ESPN released their Bracket Buster match-ups today. UCSB will face off against familiar foe and Big West expatriate Utah State on Friday, February 22 (Time TBA).
The game will be televised on one of the ESPN Networks. If the Gauchos are going to ball it up in Logan, UT, this game needs to be put onto ESPN2. If the Gauchos are going to have one of these lame-ass Bob Williams performances, put it on ESPNU (or at least classic, so TGM can watch the game from the comfort of the TGM lair).
Utah State is the 1st place team in the WAC currently. As a conference, kenpom.com ranks the WAC 18th RPI-wise, while the Big West is #20.
Utah State does have an RPI of 89 according to kenpom.com, as compared to the Gauchos at #96.
When comparing strength of schedule, the Gauchos have an SOS of 238, compared to Utah State's 194. The Aggies did lose to our friends up the road in SLO, Cal Poly, back on November 15. In a second Big West grudge match, the Anteaters of UCI took them down on November 17. However, the Aggies have turned it on since a 1-3 start to the season. They now sit at 15-6 and 6-1 in conference play. None of their wins really stand out as spectacular (like our victory over UNLV), but they've had several solid victories over middle-of-the-road opponents.
Believe it or not, but Utah State is one of the very teams that shoots from the charity stripe at a higher percentage that the Gauchos. They actually shoot the three about as well as we do.
Without going into a crazy analysis, it looks like the Gauchos got an opponent that can match their two biggest strengths, arguably. However, a good showing (in other words, a win) and a nice second go-round in the Big West and the Gauchos might just steal away that NCAA berth.
No comments:
Post a Comment