Posted on: Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Wallace praises Bracket Buster

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Western Athletic Conference is committed to another year of ESPN's Bracket Buster Saturday.

The University of Hawai'i men's basketball team wants back in again, too.

UH head coach Riley Wallace said he would be willing to participate in Bracket Buster Saturday next year, even if it means traveling to the Eastern Time zone again.

He said the national exposure and a chance to earn revenue down the line are factors enough.

"You always want a home game for something like this so you can show off your own arena and fans," he said. "But if you can get exposure for your program, you take it where ever you can get it."

In last Saturday's inaugural Bracket Buster, the Rainbow Warriors beat Kent State, 79-78, in a game televised by ESPN2.

"There were updates on the games all day, and I've heard from a lot of people who watched our game," Wallace said.

The 'Bows traveled more than 4,500 miles to get to Kent, Ohio, and posted their first victory in the Eastern time zone since 1974.

WAC teams combined to go 1-3 in the Bracket Buster, with only Hawai'i emerging victorious.

"Anytime you lose, it works against you," Wallace said. "But I thought Tulsa and Fresno State played well and just came up short. I think they still made good showings for the WAC."

Tulsa lost at Gonzaga, 69-60; Fresno State lost at Creighton, 67-66. Also, Louisiana Tech lost to visiting Northern Iowa, 76-71.

"From a WAC standpoint, we certainly would have enjoyed a couple more wins out of it," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said. "But the early analysis is that it turned out to be a very, very good exposure opportunity for the WAC."

According to Benson, no outside revenue is awarded to any of the teams involved in Bracket Buster. The home teams get to keep the gate receipts; the visiting teams must pay for their own travel expenses.

To compensate the visiting teams, a "return" game has been set up for next season. All the teams that traveled for a Bracket Buster game will get a home game in either November or December against one of the teams that hosted.

It is important to note that those early season games will not be considered part of Bracket Buster and are not scheduled to be televised nationally.

Hawai'i, for example, will host UC Santa Barbara in November and will not have to pay the Gauchos any travel guarantees.

If the 'Bows can draw close to a sellout crowd for that game, Wallace said the Bracket Buster will become a money-maker for the program.

"We were already scheduled to make this road trip, so we just had to add on Kent State," Wallace said from Tulsa, Okla., where the 'Bows will play a WAC game against Tulsa tomorrow. "We had to pay our own way for it, but we can make up for it with that game (against Santa Barbara)."

Next year's Bracket Buster will likely take place in late February again.

The problem for the WAC — and Hawai'i — is selecting the four teams to participate. Benson said this year's selections were based on recent history.

"It was pretty clear a year ago that those were the four teams we needed to put forward," Benson said.

But this season, the WAC race has been unpredictable from the start, and several teams will be clamoring for a spot in Bracket Buster.

Hawai'i is in seventh place, but Wallace said he is cautiously optimistic that the 'Bows will get in again next year.

"I think they'll also need to project how your team will be (next season) and we get almost everybody back," Wallace said. "If all those guys come back healthy, we'll be picked right up there at the top of the conference."