Bracket City USA

MAC, Knifed: A lot of watercooler talk this morning is and will be centered around the Mid-American Conference, more specifically the lack of at-large teams from such. Even Dickie V, who was born on Exit 16W but made his coaching hay in the MAC's geographical sphere of influence, was all over the cablewaves last night talking about how those poor kids got robbed, jobbed and maybe even Bobbed. Buffalo has emerged as the conference's tragic figure, this year's patron saints of getting screwed.

But having seen all of the league's elite eight with my own eyes this past week, I can understand this. When they're not rewarding prominent members' hometown schools, the Committee is planning a three-week TV extravaganza. While the three-bid Missouri Valley Conference, a/k/a the toughest mid-major league in all the land, spent the year beating each other up, they did it on regional and national television. As the MAC ate its own tail all year ( Marshall over Miami (Oh.), etc.), most faraway observers were left to gasp at the box scores and shake their heads. Me, I'm wondering if Bowlsby & Co. had a hard time finding MAC footage to review.

So while Buffalo's profile can be defended using metadata and hearsay, consider this. They've been as inconsistent as all get-out this annum. In their semifinal win over Western Michigan, their only two runs of Dance-worthy play were a 14-2 spurt midway through the second and Free Throw Time - the Broncos won the rest of the game, and some lovely parting gifts (see below).

And the reason the Bulls are not going to the Tournament the "old-fashioned way" has more to do with the way they lost the conference final than anything a printer could spit out. They blew a 19-point lead in the second half to a team that they'd beat nine out of ten times on paper or PlayStation. They were lost, unfocused and frustrated (6'1" guards repeatedly driving the lane is not a good way to break a run), and the grittier and hungrier team emerged victorious. This is the way it should be, but it also should also go back to being a 32-team Tournament of Champions. (But I digress.)

Now imagine UB facing similar adversity, this time against a four-seed from the ACC. Then imagine a voice breaking in and saying, "Greg Gumbel back in the studio here, we're going to send you out to Tucson, where..."

If I were a MAC coach, however, I'd spend some of this extra time off by getting ready for the 2005-06 Bulls right now. They are losing tough competitors in PG Turner Battle and PF Mark Bortz, but they have a big-hearted and sweet-shooting 5'11" combo called Calvin Cage and a swarthy Moroccan six-tenner named Yassin Ibihi who will step up to fill the gaps. Pencil them into next year's bracket today, because they're going to be loaded, stacked, experienced and above all, angry as hell.

Mid-Majority Armageddon: The sexiest seven-ten split evah is the Chicago bracket matchup of Southern Illinois and St. Mary's, a contest between two well-rounded squads that will be held in Oklahoma City on Friday. In a bracket slot usually reserved for two halfway-deserving power-conference teams or an uppity mid-major champion (see Creighton, Albuquerque bracket), two of our favorite TMM darlings will fight it out for a shot at a roadie against Oklahoma State. I don't want to miss a thing.

The Chosen Four: OK, so are the four most powerful mid-major teams in the land going to take up one-quarter of the Sweet Sixteen, fulfill their destiny, as well as our wildest dreams?

The Salukis seem to have the toughest road, since it both originates in and goes through the State of Oklahoma. In the Austin bracket, 13 Vermont gets what amounts to a home game against Syracuse in Worcester, with Michigan State (or, more likely, 12 Old Dominion) on the other side. Once white-trousered 8 Pacific dispatches 9 Pittsburgh in Boise, a tough one-seed in Washington awaits. Nine-seed Nevada is another 8-9 participant who'd draw a top seed: after Texas, they'd get the 1 of 1's, Illinois, in Indianapolis.

Nobody said it was easy.

Not In Tournament: If you missed the National Invitation Tournament selection special, you missed about as much excitement as the time that guy did that thing at the American Music Awards that one year. OK, so there was no big TV presentation - this bracket was quietly faxed around this morning. Let's all offer up a big collective "ouch" for Northeastern and Oral Roberts.

Because the four corners of the NIT don't have cool regional names or even directional indications, I've taken it upon myself to name them after folks who have experienced great sporting glories, only to come up just short at the end (most of them redeemed themselves later, so it's a happy thing). Remember, the opening round winners join the others in the round of 32, and their prospective opponents will be the victors of the asterisked games.

Jean Van de Velde Regional

First Round: Western Michigan at Marquette (Mon. 9 PM ET, ESPN); Texas Christian at Miami (Oh.) (Wed.); Oral Roberts at Maryland* (Wed. 9 PM ET, ESPNU)

Opening Round: Rice at Southwest Missouri State (Wed.), Davidson at Virginia Commonwealth (Wed.)

Roberto Duran Regional

First Round: Boston University at Georgetown (Wed.)*; Arizona State at Nevada-Las Vegas (Thu. 11:59 PM ET, ESPN2); Miami (Fla.) at South Carolina (Tue.)

Opening Round: Cal State Fullerton at Oregon State (Wed.); Denver at San Francisco (Wed.)

Chris Webber Regional

First Round: Northeastern at Memphis (Wed.); Temple at Virginia Tech (Tue. 8 PM ET, ESPNU); Vanderbilt at Indiana* (Tue. 8 PM ET, ESPN2)

Opening Round: Kent State at Western Kentucky (Wed.); Houston at Wichita State (Wed.)

Dan Jansen Regional

First Round: Holy Cross at Notre Dame* (Tue. 7 PM ET, ESPN2); Clemson at Texas A&M (Wed.); DePaul at Missouri (Tue., 9 PM ET, ESPN)

Opening Round: Hofstra at St. Joseph's (Wed.); Drexel at Buffalo (Wed.)

Oh, Oh, Oh, It's Magic: NCA March Magic® 2005 is complete, and I have attended 23 conference tournament games in eight days while driving 2,557 miles. I'm taking the day off to recuperate, but the last few game stories should trickle in later (pictures from all games are already posted). The 100 Games Project now stands at 93.

Bracket Wrap (the last one)

Southland: (2) Southeastern Louisiana 49, (1) Northwestern State 42 (story) - After leading the league in '04 and dropping a semifinal heartbreaker, the Lions came back with shoulder-chips and a halfcourt lockdown, the likes of which the Southland has rarely seen. After holding the three-point-happy teams of the SLC in the Forties and Fifties all year on their way to winning 23 games, wiry forward Ricky Woods (16 points) led SELU to the Promised Land in a signature muddy slog. They will now spend this week drilling against the lightning-quick transition game that O.K. State will drop on them - Pomeroy is thinking 81-29.

Southwestern Athletic: (1) Alabama A&M 72, (2) Alabama State 53 (story) -
Another instance of falsity in advertising: when the lights went up in Birmingham for the SWAC's single national telecast of the year, an un-SWAC game. Anyone who didn't scramble for the remote and switch to the Arena Football game were treated to a lights-out shooting performance (8-for-10 3FG, 24 points) by a pint-sized A&M junior guard named Obie Trotter. It was only the eighth 15+ point blowout in the league this season, the second-lowest number in the nation (Mountain West, 5). But the Bulldogs deserve their crown, because they compiled a 15-5 record in the tightest conference in Division I, and beat their in-state rivals for the third time this year.

For all their efforts, A&M gets to go to Dayton and play 12-18 Oakland. Old friend-of-the-site Bob Cook explains the Golden Grizzly fever that will await them there.

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