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SportsFebruary 1, 2006

The missing opponent on Southeast Missouri State's schedule was filled in Tuesday morning when the entire field for the ESPN BracketBusters series was announced. And it will involve considerable travel for the Redhawks -- not that coach Gary Garner minds...

~ Southeast will play at California-Riverside on Feb. 18.

The missing opponent on Southeast Missouri State's schedule was filled in Tuesday morning when the entire field for the ESPN BracketBusters series was announced.

And it will involve considerable travel for the Redhawks -- not that coach Gary Garner minds.

Southeast will play at the University of California-Riverside on Feb. 18. Game time will be 6 p.m.

As part of the ESPN BracketBusters series, UC-Riverside will play at the Show Me Center during the 2006-07 season.

"I think it will be good for us. When I told our players we're going to California, they really lit up," Garner said. "When you're struggling like we are, having this kind of season, I think a trip like this is good.

"Get away from conference play for a day, take a trip to the suburbs of Los Angeles. I think it will help us."

Southeast fell to 6-14 overall and 3-11 in Ohio Valley Conference play with Monday's 73-62 loss at Austin Peay that marked the Redhawks' seventh consecutive defeat. Southeast is 10th in the 11-team OVC.

UC-Riverside is 2-16, including a 2-5 Big West Conference mark that places the Highlanders seventh in the eight-team league.

The Highlanders, who have lost five straight, do own an impressive win at Pacific.

All 11 OVC teams were selected this season to participate in the ESPN BracketBusters, which includes 100 squads representing 18 conference nationwide.

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BracketBusters, named because of the success of many of the midlevel conference teams in NCAA tournament play over the past few years, was designed to provide participating schools with an opportunity to play nonconference opponents having similar seasons three weeks prior to Selection Sunday.

Twenty-six of the BracketBuster's 100 teams were chosen Monday to participate in 13 nationally televised matchups that will air on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN360 on Feb. 17 and 18.

Samford (14-5) was the only OVC squad picked for a TV game as the Bulldogs will play at defending Mid-American Conference tournament champion Ohio (12-4).

Five OVC teams will play home games on Feb. 18, as had been determined prior to the season.

Those contests will feature Illinois-Chicago (10-12) at Murray State (14-5), Arkansas State (9-13) at Austin Peay (12-10), Eastern Michigan (3-14) at Eastern Illinois (5-14), North Carolina-Asheville (5-13) at Eastern Kentucky (10-10), and New Orleans (5-14) at Jacksonville State (9-10).

The road matchups involving OVC squads on Feb. 18, in addition to Southeast at UC-Riverside, are Tennessee Tech (15-7) at Bradley (12-7), Tennessee-Martin (8-12) at Evansville (5-14), Tennessee State (8-10) at Ball State (7-10), and Morehead State (2-17) at Central Michigan (3-15).

Garner's ejection

The Ohio Valley Conference has not a made a determination yet on whether Southeast Missouri State coach Gary Garner will be on the sidelines for Saturday's game with Tennessee-Martin.

The conference policy states that players or coaches ejected from a game cannot participate in the next contest.

Garner was ejected in the closing seconds of Monday night's game against Austin Peay. However, the ejection came after one technical foul. In college basketball, coaches receive an automatic ejection on the second technical.

An OVC spokesman said the league still was looking into the incident as of Tuesday and may make an announcement today.

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