BracketBuster Reactions

Here are the TV matchups, sorted by Away Team RPI as of right now (RPI Source = Statsheet.com):

Away	Home	A RPI	H RPI	A Rank	H Rank
Saint Mary's	Murray State	25	37	1	2
Wichita State	Davidson	32	69	2	7
Long Beach Stat	Creighton	33	18	3	1
Northern Iowa	Virginia Common	55	89	4	11
Akron	Oral Roberts	57	51	5	3
Nevada	Iona	62	58	6	4
Drexel	Cleveland State	88	59	7	5
Drake	New Mexico Stat	92	94	8	13
Buffalo	South Dakota St	96	66	9	6
Valparaiso	Loyola Marymoun	117	106	11	16
Asheville	Ohio	130	70	14	8
Old Dominion	Missouri State	132	78	15	9
Texas-Arlington	Weber State	140	93	17	12

I'd be pretty irate if I was a Creighton fan right now, for three reasons:

REASON #1:  CREIGHTON IS BETTER THAN MURRAY STATE AND GOT LEFT OUT OF THE PREMIERE GAME

"But Murray State is AP#9 and Creighton is only AP#13!  Murray State is better!"  OK, let me respond to that ill advised position by pulling the blinders off.  I'm pretty convinced that the voters are not even watching Murray State games... it's truly that goose egg on the right side of the hyphen that is the only reason Murray State is in the Top 25.

If you look at things from an overall resume perspective,  I can make a fairly convincing case that AP #13 Creighton is better than AP #9 Murray State, and it's not even close:

• Murray State is really 18-0 and not 21-0.  I'm sorry, Harris Stowe, Tennessee Temple, and Alaska Anchorage are not D-1 teams.  I usually don't mind that a school throws a D-2 opponent on their schedule at the beginning of the season to tune up, but holy cow -- three?  Creighton is 20-2, a legit 20-2.
• RPI Top 100:  Murray State 3-0, Creighton 6-2 
• RPI 151+: Murray State 14-0, Creighton 7-0
• Murray State worthwhile wins: Memphis, Dayton, Southern Miss
• Creighton worthwhile wins:  San Diego State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Missouri State, Wichita State, Missouri State, Drake

If you're literate, you just read that Creighton has played five more games against Top 100 teams and have won three more.  They have played half as many bottom feeders and have built wins against really quality teams.  I shouldn't come off as so harsh because mid majors are in a system that makes it difficult to schedule games against quality teams.  But, when we have a mid major that is the most deserving to shine, I struggle to see why it makes sense to not reward them.

Ultimately, this is the classic desire to paint a "feel good" story instead of actually looking and seeing that Murray State has played three good opponents this year.  There's probably a few teams on that list above that would go 18-0 (see above on the three games I subtracted) with Murray State's schedule.  Ultimately, because of the fact that the MVC is a damn good league and they have multiple teams at the top, Creighton gets the hose.  It's embarassing.

REASON #2:  THE MVC IS GOOD

Because the MVC is so good, Creighton doesn't even match up with the next best team in this event (Wichita State) because they'll probably end up playing them three times already this year.  So for those keeping score at home, that's already another tier that Creighton has slid down.

REASON #3:  THE SCHEDULE JOBBING

Despite being the best team in this event, Creighton got stuck with the 10PM Eastern game -- the latest time slot.  So, if this game goes into overtime and has a fair amount of stoppages, it very well could butt up against midnight central time.  Hard to believe that they got stuck with the late start.  I'd be irate.

Other MVC Teams have some pretty fair gripes:


SHOCKER WHAT???

Wichita State fans can't be too happy either.  They're essentially paired up in a "You win, you gain nothing -- you lose, you lose a lot" matchup with Davidson.  Why not Oral Roberts?  Why not Iona?  Where did Davidson come from here?  I'll admit that their win at Kansas was absolutely fascinating, but they've accomplished nothing past that.  It's quite likely that if they knock off Wichita State (assuming the Shockers stay on a run), Davidson catapults themselves into the bubble conversation.  On the flip side, if Wichita State takes care of business, it's quite unlikely this win really helps them out that much due to Davidson's incredibly lackluster resume past one win.  Oral Roberts would have made more sense here to me.  Heck even Cleveland State would have been better.

HATE THE DRAKE

New Mexico State will be a great matchup for the Bulldogs.  Any Top 100 RPI team that we get matched up with is fantastic.  Plus, we're on TV, who can complain?  Well, if we're a top 10 road team (which we are), I think we actually can complain a bit.  Why not Davidson, Ohio, VCU?  Those were probably the teams more towards what we deserved to play.  I'm not going to say that we aren't liable to lay a stinker on the road.  We've proved that more than enough times.  But what happens if Drake rattles off five in a row and has grandiose dreams of post-season tournaments?  Having the opportunity to play a better opponent would help that cause tremendously.

GET OFF MY TUBE YOU DAMN TREES

Indiana State gets left off of TV.  They struggle a bit from the UNI profile of having such a strong non-conference resume and then just laying a goose egg once conference season rolled around.  Still, I find it hard to believe that UT-Arlington is more deserving.

THE LAST WORD

Bottom line:  UNI gets a matchup that has a fun storyline, and the rest of the MVC gets jobbed in one form or the other.  The MVC better be getting an exhorbitant amount of revenue from the TV contract for this.  If not, why are we even in this thing?

Theory:  BracketBuster Pairings are All About the Storylines that they can create

• Murray State:  ESPN wants to talk about the unbeaten streak, even though it's not horrendously impressive (Drake's 21 games in a row was much more impressive, BOOM eat that Racers).
• Both UNI and VCU are squared off against one another so focus can be on recent tournament success.
• Davidson was elevated to relive the Steph Curry days ("Remember the Curry days!!?!??!?") and to promote their only quality win ("This Davidson team is dangerous, they beat Kansas" and not "They just got beat by Samford, who you probably hear that and think is a single person, but no it's just a horrendous D-1 basketball program")

If they were about the best basketball matchups, I'd argue it should go:

• St. Mary's @ Creighton
• Wichita State @ Murray State
• Long Beach State @ Oral Roberts
• Northern Iowa @ Davidson
• Drake @ Ohio
• Drexel @ Missouri State
• Indiana State @ VCU

Probably all of those should be televised, along with a few other matchups.

Creighton beats Drake 77-69 and Robot Fan and McDermott get in a tangle

So, plenty about the game out there.  What I'm having a tough time believing is that nobody is talking about the Doug McDermott / Robot Fan throwdown that happened last night.  I've got a picture and audio from Robot Fan's press conference after the game, and some of the pictures from the scuffle.  No video though.  Probably because the Robot Fan is ninja like in how he strikes.

Robot Fan at the Press Conference (Picture):

So, Rayvonte Rice and Ben Simons are in the middle of talking about the hard fight, and Robot Fan just walks in and interrupts them and sits in between them.  he then goes on the following tirade about his nemesis Doug McDermott:

Click on This for Robot Fan Post-Game Press Conference Audio

Notable Pictures Referenced in Robot Fan's Audio:

And with that he stormed out.  I can't believe nobody is talking about this.

Transcript of Post-Game Words:


Robot Fan In The House.  People have been asking me what the heck went on with me and Doug McDermott tonight.


About 10 minutes into the game Drake was up 17-16.  I was wearing McDermott out.  He could not handle Robot Fan.  Chants such as "Daddy's Boy" were nothing compared to the jaw I was giving him.  I cannot repeat the lip I was giving him but he was totally getting worn out.  There is a picture of McDermott being coached by his dad and all he can do is look over and hear my dope words.  Robot Fan was in his head.


Unfortunately the Jays got on a roll and were up double figures right before half.  McDermott thought that the game was over because when they were up with a few seconds left McDermott threw me the finger.  Robot Fan figured that he would be able to count to two, but apparently he cannot.  He ran off of the court thinking the game was over.  When he had to come back to Ron Pearson court for the second half, Robot Fan was totally in his head.


He started dropping balls out of bounds and getting totally out of his element.  Robot Fan was letting him have it.  Dude is like the pro Christian Laettner.  Ha.  Ha.  Ha.  Drake was storming all the way back and Robot Fan was in Doug's head.


Unfortunately, Double Zero (Echenique) sat on Rice's head and McDermott really enjoyed that and got back into his rhythm.  What a weird man.  After they beat Drake, McDermott got mouthy back with Robot Fan over in the corner.  He was like "You are nothing, Robot".  Robot Fan said "How about a taste of this" and smacked him across the face like he was a pale Charlie Murphy.  Robot Fan smacked him so hard he had a black eye immediately.


He was smiling in the post game photos but Robot Fan could hear him sobbing the second he hit the tunnel.


That is what happened.  If you hear a word otherwise it is lies.  Trust a Robot, not a McDermott.


To that Nancy boy, I own you, Doug.  Watch your back from the Robot Fan.  No questions.  I am out.

And We're Back!!!

As a true fanatic of major league baseball, the energy that my St. Louis Cardinals gave me in the last month of the season, throughout the playoffs, capitalizing in a World Series Championship hasn't worn off yet.  It won't for quite some time.  From my perspective, one of the many beauties of college basketball is the perfection with which it inverses the baseball schedule.  Right as the World Series wraps up, it's time to start focusing towards college media days and looking forward to position battles and early opponents.  Undoubtedly, it would be asinine to expect the Bulldogs to put together they type of year that the Cardinals had.  That said, despite our early struggles against Quincy I'm still excited for the start of another basketball season.  I've been traveling the past few weekends and can't wait to get into the Knapp for the first time this season.

Blogger has moved into the 21st century and has provided BulldogsRoundball with the functionality to reformat some things which I've happily taken advantage of.  I've tried to clean the site up a bit and simplify things.  Hopefully, I'll add some other interesting tidbits here soon (I'm throwing around Poll ideas, picking against the spread, and most importantly a glossary of some of the terms I typically throw around).  I'd encourage anyone, even the anonymous reader to post comments with items you'd like to see.

It's hard to believe it's here but Tuesday brings Iowa State.  From my point of view, it's a match up of two teams that bring plenty of questions into this season.  From the Drake perspective:

• Who will win the point guard positional battle?  Karl Madison, David Smith, or Kurt Alexander?
• Will Rayvonte Rice take a step forward or be hampered by off-season idiocracy?
• Will Seth Van Deest play this year?  When will Reece Uhlenhopp rejoin the team?
• Will Jordan Clarke and Kraidon Woods be able to strengthen the rebounding issues that plagued the Bulldogs a season ago?
• Who will provide scoring support after Rice and Ben Simons?  Jeremy Jeffers, Aaron Hawley, Alexander, Judd Welfringer, someone else?
• How well will the Bulldogs be able to stretch opposing defenses with the graduation of sharpshooter Ryan Wedel?

These could go on and on.  We've got several injuries early on, but it's time to really put this team to the test.  Unfortunately we lost a complete stinker to Quincy, but those box scores show a team that we shouldn't see for the rest of the season.  While a loss to a non D-1 opponent is inexcusable in any capacity, I don't think it is quite indicative of how well this team will play in the future.  Likewise, I don't know how much the blowout win over Upper Iowa tells us other than the Quincy game was more of a hiccup and less of a reason to jump.

That said, we're going to face a stiff test on Tuesday.  It's going to be an Iowa State team quite different than what we've seen in the past.  They have questions of their own:

• Is this really going to be a NCAA Tournament team, or just an overhyped squad that can't come together?  We've heard plenty so far about Royce White, but will he be the real deal?  What is going to be this teams identity?
• Is the 18 turnovers at Lehigh a blip on the radar, or some ballhandling issues to be exploited?
• Is there enough depth in that interior?
• Is Anthony Booker going to make another three pointer in the remainder of his career after draining one against Lehigh?

Tuesday will be a stiff test.  I'm hoping the following will occur:

• Drake doesn't have too big of cohesion problems after not truly playing a game yet together this season.
• Rice presents an offensive game that Iowa State isn't ready and capable to handle.
• Jordan Clarke and Kraidon Woods play enough interior defense on White and more importantly, beat him on the boards.
• Drake wins the shooting percentage substantially (we'll need lady luck on our side for this one).
• Foul trouble does not plague our bigs.

If some of the above can occur, could definitely see the scales tipping our way.  Either way, it will be good to see a big time matchup again in the Knapp.