2012 Bracket Busters Projections

[shocks02]

I know this has probably already been stated, but when are the match-ups announced?

[SubGod22]

End of the month

[tropicalshox]

I believe it's one week from today.

[tropicalshox]

In his Shockwave chat last week Paul said Murry State and Iona were possibles along with maybe Ohio for the Shockers. It certainly seems like we should get Murry State or Iona. Either of them would please me. Ohio I don't understand and would be very disappointing. Paul mentioning a possiblity of Ohio scares me a little as maybe he has some inside info. Perhaps that's who ESPN was thinking of for the Shocker's if they had, or have a total let down during the last couple of weeks.

[WuDrWu]

Yeah, I don't like the Ohio matchup at all, and was concerned for the same reasons Trop is.

Murray State or Iona is fine with me. We need 2 wins to make that happen though, imho.

[n8]

There is an ESPN insider article where Joe Lunardi (who admits he has not actual say) pairs us against Iona:

Wichita State (17-3, 8-1 MVC, S-Curve No. 32) at Iona (15-4, 7-1 MAAC, S-Curve No. 51): The other Gaels could still use a signature win, and the Shockers would certainly qualify. Iona's best wins to date are at Denver and against Saint Joseph's, two fringe NCAA candidates. Wichita State is at another level. The Shockers have taken down Colorado, UNLV and Northern Iowa.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/ncbexperts/id/7493406/bracketology-how-test-murray-state-more-bracketbusters

[RoyalShock]

Murray State just got one of it's best players, a starting forward, back from injury.

[Snapshot9]

Who are Murray State's best wins?

[ShockerFever]

Assuming we take care of business this week, who the hell else would they match up Murray State with? They are clearly the best home team in the field. And if we take care of business this week, I think it's pretty safe to say we're the best road team in the field (not to mention one of the best road teams in the country..). I haven't looked at the other possibilities. Seems like it would be a no-brainer..

[ShockerFever]

Who are Murray State's best wins?

at Memphis for one, just off the top of my head.

[GoShockers89]

Anything other than WSU @ Murray State and St. Mary's @ Creighton would be the world's greatest screw job to the MVC....to a point where the league should bluster about dropping the event.

WSU @ Iona means we get one of the longest, most shitastic roadtrips of the entire field to play against an opponent with an inferior RPI and very little chance at an at-large bid. Iona faces a couple of tough road matchups between pairing Monday and BB Saturday which would completely torpedo their RPI if they lose. The worst of everything, basically.

St. Mary's @ Murray State means Creighton also gets shafted with some crapola team like Long Beach State. LBSU is very capable of pulling the stunner at CU, while a Jays win does absolutely nothing for them. Nada. Zero. The 49ers, like the Gaels, have next to no real chance at an at-large bid and BOTH Iona and LBSU have a very real shot at dropping several tough roadies before BB Saturday (which would slaughter their RPIs).

[ShockerFever]

Thanks 89. Forgot about St. Mary's being a road team.

Those two matchups make the most sense and doesn't leave anybody getting screwed. Unfortunately, common sense doesn't play into ESPN a lot.

[ABC]

Murray State's RPI is #33

They have theree top 30 wins: Memphis, Dayton and Southern Miss

[KC Shox Grad]

I would think St. Mary's/CU and WSU/Murray State matchups would be an ESPN wet dream. As of today 3 of the 4 are ranked and WSU has a great chance of being ranked by next Monday. A few weeks ago I thought an ORU matchup would have been nice but now nothing besides Murray State would make sense.

[WuShock Reaper]

We have rounded the fourth and final turn and are now barreling our way down the home-stretch to the finish-line. Our four team pack still leads the field. They are: Murray State, Oral Roberts, Iona, and Davidson.

Murray State (RPI #32) is still in the lead with a 12 RPI point advantage over second place Oral Roberts. Murray has only one game this week, versus Eastern Illinois (RPI #276). A loss will put them in the mid 40’s for RPI ranking, and a win is also likely to cause them to drop a few points as well. Do they have enough lead? We will know on Saturday as 20 of the 23 top ESPN Bracketbuster home teams are in action on the hardwood.

Oral Roberts (RPI #44) did enough to make up a lot of ground and has now moved to second place. This week they face two more home games against versus South Dakota (RPI #278) and versus Missouri-Kansas City (RPI #221).

Iona (RPI #45) dropped from second to third as they only had one game last week. However, they have three away games this week, which should provide plenty of opportunity to score some valuable RPI points. The three-away games are: at Siena (RPI #210), at Fairfield (RPI #141), and at Saint Peters (RPI #296 ).

Davidson (RPI #50) has now fallen to the fourth position. Even with two away-games against: at Chattanooga (RPI #289) and at Samford (RPI #314) there is likely not enough there to help so Davidson will have to hope for one the others to falter.


TIER 1
Murray State - #32, Oral Roberts - #44, Iona - #45, Davidson - #50

TIER 2
Cleveland State - #62, South Dakota State - #63, Ohio - #75, Weber State - #81, Virginia Commonwealth - #82, Loyola-Maryland - #85, New Mexico State - #86,

TIER 3
Kent State - #106, Butler - #107, Wisconsin-Milwaukee - #113, Loyola-Marymount - #115, Manhattan - #116, George Mason - #123

BREAKDOWN LANE (teams greater than 125)
North Dakota State - #134, Montana, - #137, Charleston Southern - #142, Northeastern - #148, Coastal Carolina - #152, Utah State - #156