LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – The pairings for the 10th BracketBusters were unveiled Monday evening and there were some intriguing – and potentially entertaining – matchups indeed.
Ultimately, I’m not sure how much any of those matchups will impact the at-large selections and seeding for the NCAA Tournament field of 68 when the bracket is unveiled on the evening of March 11.
But they should be enjoyable to watch, with some having a sort of “NCAA Tourney feel” to them.
*Murray State is the last of the unbeatens but the Racers will face their biggest challenge so far with their BB showdown with Saint Mary’s (Feb. 18/6 p.m. ET/ESPN or ESPN2).
If the ESPN folks really wanted to match the “two best” teams, they would have pitted Saint Mary’s (21-2 overall, and 10-0 in the West Coast Conference, with three victories over BYU – twice – and Gonzaga by an average margin of 17 points) against Creighton (20-2 overall, and 10-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference), which has eye-poppin’ wins at San Diego State and Wichita State.
But the Racers (21-0, with wins over likely-to-possible NCAA Tourney teams Memphis, Southern Mississippi and Dayton) and Gaels will be a nifty showdown, with exceptional backcourt play being the hook.
*Creighton – like Murray State and Saint Mary’s – is a near-certain at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament field if it doesn’t win the MVC tournament.
But that isn’t the case yet for the Blue Jays’ opponent, the Long Beach State 49ers (Feb. 18/10 p.m. ET/ESPN2).
Coach Dan Monson’s team (16-6 including 9-0 in the Big West Conference) has played far and away the most challenging non-conference schedule in the sport this season, with games at Pittsburgh, San Diego State, Louisville, Kansas and North Carolina, as well as against Xavier and Kansas State in Honolulu.
But the only victories in that cluster of games came against Pittsburgh and Xavier – a couple of teams that, for the most part, haven’t performed up to nearly as high a level as had been anticipated going into the season.
The games with the Aztecs (an overtime loss), the Cardinals, Jayhawks and Tar Heels were tight enough so that a victory over Creighton, coupled with, say, a 15-1 conference record, might be earn Monson’s club an at-large bid into the NCAA tourney if it doesn’t win the BWC tournament.
Creighton has a sophomore who is a lock to be a consensus first-team All-American in 6-foot-7 Doug McDermott. He could easily be the John R. Wooden Award winner.
Long Beach is led by four, four-year starting seniors — including guards Casper Ware and Larry Anderson.
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