Weber St. a 'bracket buster'

OGDEN — Big Sky Conference men's basketball teams from Weber State, Northern Arizona and Portland State have been selected to play in the third-annual ESPN Bracket Buster Saturday.

ESPN announced the 64-team pool on Wednesday morning. Bracket Buster Saturday features teams from 13 conferences and will be held on Feb. 19. ESPN will televise 11 of the games. The pairings will be announced in January, along with the schedule of televised games.

This is the first time Big Sky Conference teams have been included in the Bracket Buster Saturday.

"In thinking of mid-major conferences in the NCAA, the Big Sky has to be included," said Big Sky Conference Commissioner Doug Fullerton. "We're really pleased to have three teams in the pool this year. We have three quality teams in this year's pool."

Weber State, coached by Joe Craves, also finished 15-14 last season. The Wildcats have participated in the NCAA tournament a Big Sky-record 12 times

Two Big Sky Conference regular-season games have been changed to accomodate the invited teams. Weber State will now play at Portland State on Jan. 1. Montana will travel to Northern Arizona on February 28.

"We couldn't be happier with the response we've been getting from various leagues and institutions about taking part in this event," said Burke Magnus, director of programming and acquisitions at ESPN.

Last year's Bracket Buster Saturday featured 46 teams from 11 conferences. Ten of the games were televised.