BracketBuster 2008

[TheAsianSensation]

Darn - I want a TV game and they owe us from 2006.

[BradleyBrave]

Here is Lunardi's guesses:

??? Drake (19-1, 10-0 Missouri Valley) at Butler (19-2, 8-2 Horizon League)
??? Kent State (17-4, 6-1 MAC) at St. Mary's (17-3, 4-1 West Coast Conference)
??? Davidson (14-6, 12-0 SoCon) at Illinois State (15-6, 7-3 Missouri Valley)
??? VCU (15-5, 8-2 CAA) at Oral Roberts (14-5, 9-0 Summit League)
??? Nevada (13-7, 5-2 WAC) at Southern Illinois (11-10, 6-4 Missouri Valley)
??? George Mason (15-6, 7-3 CAA) at Ohio U. (14-6, 5-2 MAC)
??? Creighton (14-6, 5-5 Missouri Valley) at CS Northridge (15-4, 7-0 Big West)
??? UC Santa Barbara (16-5, 5-3 Big West) at Utah State (15-6, 5-1 WAC)
??? Niagara (13-6, 7-3 MAAC) at Akron (15-5, 5-2 MAC)
??? Rider (16-6, 9-2 MAAC) at Boise State (15-5, 6-2 WAC)
??? Siena (13-7, 8-2 MAAC) at Cleveland State (14-8, 7-3 Horizon League)
??? Georgia Southern (14-8, 7-5 SoCon) at Valparaiso (14-7, 5-4 Horizon League)
??? Wright State (12-6, 5-4 Horizon League) at Appalachian State (13-7, 8-3 SoCon)
??? Marist (14-8, 8-3 MAAC) at Winthrop (14-7, 5-1 Big South)

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog...e%3dncbexperts

BU could easily slide into SIU's slot with a win tonight and an SIU loss. BU would have then won 5 straight, be 6-5 in conference, and 13-10 overall. I still think the chances are slim, but I didn't realize they were televising 14 games.

[MacabreMob]

Bracket Buster pairings are coming Monday. The 14 TV matchups are released at 5:30 p.m. (ESPNU). The rest are made public around the same time.

Thanks shaunguth.

For some reason I thought they were gonna do the tv games announcement today then the rest Monday. Musta been how they did it in the past and ESPN didn't email me the memo on the format change.

[MacabreMob]

Here are my guesses at the TV games after games played thru 2-2 (Home team on left):

St Mary's vs Kent
Butler vs Drake
ISU vs George Mason
Ohio vs VCU
ORU vs Davidson
Akron vs Creighton
SIU vs Wright St
Cleve St vs Marist
Valpo vs Mia (Oh)
Utah St vs Portland St
App St vs Rider
Bradley vs Nevada
CS-Northridge vs Niagara
Austin Peay vs Siena

couple extra games paired....

UNI vs W Mich
Wi-GB vs Indiana St
Winthrop vs Georgia So
Boise St vs UCSB

TV coverage breakdown by Conference:

5 MVC
4 Horizon, MAC, MAAC
2 Colonial, Southern, WAC
1 BigSky, BigWest, OVC, Summit, WCC

[MacabreMob]

Here are the teams updated with RPI's as of games played thru 2-2.

HOME
22 St Mary's
23 Butler
44 Illinois State
50 Ohio
53 Oral Roberts
75 Akron
79 So Illinois
86 Cleveland State
87 Valparaiso
90 Utah State
94 Appalachian State
98 Bradley
99 No Iowa
103 Wisc-GB
104 CS Northridge
112 Winthrop
114 Boise State
122 Austin Peay
130 East Tn St
131 CS Fullerton
136 Pacific
139 New Mexico State
140 No Arizona
142 Holy Cross
145 Missouri State
150 William & Mary
158 Old Dominion
164 UNC-Wilmington
165 Loyola (Maryland)
172 Murray State
186 Toledo
187 Fresno State
189 UC Irvine
194 James Madison
205 Iona
219 Towson
223 Eastern Kentucky
227 Drexel
247 Eastern Michigan
258 Buffalo
266 Manhattan
267 Elon
277 No Illinois
278 Detroit
300 UC Riverside
316 Canisius
324 St Peter's
330 Louisiana Tech
337 Eastern Illinois
341 Jacksonville State

ROAD
8 Drake
45 Kent State
52 George Mason
54 Creighton
57 VCU
63 Wright State
70 Davidson
77 Miami (Ohio)
81 Nevada
93 Marist
96 UC Santa Barbara
102 Rider
105 Niagara
107 Georgia Southern
117 Indiana State
120 Siena
123 Wisconsin-Milwaukee
146 Portland State
149 Illinois-Chicago
163 Western Michigan
167 Wichita State
169 Central Michigan
170 Northeastern
180 Delaware
191 Bowling Green
193 Vermont
199 Bucknell
201 Youngstown State
203 San Jose State
209 Albany
210 Morehead State
218 Cal Poly
221 Loyola (Illinois)
230 Binghamton
237 Fairfield
244 Hofstra
245 Tennessee-Martin
252 High Point
259 SE Missouri State
260 Hawaii
261 Evansville
268 Tennessee State
272 Boston University
273 Samford
276 UC Davis
288 Georgia State
295 Ball State
299 Tennessee Tech
315 Idaho
322 Long Beach State

[Fyrebyrd]

i watched the game yesterday between rider and siena....siena matches us better, but rider smoked them. They have a 6'11'' NBA prospect who is an absolute stud and then his younger brother is a guard who is pretty good as well...I wouldnt mind seeing the Broncs coming to town

[mike radigan]

Question, are we obligated to play an away game next year against our Bracket Buster opponent? If so, I hope it is Neveda. Lake Tahoe road trip.

[BUBraves06]

Question, are we obligated to play an away game next year against our Bracket Buster opponent? If so, I hope it is Neveda. Lake Tahoe road trip.

Yes, if you play at home one year, you are required to play a road BracketBuster game the following year.

[mike radigan]

Yes, if you play at home one year, you are required to play a road BracketBuster game the following year.

Thanks and great, bring on the Wolfpack.

[TheAsianSensation]

Doesn't Illinois St have the arena booked on that Saturday? I think they can only host the midnight game.



Just imagine if they can't get a TV game because of it - there's no way they drop another top team to play ISU if it's not a TV game - which means ISU doesn't get the quality opponent it DESPERATELY needs right now.

[cpacmel]

Doesn't Illinois St have the arena booked on that Saturday? I think they can only host the midnight game.

Yes the IHSA Girl's State tourney is going on All-day Saturday and most of the night Saturday night

Just imagine if they can't get a TV game because of it - there's no way they drop another top team to play ISU if it's not a TV game - which means ISU doesn't get the quality opponent it DESPERATELY needs right now.

From the Pantagraph:

Because of a conflict with the high school girls state tournament at Redbird Arena, ISU will be hosting the lone BracketBusters game on Sunday, Feb. 24. Missouri Valley Conference associate commissioner Mike Kern said that doesn’t necessarily preclude ISU’s game from being one of the televised games on ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360 or ESPN Classic. The other 49 games will be played Feb. 22 or 23.

[MacabreMob]

Doesn't Illinois St have the arena booked on that Saturday? I think they can only host the midnight game.


Just imagine if they can't get a TV game because of it - there's no way they drop another top team to play ISU if it's not a TV game - which means ISU doesn't get the quality opponent it DESPERATELY needs right now.

OMG! Redbird Arena is the site for IHSA girls hoops. Can we suggest ISU Screwed Up?

Maybe just maybe.... they can get a Sunday game scheduled.

[MDCowboy]

It's looking like BU can get one of the 14 televised games, but I'm fearful it will be on ESPN360... really hoping for an ESPNU or ESPN Classic game... that would be really good if we could get on there. Ideally if Nevada or Niagara was the opponent, probably would be a good game to have on TV. I'm not sure that Valpo or Cleveland St. would be ahead of us on the TV pecking order.....

[ER3]

It's looking like BU can get one of the 14 televised games, but I'm fearful it will be on ESPN360... really hoping for an ESPNU or ESPN Classic game... that would be really good if we could get on there. Ideally if Nevada or Niagara was the opponent, probably would be a good game to have on TV. I'm not sure that Valpo or Cleveland St. would be ahead of us on the TV pecking order.....

Cleveland State should NOT be ahead of us in the pecking order...Their RPI is a little better than ours right now, but they have lost 4 games in a row...all to teams with RPIs higher than 100...and they topped it off with a horrid performance last night losing to Loyola (RPI 220) by 12 points.
Valpo is also 3-6 in their last 9 games and is coming off a bad loss at home to Loyola in their last game...
So, if I were ESPN, I really doubt that I would trust either of those two teams to put on a good show in a TV game...BU is playing much better than both of those teams right now, is far more promotable (Sweet 16 team, an exciting player in Ruffin, last year's national leader in 3-point shooting in Crouch, a guaranteed 10K in attendance for the game, etc.). It's just way easier for them to try and sell BU in one of these TV games than it would be to try and sell someone on a Cleveland State or Valpo game.

[TheAsianSensation]

I wouldn't rule out a midnight game either for ISU.

I really like our chances at some TV game - we have to be working ESPN right now about how better we are with Ruffin.

As I said before, I think Nevada is our #1 option - a solid return game for next year is a priority.