BracketBusters 2009

[MacabreMob]

http://www.northeastconference.org/news/mbball/2008/9/4/mbb-bracketbusterrel.asp?path=mbball

Bradley is a Road Team. And NO Squirrel, Bradley can NOT play another MVC school, nor can they play someone already on this year's schedule.

Here are the HOME teams:

Ball St
Boston
Bowling Green
Bucknell
C Michigan
Cal Poly
Creighton
Davidson
Drake
Drexel
E Kentucky
E Michigan
Evansville
Fairfield
Georgia So
Hawaii
Idaho
Indiana St
James Madison
Kent
Long Beach St
Loyola
Marist
Milwaukee
Murray St
Nevada
New Mexico St
Niagara
ODU
Portland St
Rider
San Diego
San Jose St
SEMO
Siena
St Mary's
Tennessee St
Towson
UC-Davis
UC-Santa Barbara
UIC
UNC-Wilmington
UT-MArtin
Valpo
Vermont
W Michigan
Wichita St
William & Mary
Winthrop
Wright St
Youngstown St

And here are the ROAD Teams:

Akron
Appalachian St
Austin Peay
Boise St
Bradley
Buffalo
Butler
Canisius
Cleveland St
CS-Fullerton
CS-Northridge
Deleware
Detroit
E Illinois
Elon
Fairleigh Dickinson
Fresno St
Gardner-Webb
George Mason
Georgia St
Green Bay
Hartford
Hofstra
Illinois St
Iona
Jacksonville St
La Tech
Liberty
Loyola (Md)
Manhattan
Miami (Oh)
Missouri St
Montana St
Morehead St
Morgan St
N Illinois
N Iowa
ND St
Northeastern
Ohio
Pacific
SD St
SIU
St Peter's
Tenn Tech
Toledo
UC-Irvine
UC-Riverside
UMBC
Utah St
VCU

[squirrel]

I know on the MVC thing. It's a stupid rule though. Is it too early to put my vote for Niagara in?

Keeping with my "more national schedule" theme, my pre-season preference is:

1. Davidson
2. St. Mary's
3. Hawai'i
4. Idaho/SJSU -- two programs that entered last season hardly worthy of being called DI both tasted periods of notable success and could be surprise WAC teams this year
5. Niagara

[ser_solace]

It'd be cool to play against Davidson and Stephen Curry.

[MacabreMob]

Yea.... I figured Davidson would be a common preference.

I'm sorta pulling for Valpo. That oughtta stir the pot with people on this board.

[squirrel]

If we are not in a preferable spot, I actually anticipate that the President will push the hoops staff/league for EKU.

Hartford may not be a bad one either. . .Leibovitz (a John Chaney disciple) has the Hawks thinking America East title contention this year. A couple years ago, the Hawks made headlines for scoring 22 points in one game.

[SFP]

St. Mary's would be perfect but I doubt if I'll be so lucky. Any of the other UC teams would be fine with me. Davis is close to YUBA and Sacramento which could make for a nice visit for JL and Coach Corn.

[MacabreMob]

I say we get Davidson and Andrew Warren goes for 32 against Stephen Curry.

You're supposed to finish your statement with "while on ESPN (not the Deuce, U, or 360) during Primetime slot."

[SFP]

Talking about AW has anyone heard from his mom this summer. I wonder what her outlook is with the team! Can't wait untill November when we are all chatting away during the game.

BTW AW is going to have a monster year!

[Braves4Life]

Yea.... I figured Davidson would be a common preference.

I'm sorta pulling for Valpo. That oughtta stir the pot with people on this board.

Winthrop would be a good one, too..................... But I'm hoping for Davidson

[MacabreMob]

Kyle Whelliston has a long article on ESPN about this year's BracketBusters.
.....

it is a premium ESPN Insider article, but
the article is posted in whole in the middle of this page on the Saluki board
http://salukitalk.net/st/viewtopic.p...2975&start=120

In Kyle's article, I think he missed a couple Things:

"and the Northeast Conference's first entry will be Farleigh Dickinson (a young squad that went 8-20 in 2007-08 )...."

Fairleigh Dickinson will be participating in it's 2nd BracketBusters. They won at Milwaukee in 2006.


"And while oft-televised Gonzaga transcended its need for the BracketBusters years ago (the Zags last took part in 2004)...."

Gonzaga's matchups in the 1st 2 BracketBusters were with Tulsa. The games were already agreed to be played by the two schools in a Home and Home series before BracketBusters was started. But as the BracketBusters idea came out, the Gonzaga/Tulsa games got incorporated into the Bracketbusters. I mean think about it.... the BracketBusters return game is the next year in regular season.... but Tulsa/Gonzaga replayed ON BracketBusters weekend again. IMO, if it weren't for that predetermined matchup Gonzaga had already agreed to, I doubt they would have been a part of the first 2 years of it.

[MacabreMob]

As we head into the MVC season, I thought I would update this thread with home and road teams sorted by their RPI. Announcements of the top matchups will be announced Feb 2nd (only 5 1/2 weeks away or so).

HOME TEAMS
11 St Mary's
22 Evansville
35 Davidson
50 Siena
53 UIC
54 Niagara
61 Creighton
74 Vermont
84 Portland St
104 Drake
106 Loyola
112 Fairfield
121 Bowling Green
131 UC-Santa Barbara
133 Ball St
141 Hawaii
148 Georgia So
155 San Diego
156 E Kentucky
158 Long Beach St
163 San Jose St
165 Milwaukee
166 Nevada
170 Towson
178 Rider
180 Boston
186 Cal Poly
189 Murray St
194 ODU
199 Wright St
203 James Madison
205 Wichita St
207 UT-MArtin
214 Marist
216 New Mexico St
221 Kent
222 Bucknell
239 Drexel
273 Idaho
276 W Michigan
279 C Michigan
281 UNC-Wilmington
283 Winthrop
286 Indiana St
289 Valpo
293 William & Mary
296 UC-Davis
311 E Michigan
321 SEMO
323 Youngstown St
329 Tennessee St

ROAD TEAMS
2 Butler
20 Miami (Oh)
47 Utah St
58 Jacksonville St
62 VCU
63 Cleveland St
69 George Mason
70 SD St
79 Northeastern
81 Illinois St
82 Hofstra
89 Bradley
90 Boise St
94 Akron
101 Liberty
110 Buffalo
117 UMBC
122 Missouri St
125 Montana St
128 CS-Fullerton
134 Pacific
136 Ohio
140 Green Bay
144 N Iowa
149 Gardner-Webb
154 Austin Peay
160 SIU
167 Manhattan
171 Iona
172 Canisius
175 Deleware
183 UC-Riverside
191 Morgan St
195 ND St
208 Hartford
210 Tenn Tech
213 Appalachian St
233 Detroit
235 Loyola (Md)
243 La Tech
253 Fresno St
258 Elon
268 Morehead St
274 Toledo
284 CS-Northridge
287 St Peter's
294 Georgia St
300 UC-Irvine
310 Fairleigh Dickinson
320 N Illinois
340 E Illinois

[MacabreMob]

Btw - if I had to guess based on today's RPI, I would say we would get Loyola, Bowling Green or Ball St... but I wouldn't rule out E Kentucky.

A lot can change in the next 5-6 weeks - I hope for the better.

[bluedevils1]

Our very next game after this is a good Bracketbuster matchup at Evansville. Hopefully we win both!

[BradleyBrave]

Looks like a TV game is out of the question. I'm sure we'll get another great Horizon League game!

[Guinness]

I hope we get Loyola or UIC at least then I can get SOMETHING out of this season and thats seeing a game in person.