Basketball BracketBuster Impact

By Broadside Writer Fox Parker

The George Mason University men’s basketball team will play against the Creighton Bluejays at 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 21 on ESPNU as a part of ESPN’s BracketBusters series.

The Bluejays are 20-6 overall and 10-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference with their most notable win against Dayton, who beat the Patriots 66-62 earlier this season. Mason played Creighton in November of 2005 and 2006. Creighton won both of those games, the first by 20 in Fairfax and the second by two in Omaha.

Creighton has an impressive basketball history with 16 NCAA tournament appearances and a 9-17 record in tournament games. Their most recent appearance was in 2007 when the Bluejays were beaten 77-71 by Nevada in the first round.

“[Creighton is] perennially one of the very best teams in the very tough Missouri Valley Conference.” said Mason Head Coach Jim Larranaga. “It would be a fantastic feather in our cap if we are able to beat them.”

This is the second time the Patriots have faced an MVC opponent in BracketBusters. Wichita State hosted Mason in 2006. The Patriots won that game and won next time the teams met, in the third round of the 2006 NCAA tournament.

“Mason has benefited greatly from ESPN Bracketbuster.” said Assistant Athletic Director Maureen Nasser. “Mason entered the [Wichita State] game just outside the national top 25 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll. After that game, the Patriots were ranked 25th… Mason lost in the CAA tournament but earned the CAA’s first at-large bid into the NCAA tournament.”

It is safe to say that the exposure of the Wichita State win was vital to Mason’s first at-large bid. Without that at-large bid, that Final Four banner would not be hanging in the rafters of Patriot Center.

The Patriots have not won a BracketBuster game since the 2006 win at Wichita State. They lost to Kent State in 2007 and at Ohio last year.

This year, Mason will be on the road for the BracketBuster match-up. That doesn’t bode well for the Patriots as each of their eight losses have come on the road.

“…I think for anybody in our league their thought needs to be—win the CAA tournament,” said Larranaga.

The Patriots need to deal with the here and now because the thought of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament has all but dissipated. The only semi-realistic chance of an at-large bid will come from winning all of the team’s remaining regular season games, including Creighton, and making an appearance in the CAA championship game. Even then, an NCAA bid is not assured.