Redhawks' mystery date is ... La. Tech

~ Southeast received its pairing for its BracketBusters game.

Louisiana Tech will be Southeast Missouri State's opponent at the Show Me Center on Feb. 17 as part of the BracketBusters series.

The announcement came Tuesday, when the majority of the BracketBusters matchups were revealed.

Southeast and Louisiana Tech will square off at 7:30 p.m., with the Southeast women playing Ohio Valley Conference opponent Tennessee-Martin at 5 p.m.

As part of the BracketBusters agreement, Southeast will play at Louisiana Tech next season.

The Bulldogs have an overall record of 6-14 and a 4-4 Western Athletic Conference mark, which has them in a three-way tie for fourth place in the nine-team league.

Southeast is 8-15 overall and an eighth-place 6-8 in the 11-team OVC.

Louisiana Tech has an RPI of 218, while Southeast's RPI is 293. The WAC is currently rated as the nation's ninth-best conference according to the RPI, while the OVC is rated 26th among 32 Division I leagues.

The WAC's top team is Nevada, which is ranked 15th nationally.

"I don't know much about their present team right now, but I know that's been a very, very good program over the last 20 years," Southeast coach Scott Edgar said. "They've had their run of NBA guys go through there.

"They could possibly be as talented a team as comes into the Show Me Center. Any time you go out of conference, with a conference like that, you will see a very high level of athlete."

The Redhawks and Bulldogs have two common opponents this season: Arkansas and Centenary.

Southeast lost at Arkansas 92-52 and lost to Centenary 83-51 on a neutral site. Louisiana Tech lost at Arkansas 80-50 and dropped a neutral site game to Centenary 82-73.

The Redhawks and Bulldogs have met only once previously, with Southeast winning 69-65 in 1996 in Ruston, La.

Chad McKenzie, a 6-foot-7 senior forward, leads the Bulldogs in scoring with an average of 13.2 points per game. Trey McDowell is right behind at 12.9.

"I know we will be ready to play them when the time comes," said Edgar, whose squad lost at home to Austin Peay 75-73 Monday night and next plays Saturday at Tennessee-Martin.

Southeast lost at California-Riverside last year during its first participation in the BracketBusters. The Redhawks beat Cal-Riverside earlier this season in the return game at the Show Me Center.

All 11 OVC squads participate in the BracketBusters, which was implemented five years ago by ESPN primarily to showcase matchups between NCAA tournament hopefuls from different conferences.

This year's BracketBusters features 102 teams.

Austin Peay is the only OVC squad that was selected to participate in one of the 14 televised BracketBusters games. The first-place Governors (14-6) will play at Akron (15-4).

The televised games will appear on ESPN2 (six games), ESPNU (five games) and ESPN 360 (three games), which is ESPN's customized broadband service.

Game times and network assignments for the televised matchups will be announced Monday.

OVC teams have six home games and five road games in this year's BracketBusters.

Other OVC pairings, along with records through Monday, are: Eastern Illinois (6-16) at Loyola of Chicago (14-9), Eastern Kentucky (11-9) at Youngstown State (9-13), Jacksonville State (5-16) at Chattanooga (9-14), Murray State (10-11) at Rider (12-9), Bowling Green (10-10) at Morehead State (10-11);

Evansville (12-10) at Samford (12-10), Loyola of Maryland (13-8) at Tennessee State (10-11), Northwestern State (11-9) at Tennessee Tech (13-9) and Saint Peter's (3-18) at Tennessee-Martin (6-18).

Rembert honored

Southeast junior center Mike Rembert has been named the OVC newcomer of the week for his performances last week.

In two games, Rembert averaged 13 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field.

Rembert had the winning basket on a follow shot with 1.4 seconds remaining during a 61-59 win at Morehead State. He had 18 points and seven rebounds in that game.

Rembert averages 10.4 points per game and is tied for first on the Redhawks in rebounding with 5.9 a contest.

Noteworthy

• Senior reserve center Tyrell White, who was suspended by Edgar for Southeast's last two games due to undisclosed disciplinary reasons, was back on the bench Monday against Austin Peay but did not play.