The hits keep on coming for the Gospel and now it's time for one of the more intriguing events of the season in the Bracket Busters. The theory behind it is sound as mid-majors get a crack at picking up another victory to add to their tournament resume. The execution isn't very sound as there are way too many games that just don't mean a thing. Sure, some of these teams can use this game as momentum, but how many squads really want to play a non-conference game in the heat of conference play. Kent State is going to go thru a stretch of three games in six days beginning Friday night in Philadelphia against Drexel.
There are some cases where it'll be a HUGE help to the team. Take the headlining contest between Utah State and St. Mary's for example. The winner of this game will get a much needed boost to their resume while the loser will probably dig themselves a bigger hole. The Gaels need this a lot more because they are home and are coming off a loss to San Diego whose RPI was in the 300's. Utah State has played very few good teams this season losing to their toughest opponents along the way to a gaudy record. VCU needs their game with Wichita State on Friday night to help their tournament resume. The Rams losing twice in a row at home to CAA opponents made this even more important.
Anyways, this event allows the public to view the mid major teams that they'd normally shun on the weekends. It also gives the road teams a chance to take on their opponent at home the next season. Utah State will get the Gaels at their place next season. As an aside, please youtube the Utah State student section. This is one of the most underrated sections in college basketball. These students have great passion and great cheers. They could actually be cheering the Gospel as we continue our win streak hitting two overs yesterday. Tonight's pick doesn't have a number yet, but we qualified it in the writeup. If the number that comes out doesn't fit this, then there is no pick. Why waste the win streak on a weak card?
Weber State/San Jose State Over -- The total for this contest isn't out as of this writeup, but as long as this number is anywhere up to 150 or so, I'm on the over. Bracket Buster games involving teams that don't really involve teams with a postseason future are good chances for teams to get up and down and have some fun. Weber State is 15-9, 9-4 in the Big Sky. They score almost 74 points per game while giving up 67.8. This is a team that has scored at least 70 points in five of their last six with that sixth game putting up 68. The Wildcats lost leading scorer Damian Lillard after nine games, but Scott Bamforth (12.7 ppg), Lindsey Hughey (12.4 ppg), Kyle Bullinger (10.6 ppg) and Trevor Morris (10.3 ppg) have picked up the slack. They'll face a San Jose State team allergic to playing defense as they've allowed 75 points per contest. They'd have a better record if this was fixed because they score almost 75 per game as well. Adrian Oliver (24.5 ppg), Justin Graham (15.7 ppg) and Keith Shamburger (11.6 ppg) lead the way for the Spartans. This team has allowed 70 points or more in four straight and five of their last six contests. They've scored over 70 in four of those games over that same time period. My theory is that games like this produce high scores considering the lack of anything at stake.
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