Pairings for the sixth annual O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters ? a multi-day men’s basketball event matching NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other on Friday, Feb. 22, Saturday, Feb. 23 and a special telecast on Sunday, Feb. 24 -- were announced today. There are three WAC teams that will have televised games, including Utah State hosting UC Santa Barbara on Friday, Feb. 22. On Saturday, Feb. 24, Nevada will travel to Southern Illinois, while Boise State will host Siena.
The selections are highlighted by #15 Drake (20-1 record) at #11 Butler (19-2), in a showdown between two teams with the best records and highest rankings in event history. ESPNU will offer a special half-hour selection show breaking down the matchups this evening at 6:30 p.m. ET.
ESPN2 will televise six ESPNU BracketBusters contests, ESPNU will televise five, ESPN360.com, ESPN’s customized broadband service, will offer coverage of two and for the first time, ESPN Classic will televise one. Game times and network assignments for the 14 matchups will be announced Monday, Feb. 11. The 28 ESPNU BracketBusters teams were selected from a pool of 100 schools. This year’s event will mark the first time games will be televised over three days. The event began televising games over two days in 2006, while the first three years featured every game on a Saturday.
Game times and networks will be announced next week.
ESPNU BracketBusters event pairings:
Friday, February 22
UC Santa Barbara at Utah State
Davidson at Winthrop
Saturday, February 23
#15 Drake at #11 Butler
Kent State at #23 Saint Mary’s
Virginia Commonwealth at Akron
Marist at Cleveland State
Siena at Boise State
Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Bradley
Rider at Cal State Northridge
George Mason at Ohio
Creighton at Oral Roberts
Nevada at Southern Illinois
Miami (Ohio) at Valparaiso
Sunday, Februray 24
Wright State at Illinois State
The other six teams of the WAC that were not selected to compete in a BracketBusters television game will play non-conference opponents on Saturday, Feb. 23. Those matchups are as follows:
Hawai`i at Cal-Riverside
Idaho at Cal-Irvine
San Jose State at Pacific
Long Beach State at New Mexico State
Cal Poly at Fresno State
Samford at Louisiana Tech