SoCon BracketBusters Announced!

So, we now know the BracketBuster match-ups.

In the lone televised game:

Vermont at College of Charleston 5:00 ESPNU

In other match-ups:

Ball State at Wofford
Eastern Kentucky at Western Carolina
Davidson at Presbyterian
Appalachian State at High Point

These games are important to the national perception of the SoCon. If the conference can go 4-1 or 5-0 in these games, then the whole conference will get a bump. If the conference stumbles to 1-4 or 0-5 record, the conference will drop a notch in national perception.

OK- so maybe national perception is too strong of a word. But there is no doubt that it could affect RPI numbers, and it certainly could weigh on the minds of the selection committee as they try to determine seeding for whatever team winds up coming out of the SoCon and representing the conference in the NCAA Tournament.

So, these games matter.

Ball State, Eastern Kentucky, and Vermont all are good teams that would be quality wins for the SoCon to come up with.

Coach Shulman said that he does not like BracketBusters. Most of us probably remember the 30 point annihilation at the hands of Creighton back in 2005. That trip to Nebraska was sandwiched between battles with Western Carolina and (I believe) Appalachian State. Those were important conference games. So a trip to Nebraska on Saturday in between playing key conference games on Thursday and Monday was tough.

Both have improved since then. The BracketBusters now try to prevent the longer trips as much as possible. This year the SoCon has done a little bit better job of trying to make sure the teams are off before their BracketBuster game. For example, even the Mocs only play one game between February 12 and February 21. That game is a road trip to Georgia Tech.

Next year's Mocs will be experienced and may benefit from a game like this one heading into the end of the season. I think next year may be a good year to get back involved with this thing if they can.

I wonder if Coach Shulman thinks the same thing. He may- or he may not. He may still be opposed to it. But I, for one, would like to see the Mocs get back involved next year. Maybe not every year. But next year...

GO MOCS!