Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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01-27-06 04:59 PM - Post#14127
Through last night's games, these are the top 11 home teams for the bracket-buster and the top 11 away teams, with their RPI rank and record:
HOME 14 Northern Iowa 16-3 20 UW-Milwaukee 14-4 22 Wichita State 16-4 23 So. Illinois 15-4 28 Creighton 13-5 36 Old Dominion 15-5 42 Iona 14-3 46 Utah State 12-4 55 Western Kentucky 13-5 57 Bradley 11-7 60 Nevada 13-5
AWAY 31 Bucknell 14-3 39 Missouri St 12-6 43 George Mason 14-5 59 NW State 9-6 73 Akron 13-4 79 Tenn Tech 12-6 83 Samford 11-5 87 Fresno St 9-7 (ineligible for NCAAs - thanks Shark) 88 Louisiana Tech 11-7 97 Buffalo 14-4 101 Drake 9-10
There are only three away teams that are at all attractive for TV and I imagine the Bison must rank #1. Northern Iowa still looks like the favorite although UW-Milwaukee could be a sleeper. IF there is any geographic consideration, then Iona or Old Dominion could get into the mix. Some of the TV games will be yawners, featuring away teams such as Tennessee Tech and Samford.
The matchup I'm looking forward to is home team, #316 UC-Riverside vs away team, #324 Morehead State!
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pennhoops
Postdoc
Posts: 2470
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Bracket-Buster 01-27-06 05:29 PM - Post#14128
In response to Bison137
Whoever you all wind up playing, have fun, and, um, maybe send a souvenir - like a program or one of those collectible cups an super big soda comes in - to the Ivy athletics office and a note letting them know that the earth didn't crash into the sun just because you took part in the event. There seems to be some confusion over that in our neck of the woods.
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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Re: Bracket-Buster 01-27-06 05:58 PM - Post#14129
In response to pennhoops
Hopefully the earth will not crash into the sun although the showdown between UC-Riverside and Morehead State could cause tremors. Seriously, the bracket-buster concept is good but it definitely needs fine-tuning,although politics may make that difficult. Way too many games and not enough good teams in the "away" group of teams. It would have been nice to see Penn in the away group.
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Shot Clock
Masters Student
Posts: 883
Loc: Arlington VA
Reg: 01-27-06
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Re: Bracket-Buster 01-27-06 06:55 PM - Post#14130
In response to Bison137
Barring Drake upsetting UNI or Navy upsetting Bucknell tomorrow, Bucknell at UNI seems to be a lock.
What I can't understand is how Holy Cross didn't get invited to the Bracket Buster. Their profile over the last several years is far better than most of the teams involved in this.
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Anonymous
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Re: Bracket-Buster 01-27-06 07:22 PM - Post#14131
In response to Shot Clock
I don't pretend to know anything about Holy Cross, but perhaps they were invited and politely declined. I know that in year's past Penn and Princeton have been invited to participate and have passed bc, well, bc the Ivy League is way too stodgy to change their conference scheduling to accommodate anything that can lead to an increased athletic profile.
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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Re: Bracket-Buster 01-27-06 07:35 PM - Post#14132
In response to
>>>What I can't understand is how Holy Cross didn't get invited to the Bracket Buster.<<<
I don't know all of the politics involved but I do know that the conferences that cooperated with ESPN in setting it up initially get most/all of their teams in. The conferences that were not "partners" have to struggle to get any invitations at all. Despite its record last year, it was touch-and-go whether the Bison would get in this year. Hopefully HC will be in next year as well because they clearly are better than many of the teams in it.
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Shot Clock
Masters Student
Posts: 883
Loc: Arlington VA
Reg: 01-27-06
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Re: Bracket-Buster 01-27-06 07:48 PM - Post#14133
In response to
Quote:
I don't pretend to know anything about Holy Cross, but perhaps they were invited and politely declined. I know that in year's past Penn and Princeton have been invited to participate and have passed bc, well, bc the Ivy League is way too stodgy to change their conference scheduling to accommodate anything that can lead to an increased athletic profile.
Yeah, I wondered about that, but I couldn't fathom a reason why Holy Cross would turn down such an invitation.
B.A. Bucknell University, 1993 |
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ericatbucknell
PhD Student
Posts: 1940
Reg: 01-22-06
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Re: Bracket-Buster 01-27-06 07:58 PM - Post#14134
In response to Shot Clock
people on crossports were fairly upset when they learned hc wasnt going to participate again this year. given how close you can get to many of these programs and willards ongoing comments about the difficulty of scheduling, i doubt they passed on an invitation. it would not only have been out of character for willard, but likely would have made its way to the board.
The Bracket Bustin' Bison are Back!
Okay. First round streak BACK ON! |
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pennhoops
Postdoc
Posts: 2470
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Bracket-Buster 01-27-06 08:29 PM - Post#14135
In response to ericatbucknell
I have to imagine that only the Ivies are clumsy enough in their reasoning to turn down an invite. A couple years ago there was a decent effort by the B-B organizers to include Penn and Princeton but the Ivy League junta simply wouldn't rearrange the schedule to accomodate them. I don't know much about H.C. either but I'm sure if they had wanted in they'd be there - and the logic behind including UC Riverside before them is pretty faulty.
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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Bracket Buster Pairings Announcement 01-28-06 03:43 AM - Post#14136
In response to Bison137
According to a Big Sky Conference press release, the Bison should find out Monday who they will play in the Bracket Buster since they will announce the pairings for all televised games on that day.
http://www.bigskyconf.com/article.asp?articleid=75639
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