Men's Basketball To Face UCF In Tournament Opening Round
March 05, 2006 | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2006
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IRVING, Texas --- East Carolina will face UCF in the opening round of the 2006 Conference USA Men's Basketball Championship presented by Aeropostale Wednesday night at 9:30 p.m. EST. The tournament will be held March 8-11 at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tenn.
UCF swept the season series from East Carolina, winning by five in Greenville and 20 in Orlando.
Regular season champion Memphis will be the No. 1 seed for the first time ever after winning their first outright regular season C-USA title.
As the top seed, Memphis will have a first-round bye at the tournament. Other teams receiving first-round byes include No. 2 UAB, No. 3 UTEP and No. 4 Houston. Wednesday's first round matchups feature: No. 7 Rice vs. No. 10 SMU at 1 p.m., No. 6 Tulsa vs. No. 11 Southern Miss at 3:30 p.m., No. 8 Tulane vs. No. 9 Marshall at 7 p.m., and No. 5 UCF vs. No. 12 East Carolina at 9:30 p.m. EST.
In Thursday's quarterfinal round, No. 2 UAB will take on the winner of the Rice-SMU game at 1 p.m. and No. 3 UTEP will face the winner of the Tulsa/Southern Miss matchup beginning at 3:30 p.m. No. 1 seed Memphis will take on the winner of the Tulane/Marshall game at 7 p.m., while No. 4 seed Houston will close out Thursday night against the winner of the UCF/East Carolina contest at 9:30 p.m.
The opening game of the tournament is a rematch of Saturday night's contest in Houston between SMU and Rice, which the Owls rallied to win 68-66. In the first meeting between the teams on Jan. 21 in Dallas, the Mustangs made a late run in regulation and won in overtime, 80-69.
Tulsa, which won a three-way tie-breaker with Rice and Tulane by winning head-to-head matchups with both teams, will look for its second win this season over Southern Miss. The Golden Hurricane posted a 72-63 win over the Golden Eagles in Tulsa on January 14.
Tulane and Marshall met for the first time ever on February 4 in New Orleans. The Green Wave had their best defensive performance of the season in a 61-36 victory, holding the Thundering Herd to 24 percent shooting from the field.
Memphis will enter the tournament attempting to become the third different school in C-USA history (Cincinnati and Louisville) to win the regular season and tournament titles in the same season. The Tigers advanced to the championship game of last year's C-USA Championship at FedExForum, losing a heart-breaker to Louisville, 75-74.
All games will be played at FedExForum, the state-of-the-art arena in downtown Memphis. Quarterfinal and semifinal games will be televised by CSTV. The championship game on Saturday will be broadcasted on CBS, beginning at 11:35 a.m. (EST). For ticket information, please contact your local Conference USA school's ticket office, the FedExForum box office or Ticketmaster.
