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Paul Lusk was a fan of BracketBusters when he had no dog in the fight.

"From the outside looking in the past seven or eight years, I always watched it,'' said Lusk, who spent the past seven seasons as an assistant coach at Purdue. "It's obviously a great weekend for college basketball.''

Now Missouri State's head coach, Lusk has a slightly different view. He still likes the concept, but...

"Because of BracketBusters, we have to have that three-game week early in the Valley season,'' Lusk said. "I know we went 1-2 that week. If you have a young team, and if you don't do well, it can really set you back.''

Lusk gets his first up-close look at the event this week when Missouri State hosts Old Dominion as one of the 13 BracketBusters televised games that ESPN likes to sell as part celebration of mid-major basketball and part elimination day for NCAA tournament hopefuls.

By now, you've probably formed your own opinions about the concept, which in its infancy had noble origins. It was supposed to provide a national stage for deserving programs outside of the six power conferences. It was supposed to provide teams needing a little boost a chance to enhance their tournament résumés by taking on another team in similar straits.

Over the years, it's probably served that purpose for a handful of teams. Over the years, it has grown to this year's record 71 games, most of which have little or no impact on what will transpire on Selection Sunday.

Whether it's worth it is not up for debate right now for Missouri Valley teams. The league committed its membership to participation through the 2015-16 season as part of the new contract it signed with ESPN last fall.

Obviously, the exposure it receives — both during the BracketBusters weekend as well as the rest of the season — is valuable to the league. Five Valley schools, including Creighton, are part of this season's television package, bringing to 43 the number of tube appearances the league will have made during the series.

In order to get that exposure, league schools have to put up with the condensed early-season schedule. In addition, stepping outside of league play for one day in February leads to a disruption of the championship chase.

Wichita State, closing in on a regular-season title, has little to gain or lose in college basketball's big picture by traveling halfway across the country to play at Davidson on Saturday. Barring a total collapse, the Shockers are in the NCAA tournament.

So what's the value of stepping outside of conference play instead of grinding your way to a championship? Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich asked himself that in past seasons when his Redbirds were contending for a title.

"As someone stuck in the middle right now, I see both sides of it,'' Jankovich said."I don't think it's terrible to take a break. Every game in the league season is a bear. Sometimes it's good to take a break and play someone that doesn't know everything about you.

"We all can regurgitate everybody else's favorite 10 plays and their top eight guys' tendencies. When you get out of league, you don't have that feeling. On the other hand, there is a debate whether this serves to hurt the league. I have mixed feelings about that.''

So does Creighton coach Greg McDermott, who benefitted from a couple of BracketBusters wins that might have propelled his Northern Iowa teams into the NCAA tournament when he was coaching in Cedar Falls. Still, he would prefer avoiding the early-season logjam of games that forces the league to begin play a couple of days after Christmas.

So would Ben Jacobson, who took over at Northern Iowa when McDermott left for Iowa State after the 2005-06 season.

"That's a difficult 10-day to two-week stretch that you have to navigate somehow,'' Jacobson said, "but it's the same for all of us.''

What isn't equal is the quality of opponents league teams faces. Jacobson admits Northern Iowa has been lucky over the years to avoid some of the blah matchups that the league's lesser teams get saddled with over and over again.

"This year, we get VCU on ESPN, and that gives us a national game against a national opponent,'' Jacobson said. "We've been fortunate to be in a position where we've gotten some really good teams and some of the high-profile TV games.''

ESPN's attempt to put together the most high-profile matchup this year ended up backfiring. The network matched Murray State, which was unbeaten when the pairings were announced late last month, against St. Mary's, which had the best RPI from the teams designated as road opponents.

Of course, both teams have lost since the pairings came out, taking some of the luster off the matchup.

"My players wanted Murray State,'' said Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall, whose Shockers now have the highest RPI among visiting teams. "I thought that was the matchup that we put ourselves in position to get, but it didn't happen.''

Contact the writer:

402-679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com

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