"My bills are all due and the babies need shoes, but I'm busted
Cotton is down to a quarter a pound and I'm busted
I've got a cow that went dry and a hen that won't lay
A big stack of bills that get bigger each day
The County will haul my belongings away! I'm busted!"
~Johnny Cash, "Busted" (At Folsom Prison, 1968)
The ESPN BracketBusters match ups will be announced on January 29. Nearly a full third of the NCAA hoops nation (a whopping 102 teams) will be taking part in this year's event. This gigantic slate has led to criticism, but having more teams helps ensure some meaningful games at the top for ESPN. It also means a lot of meaningless games (about 40) in regards to bracket impact. Nevertheless, count me in the "pro-buster" camp for the time being.
The top six games will be on ESPN2. Five more games will be shown on ESPNU, with two more broadcast on ESPN360.
I have created a page showing the current BracketBusters standings. They are listed by current RPI from best to worst for both the home and away teams. I will update the standings again next Tuesday.
As of today, the TV match ups might look something like this:
Southern Illinois at Butler (ESPN2)
Drexel at Missouri State (ESPN2)
Appalachian State at Creighton (ESPN2)
Bradley at Nevada (ESPN2)
Old Dominion at Wichita State (ESPN2)
Northern Iowa at New Mexico State (ESPN2)
Ohio at Indiana State (ESPNU)
Holy Cross at Hofstra (ESPNU)
Utah State at VCU (ESPNU)
Winthrop at Marist (ESPNU)
Hawaii at Long Beach (ESPNU)
Sam Houston at Siena (ESPN 360)
Albany at Oral Roberts (ESPN360)
You can read more about Buster here.
The season's first Bubble Boy breakdown comes tomorrow. Thursday, I get a chance to tell Billy Packer why he is wrong about the RPI. That's always fun.
Tonight's GOI
--UAB at Memphis. Blazers seem to be down from recent seasons, but this is one of the few real threats Memphis will face in CUSA.
--Texas at Oklahoma State. Big game for Big XII positioning.
--UConn at Pitt. The Huskies need to show that they can at least hang with the Big Easy cream.
--Maryland at Virginia. Cavs have lost 5 of last 8 and need a big win to get them back on track.
