March 7, 2010

2010 Conference USA Tournament Bracket in PDF Format

IRVING, Texas - The East Carolina men's basketball earned the 10th seed at the 2010 GMC Sierra Conference USA Men's Basketball Championship, March 10-13 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla. The Pirates finished the regular season with a conference record of 4-12.

ECU will face seventh-seeded Houston on Wednesday, March 10, at 1p.m. EST/12 p.m. CST in the opening game of the tournament. The Pirates lost to the Cougars inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum, 74-55, on Jan. 16 in their only meeting of the season. ECU trails the all-time series, 2-7. The two have met in the C-USA once previously with the Cougars knocking the Pirates out in the first round of the 2002 championship, 58-49.

Regular season champion UTEP will be the No. 1 seed. The Miners, ranked as high as No. 21 in the country, enter the conference tournament as the No.1 seed for the first time, owning an overall record of 24-5 (15-1 in C-USA) and a current winning streak of 14 games.

As the top seed, UTEP will have a first-round bye at the tournament. Other teams receiving first-round byes include No. 2 Memphis, No. 3 UAB and No. 4 Marshall. Other Wednesday's first-round match-ups feature: No. 6 Southern Miss vs. No. 11 Tulane at 2:30 p.m., No. 5 Tulsa vs. No. 12 Rice at 6 p.m., and No. 8 SMU vs. No. 9 UCF at 8:30 p.m. CT.

In Thursday's quarterfinal round, No. 2 Memphis will take on the winner of the Houston-East Carolina game at Noon and No. 3 UAB will face the winner of the Southern Miss-Tulane match-up beginning at 2:30 p.m. No. 4 seed Marshall will battle either Tulsa or Rice at 6:30 p.m., while top-seeded UTEP will close out Thursday night against the winner of the SMU-UCF contest at 9 p.m. CBS College Sports will televise all four quarterfinal games.

All games will be played at BOK Center, the state-of-the-art arena in downtown Tulsa. In addition to the quarterfinal games, semifinal games will be shown on CBS College Sports at 3 and 5:30 (CST). CBS will broadcast the championship game on Saturday, beginning at 10:35 a.m. (CST). For ticket information, please visit ConferenceUSA.com; contact your local Conference USA school's ticket office, the BOK Center box office or Ticketmaster.

2010 GMC Sierra Conference USA Championship
BOK Center, Tulsa, Okla.

Wednesday, March 10
(7) Houston vs. (10) East Carolina Noon
(6) Southern Miss vs. (11) Tulane 2:30p

(5) Tulsa vs. (12) Rice 6:00p
(8) SMU vs. (9) UCF 8:30p

Thursday, March 11
(2) Memphis vs. HOU/ECU (CBS College Sports) Noon
(3) UAB vs. USM/TLN (CBS College Sports) 2:30p
(4) Marshall vs. Tulsa/Rice (CBS College Sports) 6:30p
(1) UTEP vs. SMU/UCF (CBS College Sports) 9:00p

Friday, March 12
*Semifinal # 1 (CBS College Sports) 3:00p

*Semifinal # 2 (CBS College Sports) 5:30p

Saturday, March 13
Championship (CBS) 10:35a

*highest remaining seed entering the semifinals will play at 3:00 p.m.
All Times Central