…You end up with an ESPNU Bracketbuster game like the one I was at on Saturday featuring a team with 3 wins.
That would be Toledo, who rode into Cleveland for a match-up against the CSU Vikings with 24 losses to go along with those 3 wins. The Rockets eventually rode out 3 – 25, and there wasn’t a bracket anywhere that noticed the loss.
Not that the Vikings - who won by 24 (87-63) - sent Joe Lunardi back to his dry-erase board either after pushing their overall record to 14-15, because I imagine he was watching other games. But I watched this one, and did so with some previous anticipation of the game date - the schedule clearly read ESPNU Bracketbuster game at the start of the season.
Sounded exciting enough, only it wasn’t, and it left me wondering as the second half route wore on, how’s this happen?
Maybe I’m in the minority, previously being ignorant to the fact that the Bracketbusters involve more than the 22 teams featured in the 11 televised match-ups, but I’ve since studied up on the system. Turns out, there are 96 teams “granted” bracketbuster match-ups at the start of the season – essentially every mid-major in America - and while that four letter calling card looks great on the preseason schedules of the CSUs, Manhattans, and Evansvilles of the world, those games can certainly turn out to be duds that nobody sees.
From that pool of 96, the match-ups were announced a few weeks ago, as well as which games would be televised throughout ESPN’s family of networks. And while there were certainly some quality contests with relevant NCAA tournament implications involved – a couple of which I’ve highlighted below – there were also match-ups like CSU – Toledo who, at the time of the announcement, had a combined win total of 13 games. More Toledo’s fault than CSU’s obviously, who had 10 wins at the time to Toledo’s 3, but I came to find that there were still worse match-ups than this.
Those bracketbuster pairings with less combined win totals included Towson (5-16) vs. Manhattan (7-14) totaling 12 wins, UIC (5-16) -Evansville (6-15) totaling 11, Elon (4-16) v. Gardner Webb (6-15) combining for 10, and Marist (1-21) vs. Cal-Irvine (7-13) who scraped together 8.
Bracketbuster Games that mattered:
The answer to my questions was found in the simple fact that if you’re only looking for 11 tv-games, out of 96 teams, odds are pretty good that you’ll find some quality match-ups in addition to the previous ones I highlighted.
MATTHEW PUTNEY / Courier Photo Editor
Chances are also good that you’ll even come up with a couple ranked teams, as in the case this season with Northern Iowa (#24) and Butler (#15) who squared off this weekend against Old Dominon and Siena respectively. However, with the biggest opportunities to improve themselves in the eyes of the selection committee this weekend, both ODU and Siena fell at the hands of NIU and Butler by scores of 71-62 and 70-53 respectively.
Northern Iowa led 31-22 at halftime, and got up by as many as 14 before eventually holding off the Monarch’s of ODU by 9. Ali Farokhmanesh scored 23 to lead 24th ranked Panthers (24-3) to the victory, who took another in a series of steps forward with the win on ESPN2 to getting their dance card punched this time around regardless of a conference title. ODU (21-8) was paced by Gerald Lee with 19, and lost for the first time in 5 bracketbusters tries. ODU will have to look towards their conference tournament for a shot at a celebratory selection Sunday on their campus, because an at-large bid’s not likely coming for them.
On the other hand, if Butler were to lose again in their conference tournament – like they did to CSU last season – they’ll be a lock regardless, and their 17 -point win over Siena will only add to an already solid resume. Siena made a cinderealla run through the NCAA tournament last year, but will most likely have to make a run through their conference tournament in order for a shot at that this season. At 22-6, with a win over Butler this weekend, you might have been able to make an argument for an at-large, but the loss will likely force that arguement to fall on deaf ears. On the game, Butler was led by Shelvin Mack who scored 23, while Clarence Jackson scored a game-high 24 for the Saints who lost by 17 despite trailing the Bulldogs by only 3 at halftime.
Recap of CSU – Toldeo:
CSU starter Trevon Harmon was sidelined with a concussion which forced some freshmen to haveto step up for the Vikings against Toledo on Saturday, and they did. Freshman Tim Kamczyc scored a career high 12 in his first collegiate start, and the Vikings also got a big contribution from freshman Charlie Woods off the bench who shot five for five from 3-point range, and finished with 15.
The game did remain close throughout the first half, tied at 30 going into intermission, but then CSU blew the doors off Toledo and eventually won by a final of 87-63. The Vikings ran away with the game by turning up the defensive pressure in the second half, and despite the fact that Toledo Coach Gene Cross knew it was coming, his Rockets could do nothing to stop it.
Toledo Coach Gene Cross:
“You could probably figure we weren’t going shoot 60% for the second half, and I knew they were going to turn the heat up in the second. The first three minutes of the second half played out like so many of our games [this season], and it just snowballed from there.”
The Vikings pushed out to a 14-point lead by the 14:07 mark in the second half when PG Norris Cole (game-high 18 points) connected on a lay-up to make the score 50-36. That lead would get up to 19 when G Jeremy Montgomery ( 14 points) connected on a three with 10:35 to go, but it was over well before then, as the pressure the Vikings were able to apply proved to be simply too much.
Vikings Coach Gary Waters:
“I thought we did a much better job of pressuring and playing better defense in the second half… We turned them over 10 times in the second half, and when you turn them over, you get better shots.”
A few of those better shots fell into the hands of Charlie Woods, who connected on his fifth three of the day with 2:27 left to give the Vikings a 25-point lead 83-58.
Woods on getting off the bench and contributing:
“It feels good, but it all comes from hard work in practice. I’ve been working hard, and I’m trying to get on the floor, and do the best that I can do.”
Unfortunately for Toledo, the best they could do was stay tied for a half, as they continue to learn, try to get better, and countdown the days until this season is over. In a losing effort, Jake Barnett scored 15 to lead the Rockets.
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