Here is a recap of all the televised bracket buster scores
Northern Iowa 65 Bucknell 61 2 OT
Iona 93 Buffalo 75
Kent State 80 Butler 76 OT
Western Kentucky 79 Northern Arizona 58
Missouri State 72 Wisconsin Milwaukee 63
Old Dominion 84 Marist 71
Ohio 64 Samford 52
Louisiana Tech 54 Southern Illinois 51
George Mason 70 Wichita State 67
Utah State 66 Northwestern State 63
Creighton 67 Fresno State 62
VCU 70 Albany 67
Nevada 88 Akron 61
And now the Televised Bracket Buster Awards
Best Game - Northern Iowa's thrilling double overtime win over Bucknell. A NCAA tournament quality game with great defense (only 14 foul shots combined for both teams with a score in the sixties with double OT). Both teams deserve a bid to the tournament. Runnerup - George Mason - Wichita State and Butler - Kent State
Worst Game - Akron vs. Nevada. Game was never close and should have been a little better considering Akron's decent RPI, but just wasn't.
Did We Really Want to Play Like That on National TV - Unfortunately a three way tie to Buffalo, Akron and Northern Arizona. These three teams lost by 18, 27 and 21. Akron's and Northern Arizona's hurt the most as possible seeding in the tournament should they make it.
Team That Helped Its NCAA At Large Bid The Most - George Mason. To go on the road to beat the first place Missouri Valley Conference team, Wichita State, a team with a RPI of 17 is absolutely huge. Memo to NCAA Tournament Committee - Put the bid in an envelope, seal it and send it same day to Fairfax, Virginia. Patriots, you are in the tournament.
Team That Helped Its NCAA At Large Bid The Most Runnerup - Missouri State Yes, Adrian Tigert was out for Wisconsin Milwaukee (had I known, I would have changed my prediction), but this is still a huge road win for the Bears over a quality Panther team, a team that won two games in the NCAA tournament last year. As far as tournament bids to the MVC, Missouri State just moved ahead of the the team I will mention next
Team That Hurt Its NCAA At Large Bid The Most - Southern Illinois. By losing to a team with a RPI of 81 that had no quality non conference wins till now, plus with four other Missouri Valley teams to contend with, Southern Illinois losing at home really hurt their at large bid chances. They now have to be considered the 5th rated team in the Missouri Valley and put themselves on the bubble big time. Their problem - They can not score points. They struggled again yesterday to put the ball in the basket.
Team That Hurt Its NCAA At Large Bid The Most Runnerup - UW Milwaukee. They lost at home to a Missouri Valley team that they might be competing for an at large bid with. Plus losing four of their last six games does not help. Yes, Adrian Tigert was out, but still, the committee will look at this game if UW Milwaukee does not win the Horizon tournament when judging UW Milwaukee's fate.
Despite Losing, The Team That Has Nothing to Worry About - Bucknell. They played a great defensive game on the road yesterday. The game went two overtimes. And Syracuse winning last night helped their cause (Bucknell's signature road win came at Syracuse), so the Bison did nothing to hurt their NCAA at large bid chances. Of course everyone hopes they win out the Patriot League tournament as they should. But seal the bid for the Bison, they are in.
Team that Showed They Were Better Than I Thought - Kent State. Give it up to Kent State for coming from behind to force overtime against a solid Butler team, then winning in overtime. A nice solid win for the MAC. Runnerup - Fresno State. Fresno State battled Creighton and every time it seemed like Creighton would pull away, the Bulldogs came back. Good job.
Best Mid Major Conference on Bracket Buster Weekend - CAA. The CAA went 3-0 in televised bracket buster games, including George Mason's big road win over Wichita State. In fact the CAA's top five teams all won their bracket buster games (Hofstra and Northeastern won non televised games, UNCW was not part of the Bracket Buster tournament). Again proves that the CAA is the second best mid major conference in the country (next to the MVC) and I think better than the A10 (yes, you heard it right). Runnerup - WAC. WAC went 3-1 with Nevada, Louisiana Tech and Utah State all winning, while Fresno State gave a credible performance in a loss to Creighton.
Worst Mid Major Conference on Bracket Buster Weekend - Horizon. Two best teams, one of which, UW Milwaukee, was a sweet sixteen team from last year playing at home, the other, Butler, a team that prides itself in great defense, both slip up on the day and lose.
Best Crowd in a Bracket Buster Game - Creighton. 15,000 fans, a Nebraska college basketball attendance record came out for a 11PM central time zone game to watch the Blue Jays beat the Bulldogs. Ok, it helped that it was on ESPN. But still, very impressive.
Final Record on Predictions 10-3 - It was a good weekend for me.
Next posting later will be a quick posting on Hofstra's win over Siena.
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