This will be all for one night. I ran this on Saturday before Idaho State played Cal State-Fullerton.
dangell@journalnet.com
If it were up to Idaho State men's basketball coach Joe O'Brien, the Bengals would not be playing Cal State-Fullerton at 7 p.m. tonight at Reed Gym.
He has no problem with playing the Titans, but he'd rather be playing them early in the season, not as he's trying to lead the Bengals on a late charge to the Big Sky tournament. However, he doesn't see much point in complaining about what he can't control.
“At least we're home and everybody's doing it,” he said. “That's the way I'm looking at it, because there's nothing I can do about it.”
O'Brien admitted he opposed the conference's decision to require the league to play in BracketBusters, and he was hardly alone. All nine coaches opposed the decision, with their reactions ranging from acceptance to fury.
“The schedule's ridiculous,” said one coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “What does this (game) have to do with anything? At some point, you go, 'Who are you trying to kid?' This is such a joke.”
Big Sky commissioner Doug Fullerton heard the complaints from the league's coaches, but decided to put the league in the event anyway because he thought it would improve the league's image.
He said the league's teams should be playing at least four Division I home games outside of the Big Sky and saw this as a way to improve that number.
“Everybody in basketball is connected to everybody else,” Fullerton said. “If someone like Idaho State plays on the road and has losses, they bring those losses back into the league and destroy everyone's RPI. We have got to get a more balanced schedule or we are going to continually not be able to raise the RPI of even our best ball clubs.”
Several coaches said that was nonsense. One said that despite the coaches being united in opposing the event and the league's athletic directors being split evenly on the issue, the commissioner forced it down their throats without a vote for reasons he can't understand.
“He believes he's smarter than us and he knows what's best for us better than we do,” a league coach said. “But we do this all day, every day. This is our life. I know what is better for (my) basketball program than Doug Fullerton does.
“At one point, he said 'All you guys are trying to do is win 20 games and keep your job'. Well, yeah, we're all trying to win 20 games. How is that bad for the conference?”
Playing in BracketBusters was part of a three-part plan by a committee formed two years ago to find ways for the Big Sky to raise its profile. However, the Big Sky's action there annoyed coaches because the league has not followed the other recommendations.
One of the recommendations that has not come to fruition was the scheduling of a home-and-home challenge with one or more of the Western Athletic, West Coast or Big West conferences.
Unanimously, the coaches said they would be in favor of such an event if it was played in November or December, with one asking what had happened to that idea.
Montana State coach Brad Huse, who coached his team in the event last year when it was not required, was subdued on the issue. He didn't like having to play a non-conference game late in the season any more than the other coaches, but since the league is locked into the event unless it asks out, he wasn't going to waste time arguing.
Fullerton said that the event's benefits to the league's teams were twofold. Montana earned an appearance on ESPN2 against Long Beach State, which Fullerton said helps the league's exposure. His second point was that the rules of BracketBusters require the teams matched up to meet again the next season at the other team's home court outside of the event, guaranteeing a home-and-home series for teams that have had trouble getting games.
Montana coach Wayne Tinkle understood that, but although his team benefited the most from BracketBusters, even he had reservations.
“The thing the coaches don't like is that it disrupts the league schedule,” Tinkle said. “Hopefully we can represent well, but we'll be happy to get it behind us and return to league play.”
The return game was little consolation to the league's coaches. Before matchups were announced, one coach feared that his team would draw Hawaii, which would force him to play a very costly return game in the next two years. Another was unhappy about throwing additional travel onto an already difficult week and trying to pay for a flight with just 18 days notice, and a third said that their matchup could actually cost his team a home game because it had an agreement in place with the team it was assigned to play for next season.
Northern Arizona coach Mike Adras said that last example was why the guaranteed return game isn't much incentive for the coaches to participate because they're usually facing teams they could easily schedule. His other issue was that BracketBusters is no longer what it used to be because too many teams play in the event, which waters it down.
“Five years ago, BracketBusters was a really good event that had great matchups,” Adras said. “There's over 100 teams now, the most teams to participate, and who cares about Sac State and Southeast Missouri State? What does that have to do with BracketBusters?”
Both Eastern Washington coach Kirk Earlywine and Portland State coach Tyler Geving said they don't mind that BracketBusters exists. They would just rather their teams spend that time playing conference games because the chances that their team — or even their league — might benefit from BracketBusters is very slim.
“I'm a big fan of the BracketBuster for the Missouri Valley or the Colonial,” Earlywine said. “It can really help Utah State or St. Mary's. For leagues trying to get a second or third team in the NCAA tournament, I think there's tremendous value. I don't think there is for us in the Big Sky.”
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