UW-Milwaukee, UW-Green Bay Selected for ESPN Bracket Buster Saturday TV Games
Jan. 31, 2005
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INDIANAPOLIS - Horizon League members UW-Milwaukee and UW-Green Bay have been selected to play nationally televised games in the third annual ESPN Bracket Buster Saturday, it was announced Monday (Jan. 31) by the sports network.
League-leading UW-Milwaukee (15-5, 8-2 Horizon League) will play at Hawai'i (12-5) in this year's event, which is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 19, while UW-Green Bay (14-5, 7-2) will host Illinois State (14-6) at the Resch Center. The Phoenix, who defeated UW-Milwaukee 76-72 on Saturday, are just one-half game behind the Panthers heading into Green Bay's game tonight at home against Butler.
"We are very pleased to have the top two teams in the Horizon League standings chosen to compete in Bracket Buster Saturday," said Horizon League Commissioner Jonathan B. LeCrone. "We know they will represent the League very well on national television in what continues to be an outstanding annual event on the college basketball schedule."
ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise six of the 11 Bracket Buster Saturday contests. The other five televised games will be produced and distributed in the markets of the competing teams through ESPN Regional Television and will be available nationally on ESPN FULL COURT, the network's out-of-market pay-per-view service. Game times and networks for the televised games will be announced on Tuesday, Feb. 8.
The remaining games resulting from the Bracket Buster Saturday pool also were announced Monday with five of six Horizon League teams hosting games. In games involving League teams, Valparaiso (9-11) will play at Butler (7-11), Cleveland State (7-10) at Central Michigan (7-11), Ohio (10-7) at Detroit (8-11), Georgia Southern (12-8) at UIC (10-9), Loyola (6-14) at Evansville (10-9), Northern Illinois (7-11) at Wright State (10-10), and Eastern Michigan (9-9) at Youngstown State (3-16).
"Most of the other Horizon League games resulting from the Bracket Buster pool are regional matchups that should feature quality basketball at our schools' arenas and also afford our fans the opportunity to travel to see their teams play on the road," said LeCrone. "In short, all the games resulting from the pool of teams should make for an outstanding day of college basketball around the country."
UW-Milwaukee, the preseason Horizon League favorite, is led by the League's highest scoring duo in senior guard Ed McCants (16.6 ppg) and junior forward Joah Tucker (14.1 ppg, 6.0 rpg) plus the inside presence of junior forward Adrian Tigert (9.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg). The Panthers, who had won eight straight games prior to the recent loss to UW-Green Bay, will be facing Hawai'i for the first time in school history as well as making their first regular-season trip outside the continental United States.
UW-Green Bay rebounded from back-to-back losses to win both of its games last week and move within striking distance of the League lead. The Phoenix features the League's most balanced attack behind the play of forwards Josh Lawrence (12.5 ppg) and Benito Flores (11.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg) and senior guards Matt Rohde (12.1 ppg) and Javier Mendiburu (10.6 ppg, 7.5 apg). Green Bay trails Illinois State in the all-time series 7-3 but the teams have not met since the 1998-99 season.
"With seven of the 64 Bracket Buster pool teams in the top 50 in the RPI and 26 in the top 100, and with more than two-thirds of the teams boasting winning records, this year's expanded pool was easily the biggest and best in the event's three-year history," said LeCrone. "That makes UW-Milwaukee's and UW-Green Bay's selection all the more impressive as we head into the final month of the regular season with teams positioning themselves for postseason tournament bids."
The Horizon League games resulting from participation in the Bracket Buster Saturday pool feature five regional matchups against Mid-American or Missouri Valley conference opponents, one intrastate Indiana battle (Valparaiso at Butler) and an intersectional clash between teams with winning records (Georgia Southern at UIC). The Horizon League and the Western Athletic Conference were the only two conferences whose entire membership was included in this year's ESPN Bracket Buster selection pool.
In its inaugural year, two of the three participating Horizon League teams won their Bracket Buster Saturday games as Detroit won at UC-Santa Barbara 75-59 and UIC defeated Bowling Green 83-72 at home, while UW-Milwaukee lost at Southern Illinois 66-64. Last season the Panthers lost at home to Manhattan 83-76 in the League's lone nationally televised game.
Following is a complete list of ESPN Bracket Buster games as well as games resulting from participation in the Bracket Buster pool:
ESPN Bracket Buster TV Games*
UW-Milwaukee at Hawai'i
Illinois State at UW-Green Bay
UTEP at Pacific
Vermont at Nevada
Wichita State at Miami (Ohio)
Southern Illinois at Kent State
Drexel at Ball State
Western Michigan at Northern Iowa
Buffalo at Fresno State
Arkansas-Little Rock at Bowling Green
Murray State at Rice
Bold italics indicates game involvinga Horizon League team
* Game times and networks to be announcedTuesday, Feb. 8
Games Resulting from Participation in the Bracket Buster Pool
Valparaiso at Butler
Cleveland State at Central Michigan
Ohio at Detroit
Georgia Southern at UIC
Loyola at Evansville
Northern Illinois at Wright State
Eastern Michigan at Youngstown State
Weber State at Boise State
Manhattan at George Mason
New Orleans at Louisiana Tech
San Jose State at Drake
Virginia Commonwealth at College of Charleston
Austin Peay at East Tennessee State
Bradley at Western Kentucky
Oral Roberts at Southwest Missouri State
Chattanooga at Creighton
Northern Arizona at Tulsa
Portland State at Middle Tennessee State
Cal State Northridge at Fairfield
Niagara at Akron
SMU at Toledo
