DENVER - The second annual Bracket Buster Saturday is today and the WAC has five teams that will be playing in the 46-team event. All five contests will be televised.
The WAC has two teams that will be showcased by ESPN and ESPN2. Tulsa hosts Gonzaga in a 6:00 p.m. ET contest that will be shown by ESPN2. At midnight eastern, Hawaii travels to Southern Illinois for an ESPN matchup.
In other WAC action, Rice hosts Louisiana-Lafayette at 1:00 p.m. ET, East Tennessee State plays at Fresno State in a 3:00 ET game, and Nevada hosts Toledo at 9:00 ET. All three games will be produced by ESPN Regional Television (ERT) and will be available to the local markets of the competing teams as well as ESPNs Full Court package.
The second annual Bracket Buster Saturday was created two years ago as a partnership between ESPN, the WAC and several other top college basketball conferences in an attempt to match potential NCAA tournament hopefuls against each other and to give those teams additional television opportunities. The 46 teams in the field feature five teams from the WAC, 13 from the Mid-American Conference, 10 from the Missouri Valley Conference, eight from the Horizon League, three from the Sun Belt Conference and two from the Southern Conference, plus single teams from the Big West Conference, Colonial Athletic Association, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Ohio Valley Conference and West Coast Conference.
While each conference selects their participating teams prior to the season and designates teams for home or road games, the matchups, including the nationally televised games, were determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences.
2004 ESPN Bracket Buster Saturday WAC MatchupsLouisiana-Lafayette at Rice, 1:00 p.m., ERT
E. Tennessee St. at Fresno St., 3:00 p.m., ERT
Gonzaga at Tulsa, 6:00 p.m., ESPN2
Toledo at Nevada, 9:00 p.m., ERT
Hawaii at Southern Illinois, 12:00 a.m., ESPN
Other Televised Games on Bracket Buster SaturdayCreighton at Kent State, 12:00, ESPN2
Manhattan at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2:00, ESPN2
College of Charleston at Western Mich., 4:00, ESPN2
Southwest Missouri State at Miami (Ohio), 5:00, ERT
Austin Peay State at Wichita State, 7:00, ERT
(all times eastern)
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