Southeast men's basketball team will host Ball State in BracketBusters game

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team will host Ball State at 7 p.m. Feb. 23 in its annual BracketBusters game.

All 61 matchups in the BracketBusters event were announced Monday. For the eighth straight year every Ohio Valley Conference squad is participating.

Ball State is 8-12 overall and 2-6 in Mid-American Conference play. The Cardinals, tied for last place in the six-team MAC West Division, have lost six of their last seven games.

Southeast, 11-13 overall and 3-7 in league play, is tied for third in the six-team OVC West Division. The Redhawks have lost three straight and seven of eight.

The Redhawks, who have never played Ball State, will face a MAC opponent for the fourth time in their last six BracketBusters appearances.

Southeast is 1-6 all-time in BracketBusters games, the lone victory 67-52 over visiting Sacramento State in 2010-11.

The Redhawks will visit Ball State in the future as part of the BracketBusters arrangement, but ESPN announced earlier this season that this will be the final year for the BracketBusters event.

Three OVC teams were selected for one of this year's 13 television games. Only the Missouri Valley Conference was selected for more TV contests with four.

The OVC TV matchups have Belmont hosting Ohio on ESPN2, Murray State hosting South Dakota State on ESPN2 and Eastern Kentucky visiting Valparaiso on ESPNU.

Other BracketBusters matchups for the OVC are Austin Peay at Liberty, Eastern Illinois at Northern Illinois, Jacksonville State at UNC Asheville, Morehead State at Oakland, SIUE at Central Arkansas, Loyola (Md.) at Tennessee State, UMKC at Tennessee Tech and Longwood at UT Martin.