Bracket Buster Pairings.....

[Big D]

(27) Pacific Home
(30) Kent St. Home
(38) Nevada Home
(48) Miami OH Home
(52) Rice Home
(54) Ball St. Home
(67) Northern Iowa Home
(72) Hawaii Home
(80) Southwest Missouri St. Home
(82) Akron Home
(86) Bowling Green Home
(88) Western Kentucky Home
(92) Creighton Home
(95) Illinois Chicago Home
(110) Wisconsin Green Bay Home
(121) Toledo Home

(16) Southern Illinois Away
(18) Vermont Away
(22) Wichita St. Away
(32) Western Michigan Away
(46) Texas El Paso Away
(70) Buffalo Away
(73) Drexel Away
(75) Bradley Away
(78) Arkansas Little Rock Away
(81) Wisconsin Milwaukee Away
(100) Murray St. Away
(104) Oral Roberts Away
(109) Illinois St. Away
(113) Niagara Away
(117) Manhattan Away
(131) Virginia Commonwealth Away
(142) Northern Illinois Away

These are the highest RPI home and away teams (not including today's games) in the bracket buster, for which pairings are announced on January 30th (I think). Clearly, we are not going to get a good game. In fact, I predict that we pull off NIU because we both have less than stellar records, we both have no shot for an at-large bid, and we're both Illinois schools.....but that's just my prediction. I wouldn't mind seeing us land a game with Manhattan or Niagara though. What do you think?

[EzE]

I don't know about the NIU-UIC game because of their proximity. A lot of times they don't want teams so close playing together in this type of game. THey will not play any of the away teams in the top 50. So these are gone...

(16) Southern Illinois Away
(18) Vermont Away
(22) Wichita St. Away
(32) Western Michigan Away
(46) Texas El Paso Away


I doubt you see anybody in the 70s, though Bradley would be interesting to watch if it happened...

(70) Buffalo Away
(73) Drexel Away
(75) Bradley Away
(78) Arkansas Little Rock Away

We won't play UWM or ISU...
(81) Wisconsin Milwaukee Away
(109) Illinois St. Away


So we are left with these teams....
(100) Murray St. Away
(104) Oral Roberts Away
(113) Niagara Away
(117) Manhattan Away
(131) Virginia Commonwealth Away
(142) Northern Illinois Away


I think we might play Manhattan. VCU...maybe. But Manhattan is the type of team we seem to get matched up with on a regular basis.

[UICJohn]

What time are the pairings announced?

[Big D]

UICJohn said:

What time are the pairings announced?

To correct my above post, I think the pairings are announced tomorrow (Jan 31) at 4:00 EST....

[UICJohn]

Ahh okay. No problem. I thought I read elsewhere that they are given out today also.

[HackPanther]

FYI ... we just found out UWM will be playing at Hawaii at midnight (i think 11 p.m. Central) on ESPN or ESPN2.