Bracketbusters (For real)

Here is the line-up of televised bracketbuster matchups (of which there are 11, not 13... stupid me).

Friday:
VCU @ Nevada - Huzzah for the heroes of yesteryear. Oh, alright, these two are still decent, but they still won't have any meaningful impact on this year's tourney (mainly because they won't be in it).

Illinois St. @ Niagara - I guess I can see why this matchup seemed appealing. Illinois St. was big news for the amount of time they went undefeated, and is still #2 in conference. This should be a good preview of the UNI-Siena game.

Saturday:
Butler @ Davidson - Obvious matchup is obvious to everyone not in Loudonville.

Northern Iowa @ Siena - In retrospect, putting the top team from the MVC here makes more sense than the top team from the CAA. Poor Siena though - if only they could make outside shots.

Utah St. @ St. Mary’s - As predicted, although if you remember I was set to put Utah St. on a cross-country flight until I was swayed by a commenter. I suppose I should remember that people on the East Coast don't give much respect to teams on the other side of the country.

Boise St. @ Portland St. - I figured that neither of these teams would get much respect. I still don't expect them to make it on the 2.


Buffalo @ Vermont - Top MAC team + top America East team. Thats why these two are in this game.

Northeastern @ Wright St. - Northeastern gets a meh matchup, despite being in great position to win the CAA.

UW-Green Bay @ Long Beach St. - Having the second team from the Horizon on TV isn't that surprising, but I didn't have LBSU anywhere near a prime slot.

George Mason @ Creighton - I picked the wrong CAA team for this one - I suppose ESPN is banking on George Mason's Final Four popularity continuing.

Miami (OH) @ Evansville - As I said earlier - Evansville made the TV slot because they were news earlier in the year, supposedly being this year's Drake.