Date Posted: 2/4/2008

MACON, Ga. - On Monday, ESPN announced the 50 matchups for sixth annual O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters event. ETSU will represent the Atlantic Sun and will host Tennessee Tech from the Ohio Valley Conference on Saturday, February 23.

ETSU and Tennessee Tech are former conference rivals, and the series dates back to the 1922-23 season. ETSU won the inaugural meeting 45-16. In 66 all-time meetings, the scoreboard is deadlocked at 33 wins apiece. ETSU won the last three meetings, including 65-54 decision at home on December 10, 2004 in the last game between the two schools separtated by slightly more than 200 miles. As part of BracketBusters, ETSU will travel to Cookeville, Tenn., for a return game next season.

The Golden Eagles enter Monday with a record of 10-15, but have won 7 of their last 11. Anthony Fisher, a senior guard, leads Tennessee Tech in scoring at 17.0 points per game. They feature a strong inside game with Amadi McKenzie and Daniel Northern. The duo combine to average over 26.0 points per game and 17 rebounds per game while shooting better than 53 percent from the floor. Northern has blocked 69 shots, or 42 more than the rest of the Golden Eagles combined.

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

From a pool of 100 schools, 28 will appear on the ESPN family of networks (ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Classic and broad-band network ESPN360). This year’s event will mark the first time games will be televised over three days. The event began televising games over two days in 2006, while the first three years featured every game on a Saturday.

Related Links:
 • O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters