading up to the weekend it is played, the Valley gets talked about alot on ESPN.

I do think it would have been interesting if they would have matched ISU against Porter Moser and BU against Mo.

[Da Coach]

The MVC is still the #8 conference in RPI, but they have closed the gap between them and the #7 conference, the Atlantic 10, which is not participating in BracketBusters.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_conf_Men.html

The MVC is too far ahead of the #9 conference, the Pac 12, to fall to 9th, and too far behind the #6 conference, the ACC, to get that high. But with a very good BracketBusters weekend, I'd estimate 8, 9, or possibly 10 wins, the MVC could move into the 7th slot in RPI. It will be difficult because 8 of the 10 MVC teams are playing down in RPI matchups, and the only 2 that are playing up, it is a small difference (see 3 posts above).
BTW, once the BracketBusters games are over, the conference RPIs will not change significantly, since they will only play each other.

[Bravesfan]

Well, we've done no favors for ourselves over the past two years when it comes to the BB. Our record isn't going to garner us a high profile team and I am sure that is something that comes into play when they are looking at pairings.

I'm not excited about the Braves playing L-C either, but the records are comparable, the teams are both in the bottom half of the RPI and, considering how travel is important to collegiate programs nowadays, makes sense.

I think the other MVC matchups are pretty good, nowhere near a "screw job." The LBC-Creighton matchup is two teams in the top 50 RPI, Missouri State's game against ORU will be a good one and Wichita State against Davidson might be good. The InSt/Butler looks promising, as InSt has a three game win streak against them, and Northern Iowa against VCU could also be a great game.

The only way we will improve our positioning in the BB is to have a better record. Hopefully in the near future we'll have that.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think these are bad matchups. Like I said on another thread, Davidson is a darn good team that beat Kansas on the road earlier this year. They also played a few other strong BCS teams tough. I think a Shockers win over Davidson would really help their NCAA Tournament seeding. But I do think Creighton should have drawn Murray St. or St. Mary's (whichever one was the road team) as their RPI's are closer, and Long Beach St. just seems a tad overrated to me, despite the pundit's love for this team. I don't think Creighton beating LBS does them any good, and could turn out hurting them if they lose.

The rest of the league, well they get what they deserve, even with that big RPI discrepency between Bradley and Loyola.

[Bravesfan]

I know Bradley can't complain, but here is the list of the MVC matchups with the RPI as of last night when the pairings were determined and announced. Who got the biggest screw job?-

#34 Long Beach State at #14 Creighton (RPI disparity 20)
#31 Wichita State @ #67 Davidson (RPI disparity 36)
#57 UNI at #84 VCU (RPI disparity 27)
#129 Old Dominion at #79 Missouri State (RPI disparity 50)
#97 Drake at #90 New Mexico St. (RPI disparity 7)
#113 Indiana State at #124 Butler (RPI disparity 9)
#131 Oakland at #118 Illinois State (RPI disparity 13)
#180 Western Illinois at #162 Evansville (RPI disparity 18 )
#232 SIU at #220 Ball State (RPI disparity 12)
#302 Loyola at #198 Bradley (RPI disparity 104)

Many fans in the MVC are grumbling. ISU fans are upset and feel they deserve better than the #6 team in a lesser conference. However, their RPI is only the 7th best in the MVC, and Oakland is the #4 best RPI team in the Summit, so by comparison to most matchups, it is one of the more fair pairings (RPI disparity of only 13). Every team except Drake and SIU play a team that is lower than them in the RPI. Missouri State fans have reason to be quite upset as they play ODU, a team that is 50 slots lower than them, when they have a chance to finish "on the bubble". UNI is the other MVC team that has a chance to make it's way "on the bubble" but playing #84 VCU on the road could hurt them more than helps. Both Creighton and Wichita State deserved better than being assigned to play teams with RPIs more than double what theirs is, but they have strong enough resumes it shouldn't hurt them much.

But again, Bradley's opponent is 104 slots lower in RPI, more than twice the disparity of any other MVC school. I cannot find any team that is assigned to play another team over 100 RPI slots lower.

Overall, IMO, there just is not any significant advantage for any of the 10 MVC teams with these matchups. Not one of the MVC teams will benefit significantly by this year's BracketBuster in improving their RPI or boosting their resume to help their at-large chances. Considering the travel involved for some teams (WSU has to travel about 1500 miles each way and UNI about 1200 miles each way) this just isn't worth participating in unless at least 1 team might benefit.

I agree. Creighton get no benefit by beating a team that seems just a tad overrated to me. Davidson though is intriguing since I think they are a dangerous team, and much better than their RPI indicates. This would be a solid road win for the Shockers and I think would help at least slightly improve their NCAA Tournament seeding. Davidson beat Kansas on the road, and that's no small feat! Not a team I'd want to draw in the tournament!

The rest of the teams, except for UNI, got screwed, though not that any of them are in at-large position anyway.

[Bravesfan]

As I mentioned elsewhere, the benefit might be the return games - UNI and MSU are locked into quality rematches in 2013, heck even Oakland is an upgrade for a Jank schedule.

As usual, the problem is that the MVC has too many mouths to feed compared to the rest of the teams. Who's UNI going to play that helps them more than VCU? Davidson? But they're serving Wichita. Murray St? They need St Mary's. There's no one else. UNI actually did well to secure a chance at a road top 100 win which the committee will value.

And poor Wichita. What other option do they have? Tell me any other pairing that doesn't hurt as much as Davidson. ESPN always pairs #1 home against #1 road. That's St Mary's/Murray St (sorry Creighton).

Again, MVC needs to bail on BB because they always have too many teams at the top. It's too unequal for us. I don't care if it sounds arrogant, but the MVC is too good for this competition now. We can't get value from it anymore.

I just mentioned this twice above, but Davidson did beat Kansas at Kansas. And they have played some other great teams very tough. That tells me they are a dangerous team, and could help Wichita St. in their NCAA Tournament seeding if they can steal this game.

I do agree that MVC may be too good for the Bracketbusters now, but see "it's boogie times" post to why it still is a good thing for us.

[LittleBrave]

If the Valley is a better conference this year and the rpi is any indication, then they should get 7 or 8 wins. The schedule looks good for a good showing.

I like the bracketbusters. It's something different. It's not a cure-all to make the tournament. It's one non-conference game at an odd time and a return game for each team. The week leading up to the weekend it is played, the Valley gets talked about alot on ESPN.

I do think it would have been interesting if they would have matched ISU against Porter Moser and BU against Mo.

I have really enjoyed B'Busters weekend in the past, but the last 2-3 seasons has NOT been a good thing for the Valley. Too many teams involved, and the return game especially has not been good for our SOS.
And you have to look at how the B'Buster has benefited the Valley since 2007, as no team's win has propelled them into the NCAA tournament. (Granted a win last yr. for the Shox vs. VCU may have done it for them).
And I don't see it happening this year - it may actually hurt WSU - they'd better win or they may be on the NCAA bubble (coupled with 2 more Valley losses and early exit in St. Louis)

So now we have to play Loyola (IL) AND TN-Martin over the next 2 years??

The nice things is that it's just a 20 min. drive for me to watch the Braves @ Loyola when they meet again!!