Good wins: at San Diego State, BYU, at UCLA, at Arizona, UCLA, Arizona
Bad losses: Washington State
Strengths:
1. Defense. I saw first-hand this team’s amazing ability to shut down the transition game of the run-and-gun Washington Huskies in late February, even in a loss.  Earlier this season they held the up-tempo Arizona Wildcats to 47 points at [...]

Good wins: at UNLV, at Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, at Washington
Bad losses: Oregon State
Strengths:
1. Shooting.  The Golden Bears can flat-out shoot, no matter where they are on the court.  They lead the nation in three-point percentage at 44%, they’re second to UCLA in the Pac-10 in overall FG%, and rank 13th nationally at 76% from [...]

Good wins: Arizona, California, Notre Dame, Washington, at California
Bad Losses: None.
Strengths:
1. Experience.  Three key players for UCLA have been to three straight Final Fours: Darren Collison, Josh Shipp, and Alfred Aboya.  They’re rarely going to beat themselves (particularly when you consider Ben Howland is on the sidelines).  Collison makes such good decisions at the point [...]

Good wins: Oklahoma State, UCLA, at Arizona State, Arizona State, Arizona
Bad Losses: at Portland
Strengths:
1. Post Presence. Jon Brockman simply does not get enough nationwide publicity.  The senior is UW’s heart-and-soul, averaging a double-double per game at 15 points and 11 rebounds.  While most Pac-10 coaches have done a nice job with second-half adjustments over the [...]

Good Wins: N-Missouri, @Purdue, Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Purdue, @Ohio State, Minnesota
Bad Losses: None, though 33 points at home against Penn State and 36 on the road at Minnesota are concerns.
Strengths 
1. Defense. A staple of Bruce Weber’s tenure in Champaign, the Fighting Illini can guard most of the top teams in the country, regardless of their [...]

Good Wins: San Diego State, Gonzaga, Kansas, Washington, UCLA
Bad Losses: at Stanford
Strengths:
1. Athleticism. Even without expatriate recruit Brandon Jennings, Jordan Hill, Chase Budinger, and Nic Wise form the most athletic trio on the est Coast.  All three possess a dynamite slashing ability and attack the basket with ferocity. Hill and Budginger in particular have tremendous springs, though [...]

Portland State 93, Boise State 81
Though this game had little impact on the NCAA Tournament, in terms of either potential at-large selections or seeding, it was huge for Portland State’s confidence. 
Losers of four of their last seven in Big Sky Conference play, the Vikings sorely needed a W against a quality opponent. They got it, [...]

Vermont 78, Buffalo 70
The visiting Bulls could do no wrong on offense during the game’s first eight minutes.  Normally-raucous Patrick Gymnasium sounded more like Patrick Library, as the Bulls’ offensive prowess and disruptive defense declawed the Catamounts on both ends of the floor and silenced the crowd early in the game.
Senior PG Mike Trimboli, Vermont’s all-time fourth-leading [...]

Sooo…I was waiting for word from the official Bracket Busters site on TV matchups before announcing this, but as that still hasn’t been published, here are the matchups for the 2009 Bracket Buster.
Pending the TV announcement, Bracketography.com will continue its long-standing tradition of previewing and recapping each game with a significant influence, or possibly significant [...]

This is an article I’ve wanted to write for a long time.  It never felt quite right, though, because I’m not one to bash a sitting coach or a team publicly during a season, particularly a team that I’m fond of watching.  But it appears this story finally has a happy ending, and now seems like [...]