Sidelines

By Kalani Simpson

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Busted season ruins
Bracket Busters

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HAS there even been an idea that sounded this good that fell this flat?

(Aside from, say, a Christmas Day bowl doubleheader?, you ask.)

I shared enthusiasm with Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas, ESPN's basketball lobbyists. I was on board with WAC commissioner Karl "We are not a mid-major conference" Benson.

I, too, thought this was a great idea.

Then something happened.

This season happened.

Bracket Busters?

The thrill is gone, baby.

Many of these teams, in this made-for-ESPN event, are all but shut out of the Big Dance.

And that's before half of them lose today.

Bubble Busted Saturday.

Of course, there's always a chance. They could win their conference tournaments. But that only underscores the irrelevance of today's games.

Do any of them grab you?

Creighton. Yeah, I want to see the miracle Bluejays play Fresno State. But Gonzaga-Tulsa doesn't hold the excitement it once did.

None of these games does, sadly. They're just games. And Hawaii is traveling a long, long way for just another game.

"There's people trying to get me to say I don't like it," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said Wednesday night. "But we were on, as coaches, the commissioner to get more television games for the WAC. And you have to start somewhere."

That's how far this event has fallen. It started out with lots of excitement.

Now, it's "you have to start somewhere."

>> I don't want to get into a big argument about the definition of having "created a powerhouse," but I'd think the phrase "must beat Boise State" would be involved somehow.

>> Why would you pay a coach something in the neighborhood of $1 million?

According to the Oregonian, Oregon State sold 1,500 season tickets the week Dennis Erickson was hired. OSU sold a total of 11,270 season tickets in Erickson's first year, then 14,784 the next, before selling out their season-ticket allotment of 23,000 for 2001, 2002 and already for 2003.

Fund raising boomed under Erickson, the Oregonian reports, including once raking in $10 million in a single afternoon.

"Figures provided by Oregon State," the story continues, even "indicate that Erickson's arrival in 1999 might be responsible for the current enrollment explosion on campus in Corvallis."

If a coach is doing all that, for example, then it would make sense to give him $1 million.

>> A UH hoops fan called: "I had to laugh when you wrote 'don't stick a fork in them yet.' We need to stick a fork into them. We gotta get these buggahs going!"

>> A team wins, loses, wins, loses, wins (you get the picture) in a "bumpy" season, yet never falls lower than No. 2 in the rankings.

That's one talented team.

Or that's men's volleyball.

Or both.

>> By Sunday night, we'll know how excited to be about this year's Rainbow baseball team.

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Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com