Virginia Beach, Va., Feb. 3, 2009 - The 2007-08 regular season men’s basketball champion Morgan State Bears have been selected to compete in the seventh annual ESPNU BracketBusters.
The Bears are the first MEAC team to participate in the two-day men’s basketball event that pits 102 potential NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other three weeks prior to Selection Sunday.
“We are very excited about the MEAC’s participation in ESPNU BracketBusters and are pleased that Morgan State is the conference representative,” said MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas. “We feel that ESPNU BracketBusters provides our teams with great national exposure and look forward to our continued participation in this event.”
Morgan State will face the Colonial Athletic Association’s (CAA) and Baltimore rival Towson Tigers on Saturday, Feb. 21. The game is slated for a 4 p.m. start at Towson Center.
The Bears are number one in MEAC standings with a 7-2 mark and 12-10 overall record including non-conference wins against the Big East’s DePaul, Conference-USA’S Marshall and the ACC’s Maryland.
The Tigers are currently 8-15 overall and 3-8 in the CAA. The Bears and Tigers have faced one another on 22 previous occasions and are even in the series matchup with 11 wins each. Towson defeated Morgan State 71-66 in the last meeting on November 28, 2005.
This year’s BracketBusters pool features teams with 77 appearances in the last six NCAA Tournaments, including a team in the Final Four (George Mason, 2006); one in the Elite Eight (Davidson, 2008); seven Sweet Sixteen squads (Butler, ’07, Southern Illinois, ’07, Bradley, ’06, Wichita State, ’06, UW-Milwaukee, ’05, Nevada, ’04 and Butler, ’03).
ESPNU BracketBusters will feature 13 nationally televised games?on ESPNU or ESPN360.com?selected from a pool of 102 teams.
The 102-team field features 12 teams from the Mid-American Conference and Colonial Athletic Association; 10 from the Ohio Valley, Missouri Valley, Horizon League and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference; nine from the Western Athletic Conference and Big West; four from the America East and Southern; three from the Big South; two from the Big Sky, the Summit League and the West Coast Conference; and one from the MEAC, Northeast and Patriot League.