It’s official: as predicted, the BracketBusters game at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse on February 17 will pit the #13-ranked Bulldogs against Missouri Valley Conference co-leader Southern Illinois. It will be the marquee game of the entire BracketBusters event, as indicated by the fact that Kyle Whelliston, creator of midmajority.com and ESPN’s mid-major guru, will be there. And so will Becky and I, with front-row tickets near the SIU bench that we bought back in November. Woohoo! Go Salukis!
Here is Whelliston’s take on the game:
A dream matchup between two nationally ranked, giant-killing at-large candidates in the place where Hollywood shot the “Hoosiers” title game. Will Butler’s best-in-the-nation ball control vs. SIU’s sticky, sweaty pressure defense produce the best 35-33 game ever? Best to film this one in black and white.
The tip-off time has not been announced yet.
P.S. Incidentally… it’s Loy 1, Lunardi 0. :) My predictions were completely right, across the board. w00t!
P.P.S. David Mihm of The Bracket Blog says of SIU-Butler: “The winner probably earns a protected #4 seed.” I think that’s assuming too much, at least in the Salukis’ case; the Missouri Valley Conference is way too topsy-turvy to assume they’ll win enough games from here on out to make that a realistic possibility. But yeah, it certainly could happen.
UPDATE: A list of all 13 televised matchups can be found on the official BracketBusters site. The schedules will be matched up with the games as soon as they’re announced. I’m guessing the Butler-SIU game will be either the 6:00 or 8:00 game on ESPN2.
|
Categories: NCAA Basketball & Pools
|
January 29th, 2007 at 9:10:54 pm
Ahem…shouldn’t that be “Becky and I” on the diagram?
January 29th, 2007 at 10:21:00 pm
No. If I were the only one going, would it say “I”?
“Me” is correct. Convention would argue that it should say “Becky and me,” rather than “Me and Becky,” but I think that’s just a rule of politeness/convention, not a strict grammatical command. Someone correct me if I’m wrong on that.
January 29th, 2007 at 10:44:04 pm
Go Bulldogs! :P
January 30th, 2007 at 12:15:41 am
It’s going to be an electric atmosphere. Go Bulldogs!
January 30th, 2007 at 8:01:32 am
Brendan:
Just answering your previous question here so it’s easier to see: I don’t know what’s going on with the \\\\s….I fixed it this time, but I didn’t notice until they were really extended last time. It seems as though this program was making more \\\\s each time I entered a post without me noticing. I’m not really sure what to say about that…maybe I have happy pinkies.
I am still a big Raivio believer. I also think that teams that win almost every game like last year’s Gonzaga team can be more poorly equipped for tourney than ones like this year’s. (See Kansas under Roy Williams.)
Enjoy your Butler game. I think both teams are a little overrated but as you know, I’m a bit anti-mid-major.
JV
February 5th, 2007 at 4:04:37 pm
There is nothing middle of the road about these two schools facing off. It’s time we stop calling teams like Butler and SIU “mid-majors” their out of conference records, and in conference records compare with any top 25 team. If SIU or Butler were to get a 1 or 2 seed and cruise through the first couple games in the NCAA (see Duke) you would see more “mid-major” teams in the final four, if they ever got the seeding they deserved. Till then we’ll have to suffer with 7 loss Duke teams getting 2 and 3 seeds, while they get Greenlands-Aspiring nuns in the first round.
February 5th, 2007 at 4:14:40 pm
I agree with you, but the label “mid-major” refers to the conference, and more specifically to its financial resources and those of the teams. No matter how successful the teams are on the court, it is unlikely that the Southern Illinoises and Butlers of the world will ever have the same resources as the BCS-conference teams. This is mostly because of football, and it’s certainly entirely unrelated to basketball performance, but it’s the reality, and there’s no use denying it. The label “mid-major” is not bad in and of itself — it’s merely descriptive, it’s neither good nor bad. What’s bad is confusing what it describes (financial resources) with what it does not describe (basketball ability).
February 6th, 2007 at 9:52:38 am
SIU vs. Butler will be a matchup that defines what pure college basketball is all about. Watch out for the Salukis, they do not get rattled
when playing in hostile environments.
February 15th, 2007 at 2:46:32 pm
The Saluki’s will wipe the floor with Butler. Butler’s only saving grace is they are hosting it this year. A couple of nights ago, Butler struggled in putting away a Division II team. Go SIU!!
February 16th, 2007 at 11:33:33 pm
EAT EM UP!!!!
February 17th, 2007 at 9:04:56 am
SIU beat Creighton in Omaha playing against 17,000 psycho fans. Unless the ticky-tack bros. are referees Butler has a problem. Fortunately for them bad weather and travel conditions will keep the Saluki fan numbers down.
February 18th, 2007 at 9:03:58 am
SIU had great fan representation at the game. Chants of S-I-U bellowed over everything at points. It was a great game, and bottom line SIU’s defense tired Butler down. Butler didn’t get the looks they usually do, doesn’t matter that A.J. Graves was sick he still wouldn’t have been a factor. GO SIU!
February 18th, 2007 at 12:17:44 pm
Just think if the weather had been decent! Butler is a great program and should be a regular on SIU’s schedule, it has all the makings of a great rivalry and bragging rights game.
February 18th, 2007 at 12:23:00 pm
BTW, I thought AJ played well except for his scoring.