The BracketBuster matchups are announced

2009 ESPNU BracketBusters Field Announced
Courtesy: WAC
2/02/2009

Pairings for the seventh annual ESPNU BracketBusters – a multi-day men’s basketball event matching NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other on Friday, Feb. 20 and Saturday, Feb. 21 -- were announced today. There are three WAC teams that will have televised games, including Nevada hosting Virginia Commonwealth on Friday, Feb. 20. On Saturday, Feb. 21, No. 22 Utah State will travel to Saint Mary’s, while Boise State will travel to Portland State.

The field features two ranked, one-loss teams, #11 Butler and #22 Utah State, and the return of last season’s BracketBusters participant Davidson, which made it to the Elite Eight in the 2007-08 NCAA Tournament.

Game times and network assignments for the matchups will be announced Monday, Feb. 9. ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network, will televise six BracketBusters games, while ESPN360.com, ESPN’s customized broadband service, will offer one. ESPN2 will televise five contests and ESPN will have one game. ESPN360.com will also simulcast the ESPN and ESPN2 telecasts. ESPNU BracketBusters will feature 13 nationally televised games selected from a pool of 102 teams. The matchups are highlighted by #11 Butler against Davidson, both undefeated in conference play, and #22 Utah State against Saint Mary’s, a 2008 NCAA Tournament participant that has been among the nation’s top 25 teams this season as recently as last week.

2009 ESPNU BracketBusters Pairings

Friday, Feb. 20

Virginia Commonwealth at Nevada
Illinois State at Niagara

Saturday, Feb. 21

George Mason at Creighton
#11 Butler at Davidson
Miami (OH) at Evansville
Hofstra at Fairfield
Green Bay at Long Beach State
Liberty at Old Dominion
Boise State at Portland State
#22 Utah State at Saint Mary's
Northern Iowa at Siena
Buffalo at Vermont
Northeastern at Wright State

The ESPNU BracketBusters concept, named because of the success of teams from these conferences in NCAA Tournament play through the years, provides participating programs with an opportunity to play top non-conference opponents about three weeks before Selection Sunday. Each conference selected its participating teams before the season, and the matchups for the event were determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences.

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. 21. Those matchups are as follows:

UC Irvine at Hawai‘i
Cal State Northridge at Idaho
UC Riverside at San Jose State
Cal State Fullerton at New Mexico State
Fresno State at UC Davis
Louisiana Tech at Murray State