Commentary:

B-Busters games

work for App State
By Steve Behr, sports editor
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Ñiagara’s 76-75 win over Appalachian State is exactly what ESPN had in mind when it started the BracketBusters series five years ago.

Appalachian State coach Houston Fancher and Niagara coach Joe Mihalich agreed that from a fan’s standpoint, the game Saturday was as entertaining as college basketball can get. The 2,103 in attendance agreed and made plenty of noise when Appalachian State rallied from a nine-point deficit. Those same fans then walked away in silence when Niagara’s Stanley Hodge drilled a 3-point shot from 25 feet to beat the Mountaineers just before the buzzer sounded.

It’s a series that the Mountaineers are going to stay in, at least for the time being. Appalachian State goes to Niagara next season and then takes to the road for another BracketBusters game. The following season, that team will return to Boone.

If Appalachian State gets absolutely nothing else from this series, at least they get a home game against a quality opponent. The Mountaineers went 0-for-2 this year in BracketBuster related games, falling to Niagara and to Wichita State in December.

No way does Wichita State, an NCAA and NIT qualifier in recent years, travel to Boone for a regular home-and-home series. Yet the Shockers were fulfilling their obligation to the Mountaineers after Appalachian State went to Wichita, Kan. and shocked the Shockers 60-58 last season.

It’s not easy for the Mountaineers to get good non-conference home games. With 20 Southern Conference games on the schedule, and with the need to schedule one or two games against either ACC or SEC foes, the non-conference schedule is limited, especially when it comes to getting home games. Often, the Mountaineers have had to settle for inviting Division II teams, just to have a chance to play at home.

This year, the Mountaineers went to Charlotte, but the 49ers return the favor next year. Hopefully, the Mountaineers can get a team such as Virginia Commonwealth, Marshall or Arkansas State, quality programs that visited the Holmes Center the past few years, to stop by and play a home-and-home series with the Mountaineers.

The BracketBusters series makes sure that, at least in every other season, Appalachian State will host two quality teams. And if the games are like the Niagara game this season and the Wichita State game last season, they’ll be worth checking out.