Ohio coach Jim Christian does not like the ESPN BracketBuster, which features 122 schools from 13 mid-major conferences, on the basis that it has outgrown its intended purpose.
Opinion aside, the Bobcats will hit the road to face Belmont on Feb. 23, the second day of BracketBuster play, signaling a brief break from Mid-American Conference play.
The game will tip off at 10 p.m. and will be one of five aired on ESPN2.
The BracketBuster, which was founded in 2003, originally comprised nine games, all of which appeared on TV. It ballooned to well more than twice its size the next year and jumped to about 50 games for the next six seasons before increasing to 57 in 2011 and swelling to 71 last year.
“It’s a great opportunity to play good teams, but what it’s originally intended to do, it’s not doing anymore, because it’s so big and there’s so many teams in it,” Christian said.
The Bobcats’ game against Belmont (19-4, 10-0 Ohio Valley Conference) will be the last-ever BracketBuster game, being that the pool will not return in 2014 and the Bobcats take the court in its last available time slot.
Belmont is rated No. 18 in the RPI rankings — the best among BracketBuster teams.
Ohio (15-6, 6-1 Mid-American Conference) has won six of its nine all-time BracketBuster games, most recently a 19-point thumping of the University of North Carolina at Asheville at The Convo last season.
The Bobcats’ first BracketBuster game was in 2004, the pool’s second year of existence, when they fell by three to Butler.
Perhaps their most significant BracketBuster game was the year after, when they bested Detroit by a single point on the road.
Christian said that at that point, ESPN tipped its hand to teams about their opponent earlier in the year or even in the summer so teams had a more realistic preparation timetable, as opposed to the current system in which coaches learn of the matchups only a bit before the network releases them.
Remnants of BracketBuster play will return next season, as each home team is required to play their selected opponent on its home court early next season.
The Bruins are led by a senior backcourt duo of Kerron Johnson and Ian Clark, the latter of whom leads the nation with a .514 three-point shooting percentage and averages 19 points per game.
Johnson averages 14 points per game and leads the team in assists.
Ohio redshirt senior guard Walter Offutt said many of the Bobcats planned on tuning into the selection show in anticipation of their BracketBuster verdict.
“That’s something you pay attention to and is something where you want a big game,” he said.
jr992810@ohiou.edu
