March 7, 2009

Complete Tournament Bracket in PDF Format

IRVING, Texas - Ninth-seeded East Carolina will face eighth-seeded Tulane in the opening round of the 2009 Conference USA Championship on Wednesday, March 11, at 7 p.m. EST at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tenn. The Pirates and Green Wave split their regular season series with each team winning on its home floor.

The Memphis Tigers, ranked No. 3 in the country, enter the conference tournament as the No.1 seed for the fourth year in a row, owning a record of 28-3 and the nation's longest winning streak at 22 games.

As the top seed, Memphis will have a first-round bye at the tournament. Other teams receiving first-round byes include No. 2 Tulsa, No. 3 UAB and No. 4 UTEP. Other first-round match-ups on Wednesday feature: No. 7 Marshall vs. No. 10 Rice at Noon, No. 6 UCF vs. No. 11 Southern Miss at 2:30 p.m. and No. 5 Houston vs. No. 12 SMU at 8:30 p.m. CT.

In Thursday's quarterfinal round, No. 2 Tulsa will take on the winner of the Marshall-Rice game at Noon and No. 3 UAB will face the winner of the UCF-Southern Miss match-up beginning at 2:30 p.m. No. 1 seed Memphis will battle either Tulane or East Carolina at 6 p.m., while No. 4 seed UTEP will close out Thursday night against the winner of the Houston-SMU contest at 8:30 p.m.

Memphis has won each of the last three tournaments and is 12-1 in its last 13 C-USA Championship games. The Tigers have won 58 consecutive games against Conference USA opponents (regular season and tournament). Tulsa is the No. 2 seed and the Golden Hurricane have won 20 or more games for the third consecutive season. UAB is the No. 3 seed and has topped the 20-win mark for the sixth time in seven seasons. UTEP earned an opening round bye for the first time in four years and needs one more victory for its first 20-win season since 2005-06.

All games will be played at FedExForum, the state-of-the-art arena in downtown Memphis, Tenn. Quarterfinal games will be shown on CSS, while CBS College Sports will televise the semifinals. CBS will broadcast the championship game, beginning at 10:35 a.m. (CDT). For ticket information, please visit ConferenceUSA.com, contact your local Conference USA school's ticket office, the FedExForum box office or Ticketmaster.