Bracketbuster 2012

[StlVUFan]

This game stinks. Puts 3 games in 6 days to end the year plus its a lot of travel, not to mention there isn't much reward in winning this game.  I wish these could be played in December.

What I would have loved to hear from the <cough>, <cough> roundtable was some discussion about this aspect.  They could have definitely found a coach to give them some perspective on that.

But, of course that would make too much sense for the booyahs 

[valporun]

Loyola Marymount was the school with Hank Gathers, who tragically collapsed during a WCC conference tournament game, and died while on the way to the hospital. He was a big time recruit who transferred to LMU, and played for Paul Westhead in a run and gun style, a bit like how Grinnell College plays basketball. LMU was the school that CBS followed thru the 1990 tournament, and has the famous scene of Bo Kimble shooting a left-handed free throw in memory of his teammate and friend.
ESPN had a 30-for-30-like movie about this team, and how the nation responded to this story.

[sectionee]

Much better travel than last season. Much Much better.

Obviously you were there so you would know better then I, but what was bad last year? Just the amount of games?  It looks like it went Milwaukee, Home, GB, Home, Home, Home...that was all in a short time frame.  Do you think last years schedule at the end will take a tougher toll on the guys then this years, Home, LA, Home?

[vusupporter]

A non-stop flight to LA takes 4 hours 15 minutes.  If I recall correctly, the bus trip to Green Bay last year was during a heavy snowstorm and it took the team about 7 hours to get there, not to mention the 5+ hour trip back late, late Monday night following a rough loss.  Plus the fact we play Friday night gives us an extra day to recover prior to our Loyola game.

Much better travel than last season. Much Much better.

Obviously you were there so you would know better then I, but what was bad last year? Just the amount of games?  It looks like it went Milwaukee, Home, GB, Home, Home, Home...that was all in a short time frame.  Do you think last years schedule at the end will take a tougher toll on the guys then this years, Home, LA, Home?

[Pgmado]

Last year was tough Milwaukee game on the road on Wednesday, then Missouri State game on Saturday afternoon. The team left Sunday morning for Green Bay and drove 7+ hours through a blizzard. Team returned early Tuesday morning and then played at home two days later in blowout loss to Loyola. The only game that Valpo won of the four was the one that "didn't matter."

This year Valpo plays UIC at home on Tuesday, then will travel to LA on Thursday afternoon and come back presumably on Saturday morning. The next game isn't until Tuesday and it's also at home against Loyola. In theory these are two easier games sandwiching the BracketBuster, even if the LMU game is on the road and a flight trip. If I'm a player/coach, I'd much rather have this schedule breakdown than last season. Playing on Friday night is icing on the cake.

[mj]

I'm excited about playing LMU. Unfortunately, Valpo finally makes a trip to Southern California and I'm not there to watch them play. Hopefully they have a good experience on the West Coast and consider scheduling other teams in the future.

[sectionee]

Thanks for clearing that up Pgmado.  I think this is going to be rough, but hopefully they won't experience they same thing (conferencewise) that happened last year. 

[vuweathernerd]

I'm excited about playing LMU. Unfortunately, Valpo finally makes a trip to Southern California and I'm not there to watch them play. Hopefully they have a good experience on the West Coast and consider scheduling other teams in the future.

yeah, i was kinda hoping to see them up here somewhere too. maybe next year.

[valpospartan]

Valpo vs LMU on ESPNU!

Hopefully the game will also be on ESPN3, for those of us that don't have ESPNU.

[valpopal]

I don't think anyone mentioned our good luck in the tv scheduling. The Valpo game is positioned in prime time at 8 p.m. Central Time. The other Horizon League team on television is Cleveland State, whose game is 10 a.m. Central Time.

[wh]

Times article: Crusaders heading to California for Bracket Buster

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college/valparaiso-university/crusaders-heading-to-california-for-bracketbuster/article_ed848cb8-b4fa-5715-973b-119042acb1d0.html

[vu84v2]

Overall, I think that it is good to get a TV matchup in prime time.  LMU is a tough matchup, though the win over St. Louis is far more impressive than the win over a miserable UCLA team.

While the travel is a concern, it could have been much worse.  What if Valpo went to South Dakota State - lots of flying and driving.  LMU is very near LAX, so despite the 4+ hour flight it is pretty simple.  Having games several days before and after at home helps.

An interesting question will be, what strategy will Bryce take with the bracketbusters game?  Will he go all out or would he hold a player back that might be a little nicked up?  When you are a mid-major, it is hard not to go all out when you play on national TV, so my guess is that he will treat this with the same seriousness as a conference game.

[valpotx]

The travel to LA is nowhere near as bad as what we used to do to Southern Utah for games, at least on the baseball side.  Flying into Vegas, and then a several hour bus trip.  There is no excuse in regards to travel with this matchup...

[valpo84]

Thinking about Loyola Marymount and the Bo Kimble-Hank Gathers years brought back some memories. I attended the Xavier-LMU game in Cincinnati in 89-90 season. Besides Kimble and Gathers, they had a dead-eye 3 point shooter in Jeff Fryer (who was a lot like Casey Schmidt) and Terrell Lowery. X had Derek Strong and Ty Hill and Jamal Walker who could dazzle, plus strong depth including Aaron Williams and Michael Davenport. That was a Pete Gillen coached X team, and LMU played the Paul Westhead fast break style, push the ball up the court and get a shot in about 10 secs. Gathers was a terrific player and with Kimble they were final four material that year. Even without Gathers but with an inspired Kimble, they blew the doors off the defending champion Michigan team and scored about 150 points that 2d rd game. BTW, Xavier went to the Sweet 16 that year after beating Georgetown's Mourning and Mutombo in the Indianapolis 2d rd game (that sub-regional also included a Texas upset of Purdue in the 2d rd game for a most enjoyable doubleheader that day as I was there for that weekend). Also had the chance to see Gathers/Kimble in the 1989 NCAA 1st rd at Indianapolis. Valpo connection to that LMU--Dave Wolter who worked with Paul Westhead and imported the "System" to Valpo women's hoops in the late 1980s-early 1990s preceding Keith Freeman.

[StlVUFan]

Don't forget the Human Bruise, Tom Peabody, and Per "steamer" Stumer (or was it Steumer or Stuemer?).

God that was a fun team to watch.  I still have several of their games on tape.

I don't think they quite play that way now, of course.  It was a short window, maybe 3 years.  I recall Westhead's successor tried to carry on with it the following year, but he didn't have the horses any more.  I recall a diminutive point guard and a tall, lanky center, both of whom were lesser known backups the previous year, but everybody else seemed new.  They were still playing the same way, only they were losing by 20-30 points every game (or so it seemed).  I was sorry to see the phenomenon end.

[ORUmom]

A Valpo vs ORU match up would have been a lot of fun.  We still follow you and wish you the best. 

[valpotx]

I definitely would have been at a Valpo/ORU matchup as well.

To be fair in regards to the Xavier/ORU game STL, I believe they were missing 4-5 of their main players due to those violations.  I would say that is a REALLY good reason to get creamed in D-1 basketball.  Can you imagine our back-ups playing a whole game against a solid team's starters?

[zvillehaze]

Don't forget the Human Bruise, Tom Peabody, and Per "steamer" Stumer (or was it Steumer or Stuemer?).

God that was a fun team to watch.  I still have several of their games on tape.

I don't think they quite play that way now, of course.  It was a short window, maybe 3 years.  I recall Westhead's successor tried to carry on with it the following year, but he didn't have the horses any more.  I recall a diminutive point guard and a tall, lanky center, both of whom were lesser known backups the previous year, but everybody else seemed new.  They were still playing the same way, only they were losing by 20-30 points every game (or so it seemed).  I was sorry to see the phenomenon end.

Great memory, Stl.  Here's a link to LMU's year-by-year stats and results.  http://www.lmulions.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/Year-by-Year.html  I was there for an exhibition game in November, 1991 and they committed 29 turnovers in a 130-107 loss. (http://articles.latimes.com/1991-11-15/sports/sp-1409_1_loyola-marymount-basketball)  On a side note, we lost to Valpo a few days later (http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-10852D7246F631B1.html) ... I blame it on the LA to Chicago flight!!

On a side note, that was the same week that Magic Johnson made his HIV announcement.  Being in LA during that week was very strange, to say the least.

[talksalot]

St.Marys / Creighton
Wichita State/Murray State are locks...
Northern Iowa / ORU
Akron Gets / Iona
Cleveland State  / Drexel
South Dakota State / Nevada
Davidson / Drake
Ohio / Valpo
Buffalo / Loyola MD
Oakland / Kent State
Lamar / Missouri State

OK.... so I got ONE right.... (Cleveland State and Drexel)
Oakland wound up getting Illinois State
Lamar gets George Mason in the "I Wanna Be on TV" game
Loyola (MD) gets Boston University
Everyone else got a TV game...

I think the "pairings Meister" for this event has stock in Southwest Airlines...Here are the driving distances...
Nevada to Iona:  2,707 miles
St. Mary's to Murray State:  2,223 miles
Valpo to Marymount:  2,071 miles
Long Beach State to Creighton:  1,563
...and 5 other matches are in the 1100-1200 mile range.

the two shortest commutes for a game NC-Asheville to Ohio - 357 miles, Drexel to the Wolstein center:  429 miles.


(Not to gripe, but Long Beach State and Marymount did not play each other this year... they are 26 miles apart...)

Strength of Schedule within the 26 BBuster teams?

Team and the Number of other teams within the 26 they have defeated this year:
Mo State - 4
St Marys - 3
No Iowa - 3
Creighton - 3
Ohio - 3
Valpo  - 2
ORU - 2
Drake, Nevada, Cleveland State and Akron have all defeated one
and these schools have not defeated any of the other to 25-teams in the bbuster...
New Mexico State, South Dakota State, Iona, Davidson, Murray State, Drexel, Virginia Commonwealth, Weber State, Loyola-Marymount, Old Dominion, NC-Asheville and Long Beach State

Speaking of Ohio... did anyone else find it humorous that OU is playing Asheville?  Asheville's RPI is 15 points worse than ours!

Speaking of Loyola Marymount... ya gotta love their schedule coming into this game... @ Gonzaga on 2/11 and @ St. Marys on 2/15 before playing us on the 17th.

[StlVUFan]

Don't forget the Human Bruise, Tom Peabody, and Per "steamer" Stumer (or was it Steumer or Stuemer?).

God that was a fun team to watch.  I still have several of their games on tape.

I don't think they quite play that way now, of course.  It was a short window, maybe 3 years.  I recall Westhead's successor tried to carry on with it the following year, but he didn't have the horses any more.  I recall a diminutive point guard and a tall, lanky center, both of whom were lesser known backups the previous year, but everybody else seemed new.  They were still playing the same way, only they were losing by 20-30 points every game (or so it seemed).  I was sorry to see the phenomenon end.

Great memory, Stl.  Here's a link to LMU's year-by-year stats and results.  http://www.lmulions.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/Year-by-Year.html  I was there for an exhibition game in November, 1991 and they committed 29 turnovers in a 130-107 loss. (http://articles.latimes.com/1991-11-15/sports/sp-1409_1_loyola-marymount-basketball)  On a side note, we lost to Valpo a few days later (http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-10852D7246F631B1.html) ... I blame it on the LA to Chicago flight!!

On a side note, that was the same week that Magic Johnson made his HIV announcement.  Being in LA during that week was very strange, to say the least.

Thanks for the links.  Apparently Tom Peabody was still on that 91 team, didn't remember him.  The two I was thinking of were Terrell Lowery (diminutive PG) and Chris Knight (tall lanky center).  In truth I only checked in on one game and they were losing badly.  Could have been this one:

   12/15/90     at Oklahoma             L 112-172

[IndyValpo]

Valpo connection to that LMU--Dave Wolter who worked with Paul Westhead and imported the "System" to Valpo women's hoops in the late 1980s-early 1990s preceding Keith Freeman.

His seven seasons are the seven highest average per game in our history. At least two times we averaged over 90 points per game, scored 128 in one game.  Marginal success as we were a little under .500 but so much more enjoyable to watch than the current version.  Debbie Bolen played 3.5 years and has an over 500 point and 200 assist cushion as our all-time leader. 

[StlVUFan]

I definitely would have been at a Valpo/ORU matchup as well.

To be fair in regards to the Xavier/ORU game STL, I believe they were missing 4-5 of their main players due to those violations.  I would say that is a REALLY good reason to get creamed in D-1 basketball.  Can you imagine our back-ups playing a whole game against a solid team's starters?

It's a reason.  REALLY good?  I can't agree, not with much higher profile program, presumably better recruiting, etc.  Another way to look at it is that their wounds were self-inflicted.

I can see rationalizing the loss -- obviously they were not at full strength and ORU is underrated at the very least.  But a home loss by 20+?  Maybe at the Mabee Center, but not at Xintas.

[valpo04]

I merged the BracketBusters talk from the RLH thread into this one.  Want to keep that thread on topic.

Carry on.

[StlVUFan]

I merged the BracketBusters talk from the RLH thread into this one.  Want to keep that thread on topic.

Carry on.

Good for you.  I regretted the threadjacking as soon as I realized it (just after I posted it).

[leftcoast]

Westhead, currently struggling with the same "run and gun" offense as head coach of the University of Oregon women.