[Sly Fox]

I realize we have known this for some time. Not surpringly we are on the road like Winthrop. CCU will host their matchup. Today ESPN officially unveiled the field and for the first time we are in:

Liberty Men's Hoops Selected to Participate in ESPN's BracketBuster



Liberty University will be among a field of 102 teams scheduled to compete for one of the 13 BracketBuster nationally-televised games, was announced today by ESPN. The event will be held February 16-17, and marks Liberty’s first appearance in the five year-series.

Liberty joins fellow Big South members Winthrop and Coastal Carolina in the BracketBuster field. The Big South went 2-1 last year in the BracketBusters, its first-ever involvement in the event. Winthrop defeated MAC member Northern Illinois in double overtime, 98-97, while UNC Asheville won at OVC member Eastern Kentucky, 83-77. High Point fell in the closing minutes at MAAC member Loyola (Md.), 77-71. In this year’s series, Coastal Carolina has drawn a home game while Winthrop and Liberty will play road contests.

“As a program we are honored to have an opportunity to participate in the ESPN BracketBusters field,” commented head coach Randy Dunton. “It presents quality competition with a tournament game atmosphere. This is valuable experience for our players and can be used effectively for post season preparation.”

Liberty is scheduled to play on February 17th against an opponent that will be announced by ESPN approximately three weeks prior to the contest.

Home and road team designations for those subsequent contests have been determined and are listed here.

Thirteen of the 51 match-ups pitting potential NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other will be televised nationally, highlighted by a total of six games on ESPN2. An additional five games will be aired on ESPNU – ESPN’s 24-hour collegiate sports network which launched on March 4, 2005 – and two on ESPN360 – ESPN’s customized broadband service.

The remainder of the Liberty Men’s Basketball schedule will be released later this week.

http://libertyflames.com/index.cfm?PID= ... 00&TeamID=

[LUconn]

Creighton, Drake, Illinois State, Indiana State, Missouri State, Wichita State, Montana, Northern Arizona, Cal Poly, Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, Delaware, George Mason, Georgia State, Hofstra, Northeastern, Virginia Commonwealth, Butler, Illinois-Chicago, Loyola (Illinois), Wright State, Youngstown State, Fairfield, Marist, Niagara, Rider, Siena, Akron, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan, Oral Roberts, Morehead State, Samford, Southeast Missouri State, Tennessee-Martin, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, Bucknell, Chattanooga, UNC-Greensboro, Boise State, Fresno State, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico State, San Francisco.

We will play one of these teams.

[TIMSCAR20]

I had a conversation with Coach Dunton about this the other night and he said that the location of these games is not in stone. If you can show that you are getting major attendance and you are having a great season, there is a reasonable chance you can get a home game. I have to agree with him. Not saying it will happen but it would be nice if we were averaging 7 or 8 K per game or at least starting to draw great crowds in Jan and Feb that ESPN would award Liberty with a home game. So lets get the attendance up this year for sure. I think if Football does well and the community outreach continues to move in a positive direction under Jeff Barber, that we could have a great year in terms of attendance. I can tell you this, Brew/Blair backcourt is going to be worth the price of admission. Dunton was around for Alston's last season so he got to coach him and he was teasing me a little about how I wax nostalgic about my old backcourt mate. He told me that these guys could make me forget about Alston before it is all over. I have seen Brew play in pickup games and of course at Providence and I know he is the real deal. We all know what LB can do as well.

[LUconn]

The great thing about this being in Feb. is that Brew will have around 2 months with the team under his belt. We should be clicking by then.

[jcmanson]

Scar, you have got me all pumped up, and I can't wait 'til the season starts! Should be a great one!

[TIMSCAR20]

I know JC. I think this will be a year we will remember for football and basketball and the school as a whole. Record attendance, big time transfers and facilities upgrades has everyone excited about this school year. Hopefully it will manifest itself in Wins and fan participation.