WCC Wednesday? Thanks Bracket Busters!

There is a rare Wednesday WCC game tonight at 7:30. Loyola Marymount (16-10, 9-4WCC) heads north to Moraga for a game against the 16th ranked Saint Mary's Gaels (23-3 12-1WCC). Both teams are participating in this year's Bracket Busters event.
Bracket Busters is a much larger event than I thought, 142 teams (there are 344 total D-1 teams). The event is quite a bit larger than it's name would suggest, as the number 344 team according to the RPI (yes, that is the worst team in the nation) Binghamton is participating. Binghamton has absolutely no chance of busting any brackets, they're winless on the season. The closest the WCC comes is Santa Clara, which is only winless in conference. Binghamton's is in the America East conference, which is represented in its entirety in the event, despite it's highest ranking team being the RPI No. 151 Vermont Catamounts. 5 WCC schools rank higher than Vermont at this point in the season, Gonzaga (16), Saint Mary's (25), BYU (47), Loyola Marymount (107) and San Francisco (149).

Despite being outrageously over-sized for an event that aims to bring exposure to mid and low major conference schools heading into Selection Sunday there are 13 games that actually matter. These 13 are televised by the ESPN family of networks. Saint Mary's and Loyola Marymount are both playing on TV. LMU hosts Valparaiso Friday at 6pm and Saint Mary's travels to Murray State Saturday at 3pm.

So due to those games LMU plays Saint Mary's tonight. This is a very exciting match up to think about and should be a good game. The Lions are somehow a better team on the road. Saint Mary's is in the WCC's driver's seat. Winning out would clinch the conference title for them and them alone, something no team has managed to do other than Gonzaga for the past 11 seasons. Saint Mary's is undefeated at home this year, and Loyola Marymount's only conference road loss came this past Saturday at Gonzaga. Because Gonzaga also defeated Saint Mary's last week this game will be quite interesting for the conference title hunt. A Saint Mary's loss would drop their lead over the Zags to just half a game, due to this being played a day before the rest of the conference plays. It would also push the Lions to a half game ahead of BYU for third place. Saint Mary's has won 11 straight in this series, including the 7 home games.

While this should be a competitive game, the result of which will go a long way to determining who wins the conference, it's also on a Wednesday! Since you won't get to watch WCC basketball on a Wednesday for who knows how long you should tune in. (While I was looking for broadcast information I found out that ESPN Australia carries Saint Mary's games, nice!)

TV: Live, Comcast Sports Net California, ESPN Australia. Tape delay (10pm), Prime Ticket.
Radio: KXLU 89.5 FM in L.A.  (streaming online at kxlu.com).