Siena IN, UA out of Bracketbuster

[Clickclack]

TU blog

Siena in, UAlbany out for BracketBusters

September 4, 2008 at 1:02 pm by Pete Iorizzo, Staff writer

 

Siena will once again take part in the BracketBusters, as will the rest of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, ESPN announced Thursday. The Saints, who played at Boise State a season ago, will have a home game against an opponent that won’t be determined until Feb. 2, 2009 on either Feb. 20 or 21.

 

UAlbany, however, will not participate this year. Instead, Boston University, UMBC, Hartford and Vermont were the four teams chosen to represent America East. UAlbany had participated in each of the previous three seasons.

 

America East associate commissioner Matt Bourque said UAlbany isn’t in the BracketBusters pool because the Great Danes weren’t picked to finish in the top four in a poll of league coaches done on April 10, shortly after last season ended.

 

This year’s BracketBusters pool includes 102 teams. Twenty-six of those teams will play BracketBusters games on ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN360.com. Six games will be on ESPN2, five on ESPNU and the remaining two on ESPN360.com. The remaining teams will be paired in (meaningless, ill-timed) non-conference games.

 

The 102-team field will feature 12 teams from the Mid-American and Colonial Athletic; 10 from the Ohio Valley, Missouri Valley, Horizon League and Metro Atlantic Athletic; nine from the Western Athletic and Big West; four from the America East and Southern; three from the Big South; two from the Big Sky, Summit League and West Coast; and one from the Mid-Eastern Athletic, Northeast and Patriot.

 

As part of the agreement, all 13 of the BracketBusters home teams, as well as the remaining 38 home squads, will play a “return” game at the home facility of their opponent in November or December of the following season.

[danefan]

As expected, right?

[alum73]

I believe so.

[uofalbany]

There seems to be an enormous number of teams now in the BBuster.

 

I wouldn't want another BBuster game like last year anyways.

 

No surprise whatsoever.

[Clickclack]

There seems to be an enormous number of teams now in the BBuster.

 

I wouldn't want another BBuster game like last year anyways.

 

No surprise whatsoever.

 

Especially when the likes of Canisius-318rpi (still chaps my *** that we blew it last season after killing them in the first half) St. Peters-315rpi and Manhattan-274rpi getting into the event. Time to roll it back just a BIT. The teams in it for the AE should represent well, 3 of the 4 stand a very very good chance to be top 3 in the league. Not sold on UMBC at all.

[B9j2j6s]

I'm glad we are not in the Bracketbuster. The situation for our team is the hardest its been in about four years. We are in a rebuilding year with six new players and one red shirt. We have five players back with experience. We are playing two Big East opponents and the defending national champion. We are facing strong mid majors UPenn, Siena, CCSU and SHU. Also the AE is looking its strongest in years. Hartford, UVM, BU and Bing all have ligit chances of winning this year. So add that all up and then throw in an out of confrence game at the end of the season before AET play. I believe that not being selected for the Bracketbuster game is a blessing.

[alum73]

The MAAC has some affiliation with ESPN, that's why the whole league is in it. The bracketbuster games are really just the TV games.

[Dane Pound]

I'm not surprised either but happy to see the coaches poll didn't pick Bing in the top four. As for us, we have the whole season to prove them wrong...

[bob87]

Looks like another "story the TU got first"

Come on, we knew when the OOC schedule was announced there would be no BB this year. Isn't 13 non conference games plus the 16 conference games the max. As far as Siena being eligible, who cares the whole maac is eligible whether they deserve to be or not. So no news there.

All the maac being eligible is the number one thing that dilutes the BB in my opinion. Last year AE's best team wasn't picked before the season for BB and I would love to see that happen again this year with UA. Also none of our teams were good enough for a TV game last year after making a TV game 3 years in a row. (UVM and 2 UA's) Lets hope that the conference gets back to having a team on TV which really is the only point of this thing.

Also last year, 3 teams that did not make the BB got stuck with crappy maac teams. At least 2 of them took care of business. I also hope our teams perform better to at least get better regional matchups than the ones they got last season.

The real news with this isn't until February when the 11 TV matchups, the 2 almost TV matchups and the rest of the matchups are announced.

[Dane Pound]

The Canisius game aside, I can't fault our bracketbuster experiences. Two out of of three of them were positive with return home games against NCAA tourney teams. I'll be glad to trade a home game with Boise State and a very good VCU team (that beat Duke!) with one game against the Golden Griffs.

[olddog71]

The Canisius game aside, I can't fault our bracketbuster experiences. Two out of of three of them were positive with return home games against NCAA tourney teams. I'll be glad to trade a home game with Boise State and a very good VCU team (that beat Duke!) with one game against the Golden Griffs.

 

On the other hand, I cannot fault Will Brown for his lack of enthusiasm. The difficulties the team had in arriving in Boise for the game two years ago in the middle of the conference season would have left an indelible memory with me.