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LOGAN, Utah - Utah State will play at Oral Roberts in the 2007 O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters on Sat., Feb. 17. USU's contest against the Golden Eagles will be one of 14 games televised on the ESPN family of networks.
The exact times and network (ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN360) carrying the games will not be announced until next Monday or Tuesday. All 14 televised games will be played on either Fri., Feb. 16 or Sat., Feb. 17.
"Obviously, we're playing somebody we have great respect for and somebody that we're very familiar with," said Utah State head coach Stew Morrill. "The two games with played against them last year was very positive for us in terms of getting an (NCAA Tournament) at-large bid because of the respect Oral Roberts has, and they were two games that could have went either way. We were very fortunate to win both of them.
"We are playing a team that is favored to win the Mid-Continent Conference, and is leading the league right now. They've got great talent and our very well coached. It's kind of ironic that we would play them in BracketBuster after playing them twice last season. The fact that we are going on the road means we get them back at our place next year which is good for our fans."
Oral Roberts, which is located in Tulsa, Okla., has won nine straight games and is 15-7 on the season, and in first-place in the Mid-Continent Conference with a 7-0 league record. Among its wins is a 78-71 non-conference victory at national power Kansas back in November. The Golden Eagles, who are 9-1 at home on the season, won the Mid-Continent Conference last season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament, losing to Memphis in the first round.
Utah State and Oral Roberts will be meeting for the sixth time ever with the Aggies owning a 4-1 all-time advantage. The two teams played a pair of games during the 2005-06 season with USU winning in Tulsa 72-67 in overtime in its first game of the year, and later won in Logan 65-64 in late December.
All 10 Western Athletic Conference teams will be involved in this year's event. Other televised games involving WAC schools include: Northern Iowa at Nevada; Ohio at New Mexico State; and Albany at Boise State.
