BracketBusters takes center stage once again

Every year, there is a lot of talk about how to make BracketBusters better, or if it should just go away entirely. While teams have undoubtedly benefited from it over the years of its existence, the feelings on it seem a bit mixed, and it’s debatable whether or not it has been good as a whole. Right now, it’s what we have, and on Saturday it was center stage.

Proponents have talked about teams getting an extra national television appearance for people to see them. They have also cited the chance to get an RPI boost. Certainly, some of the teams that have benefited can look back and argue that they would not have made the NCAA Tournament if not for a win in the BracketBusters, including Final Four teams from George Mason and VCU. In 2006, George Mason beat Wichita State (and then beat the Shockers again in the NCAA Tournament), while last season VCU also beat the Shockers in Wichita as part of this. It’s also one less game to worry about in terms of putting together a schedule, and at a time when it’s well-documented how difficult scheduling has become for many schools – especially the better mid-majors.

That is all well and good. But only a handful of teams get to play on television against a team that may give them an NCAA Tournament profile boost. Some of the other teams pay a price if they get matched up with a team at the opposite end of the country from them. (At least if it is a televised game, like Nevada at Iona this year, it takes the sting off the travel part.) Some good matchups are tough to make happen because teams are designated as home or road teams in advance. As one example, Long Beach State couldn’t play St. Mary’s because bother were designated as road teams. This also impacts conference scheduling, as it’s one reason why a number of conferences have games in the midst of non-conference play in December.

And while the boost some teams have had from it is nice, they don’t make the NCAA Tournament if they don’t win other games in addition to the BracketBusters game they play. George Mason and VCU needed to win a number of other games along the way to be in position to get the at-large bids they received in 2006 and last season, respectively.

In the past, one proponent talked about how a team has some incentive to play well enough to get a televised game in the BracketBusters. While that sounds good in theory, the NCAA Tournament is a far bigger prize, and if a team is good enough to be in the discussion for a televised game in this there’s a chance they will be in the discussion for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. I highly doubt a televised BracketBusters game against one of the best teams in the field moves the needle much in terms of motivators for teams.

So what can be done? Not much with this format, really. Teams have to be designated as home and road teams for it in advance because arena dates need to be booked well in advance. Schedules have to be done, and the only way to ensure a large number of the best mid-majors play each other is to have a large pool of teams. Hands are tied, in other words. This year’s event is the 10^th annual, and it’s undergone a few changes in that time, but it is what it has been all along: a decent but flawed idea with big pros and cons.

BracketBusters was surely never intended to solely solve the problem of good mid-majors getting games against good opponents, or getting chances to be seen by members of the NCAA Tournament selection committee. But how much it has helped in that regard is debatable, and other issues with it raise a serious question of whether or not it is good for college basketball in the aggregate. This isn’t to say it needs to be done away with, only that its impact is limited and there are bigger problems that aren’t solved so easily.

Drexel blew out Cleveland State 69-49 in a game that may have lost some luster due to recent losses by the Spartans. It’s a big win for Drexel to come into their arena and win with a very early start (11 a.m. Tip), but the RPI boost the Dragons get is likely to be negligible since Cleveland State’s RPI was 80 entering the week and Drexel’s was 82.

Wichita State handled Davidson 91-74 for a nice road win in another early game. That will help the Shockers only marginally; they’re already in good shape with an RPI of 17, while Davidson entered the week with an RPI of 72. Wichita State has wins over UNLV and Creighton and no bad losses, so the Shockers would likely have been okay if they didn’t play this game.

In one matchup mentioned earlier, Iona beat Nevada in a game pitting two teams whose RPI was separated by three entering the week against each other.

In what was probably the most anticipated matchup, Murray State cruised to a 65-51 win over Saint Mary’s, which will boost the Racers in the event they don’t win the Ohio Valley Tournament.

Late in the evening, Creighton beat Long Beach State in a game that they hope will help them get back on track. Long Beach State, meanwhile, could have used the win since they lack one over a top 50 team in the RPI.

We take you coast to coast with news from around the college basketball nation.

Florida State went to Raleigh and took care of North Carolina State, but the talk of the game is the ejection of Wolfpack greats Chris Corchiani and Tom Gugliotta. The Seminoles needed another good win to be in a good place, while this loss hurts NC State’s NCAA Tournament hopes as they are running out of chances for significant wins.

Meanwhile, just down the road from there, Clemson still has never won at the Dean Dome.

Michigan held off Ohio State, which puts Michigan State all alone atop the Big Ten.

Marquette got a big game from Jae Crowder (29 points, 12 rebounds) to beat Connecticut, and simply put, the Huskies don’t look good at all.

Notre Dame rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat Villanova in overtime.

New Mexico blew out UNLV to give the Lobos the signature win they have lacked thus far. The real stunner in the Mountain West was San Diego State losing at Air Force, the Aztecs’ third straight loss.

Kansas State got a much-needed win at Baylor.

Washington knocked off Arizona 79-70 to keep pace with California, who knocked off Oregon State 77-63, atop the Pac-12.

UTEP beat Memphis at the FedEx Forum, but they weren’t alone in Conference USA as Houston beat Southern Miss to keep the Tigers and Golden Eagles tied at 9-3 atop the conference.

Bucknell looked like they were in control of the Patriot League a week ago. After a second straight loss, this one at arch-rival Holy Cross, along with American and Lehigh winning, the Bison are now just a game up on the Eagles and Mountain Hawks. Bucknell still has to play at American.

Middle Tennessee clinched at least an NIT bid by way of winning the Sun Belt’s regular season title.

Sunday’s key matchups:

• Michigan State at Purdue
• Indiana at Iowa
• South Florida at Pittsburgh
• Oregon at Stanford

Notre Dame reminds us that we don’t play the games on paper

We always talk about how the games aren’t played on paper when looking at teams that don’t do what we expect. It’s a cliché, and it sticks around because everyone loves to predict how things will turn out in sports, no matter how wrong we could wind up being. All the while, the teams that end up better than we project can just laugh at us all they want.

Enter the 2011-12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame lost a great deal from last season’s team that entered the month of March playing about as well as any team in the country. Gone from that team are Big East Player of the Year Ben Hansbrough and important role players Tyrone Nash and Carleton Scott, the latter a big defensive leader for that team and a surprise early defection. Already, projections for this team were going to be that they were unlikely to contend for the top of the Big East. When they went 0-2 in Kansas City, including an 87-58 thrashing at the hands of Missouri, it looked like they would be who many thought they would be.

That wasn’t all. The Fighting Irish were not certain to have Tim Abromaitis back, as he played in two exhibition games in the 2008-09 season where he redshirted. But the NCAA granted him this year, so that helped as he was an experienced player and was second on the team in scoring last season. Then in late November, he tore the ACL in his right knee in practice, putting him out for the season.

At that point, the outlook was decidedly not good. But no one told head coach Mike Brey and his team that, and after Saturday’s convincing 76-59 win over Marquette, the Fighting Irish are alone in fourth place in the Big East.

“From the start of the season, no one thought we would be here,” said sophomore point guard Eric Atkins.

Notre Dame hasn’t compiled its record by beating up on the bottom feeders of the conference. Along the way, they have knocked off Louisville, Seton Hall and Connecticut on the road, and now Syracuse and Marquette at home.

“I am very proud of my group,” said Brey, who at this point looks like the runaway Coach of the Year in the Big East, if not nationally. “I told them in one of the final media timeouts that I felt like I was coaching men today. Last year’s team was men. That had a look of more than one fifth year senior on the court. I am thrilled where we are.”

Notre Dame can only get better given that this is a young team with a lot of players who are just finding themselves. Scott Martin is the only other senior besides Abromaitis on the team, while the emerging perimeter unit of Atkins, Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton are sophomore, sophomore and freshman respectively. Connaughton wasn’t expected to play much, but he scored 21 points on Saturday and now starts on the hardwood as well as the mound (the San Diego Padres drafted him last year).

“Right now, we’re really confident that we can beat any team – we can play with any team,” said Grant. “Our team confidence is really high right now, and I’d like to keep it that way because we are playing really well.”

That’s one thing no one can doubt at this point. The Irish have proven that to this point, and as a more confident team they will be even tougher to beat.

We take you coast to coast with news from around the college basketball nation.

Arizona had a big weekend, sweeping their trip to northern California after a 56-43 win at Stanford on Saturday. The Wildcats may be starting to come alive at a good time.

Syracuse got Fab Melo back for Saturday’s game, and they rolled to a 95-70 blowout win at St. John’s. The win was the 879^th in Jim Boeheim’s career, tying him with Dean Smith for third on the all-time list.

Seton Hall’s struggles continued as Connecticut annihilated them 69-46 in Hartford.

Kentucky had an easy time at South Carolina, committing just three turnovers in their blowout win.

The Big 12 gets a little more interesting at Missouri rallied to knock off Kansas in a big rivalry showdown. Both teams are now 8-2 in conference play.

Who’s on top of the ACC? No, not Duke, although the Blue Devils will be tied if they beat Miami on Sunday. North Carolina is in a tie after a big 83-74 win at Maryland to move into a tie for that spot. The team they are tied with is Florida State, as the Seminoles are 7-1 after a 58-55 win over Virginia.

Temple is now alone in first place in the Atlantic 10 after a 73-56 win at Rhode Island, combined with Saint Joseph’s knocking off La Salle earlier in the day. Temple’s perimeter trio continues to be the driving force for this team.

Wyoming knocked off road-weary UNLV in a close one after the Runnin’ Rebels ran into snow-related travel delays en route to Laramie.

Northern Iowa beat Creighton on a buzzer-beater, right after Creighton had tied it on a big shot.

Iona won a big showdown against Manhattan for the lead in the MAAC.

George Mason grabbed a share of the lead in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 54-50 win over Old Dominion in a first-place showdown. The Patriots are joined by VCU, 59-56 winners over Northeastern, and Drexel, 65-57 winners at Towson, at 11-2 in the conference.

Mississippi Valley State is now 10-0 in the SWAC and two games ahead in the standings, after knocking off Alabama State.

Sunday’s key matchups:

• Michigan at Michigan State
• Miami at Duke
• Northwestern at Illinois
• Stephen F. Austin at McNeese State
• The biggest one of all: New York Giants vs. New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI

Percolating hoops intrigue makes February a fantastic month for sports

It’s February — one of the most underrated sports months of the year.

With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, the biggest event in U.S. sports will command the attention of tens of millions of viewers, generating tens of millions of dollars for everyone associated with the event.

A few weeks later, the NBA All-Star game will show the NFL how exhibition weekends should be run. In my opinion, the NBA All-Star weekend festivities are the best of any pro sport, with baseball coming in a close second. Did anyone actually watch the Pro Bowl last weekend?

We don’t have any winter Olympics this year, but that’s a February event, too.

And then we have college hoops. To casual fans, March is the month of joy. But February is the month that sets the table for March. Dozens of teams are jockeying for position right now, fighting for a better seed and location or merely a bid to the Big Dance.

The schedule-makers know what they’re doing, too. Next Wednesday — just days after the Super Bowl — the top rivalry in college hoops will go down for the first of two meetings in a month when Duke visits North Carolina. That’s a nice way for the NCAA to tell America: “Guess what? Football is over. It’s time to set your sights on the hardwood.”

And of course, as we work through the thick of conference play, we’ll have the rush of bracket projections to feed the hoops addiction. Hoopville will join the fray as usual, starting this Friday. We choose to wait until February because it just feels right. By now, we have a large enough sample size to judge teams’ résumés and make projections that have a good shot of standing up during the final few weeks before Selection Sunday.

We take you coast to coast with news from around the college basketball nation.

Get ready for more technical fouls and a shorter leash on players or coaches who act out. Eamonn Brennan of ESPN.com’s “College Basketball Nation” blog reports that John Adams, the NCAA’s national officiating coordinator, sent a notice to all officials that implored them to clamp down on bad behavior.

Clemson has indefinitely suspended junior Milton Jennings, a former McDonald’s All-American, because of academic reasons, according to the Associated Press. Jennings averages 8.9 ppg and 5.4 rpg.

Arizona will finish the season without junior Kevin Parrom, who broke his foot in a loss to Washington last weekend, according to a CBS Sports.com report. He averaged 4.9 ppg, 2.9 rpg and 1.7 apg this season.

Iona is looking to remain one of the premier programs in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, and the university extended the contract of coach Tim Cluess to help make that happen, according to a CBS Sports.com report.

Don’t mess with a player’s routine. North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes shared some of the details of his routine with Andrew Jones of Fox Sports to explain why he changed his shoes at halftime of the Tar Heels’ win against Georgia Tech. Like the rest of the team, Barnes started the game with pink shoes to help promote breast cancer awareness. But he went with his usual Kobes in the second half.

VCU coach Shaka Smart stirred some commotion in the commonwealth during a teleconference Monday, writes Myron Medcalf for ESPN.com’s “College Basketball Nation” blog. Smart asserted that Virginia’s best schools reside in the CAA. He didn’t call out the ACC teams in Blacksburg or Charlottesville by name, but Smart felt compelled to give UVA coach Tony Bennett a call to clarify his comments.

The NCAA won’t be seeking any further action against Connecticut freshman guard Ryan Boatright regarding an investigation into his eligibility because of money and benefits that he and his mother received, according to the Associated Press. But the AP reports that the Boatrights’ lawyer isn’t finished with his actions against the NCAA, lambasting the organization for releasing private information.

The only coach to ever lead Canisius to an NCAA Tournament win died Saturday, according to the Associated Press. Joseph Curran, 89, passed away in Mystic, Conn. He led the Golden Griffins to a 76-66 record in six seasons, which included a shocking four overtime victory against No. 2 North Carolina State in the 1956 NCAA Tournament.

Quick Hitters – January 27, 2012

Quick hitters as we get ready for the weekend:

• Boston University was not rebounding well in the early portion of their seven-game winning streak. But in the last two games, the Terriers have dominated the glass, and keeping that up will only help. Granted, it came against two of the worst teams in the conference, but one of them (UMBC) is normally a decent team on the glass. Part of that has come from an emphasis on rebounding of late, but not just at the defensive end. … Continue Reading