Saturday, 3 P.M. EST, ESPN2
The contrasting-styles matchup of this year’s Bracketbuster event will take place in Loudonville, N.Y., where Northern Iowa comes to town with its slow-down, defensive, long-range shooting style to take on the Saints, who prefer games in the 80s. Look for 2008 MAAC Tournament MVP Kenny Hasbrouck to have a big game.
“The [...]

Saturday, 1 P.M. EST, ESPN2
Buffalo is a team with a decent Tournament resume that is diminished by the atrocious Western Division of its own conference (six teams with RPI rankings from 214-323).
Imagine if two months ago Bulls guard Rodney Pierce had not panicked at home against top-ranked Connecticut and opted to shoot for the win [...]

Saturday, 11 A.M. EST, ESPN2
Northeastern currently holds the tiebreaker over VCU for the top-seed in the Colonial Athletic Association Conference Tournament and the team doesn’t believe that VCU’s hometown advantage (the tournament is played in Richmond) diminishes that accomplishment.
“We tell the kids that imagine being told in August that with three games left to play [...]

Friday, 9 p.m. EST, ESPNU
The team most disappointed by its Bracketbuster matchup is probably Virginia Commonwealth.
Consider its predicament:
1. 2,661 miles of travel, including a 6-hour plane ride
2. Its opponent is a team outside the RPI Top 100 (Nevada is No. 104 and a loser of three of its last six)
3. ESPNU, rather than ESPN or [...]

Friday, 7 p.m. EST, ESPN2
Illinois State was literally unbeatable through 14 games (14-0 start) and head coach Tim Jankovich was being called a miracle-worker by ESPN. The Redbirds were starting to pump their chests and chirp about BCS schools refusing to agree to home-and-home contracts, which would negatively affect their early season schedule.
A dozen games [...]

Let’s play a word game:
Barring (fill in the blank), St. Mary’s will be headed back to the NCAA Tournament in 2009.
Answer: An injury to Patrick Mills.
St. Mary’s was rolling along as a nationally ranked team, 18-1, and in position for its second-consecutive NCAA Tournament berth even without the West Coast Conference’s automatic bid.
With about three [...]

Not one person.
Not a single head coach, sports information director, or media member voted Northern Iowa the preseason favorite to win the Missouri Valley Conference.
And who could blame them?
UNI had never won the regular season title in school history, and lost its top two scorers, top rebounder and best three-pointer shooter from [...]

It was the Tuesday morning of January 6, 2009 and I was ready to write the obituary and give the introductory speech at the funeral of the 2008-09 Gonzaga basketball season.
We’d been told the Zags were tougher, they could defend, they were more ready to handle the traditionally brutal gauntlet non-conference and then this happened: [...]

The saying goes that football money dictates support and success in other sports. By “other sports,” we at this site mean men’s college basketball.
As recently as 2007, Florida held both the basketball and football championships at one time. Fast forward to 2008 when the world on the gridiron doesn’t necessarily translate to the hardwood.
The current [...]

Fool me once…
Congrats to Mercer Bears for pulling the upset trick in consecutive seasons and shame on us in the college basketball world who were just as gullible to watch in shock once again.
After ruining the Hollywood debut of O.J. Mayo out west during Southern California’s home opener last season, [...]