Bracket Bust

A former Big West Conference men’s basketball rival of USU will be coming to Logan Feb. 22.

The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos will be the opponent.

The game is part of the 2008 O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters. This is the third straight season the Aggies (16-6, 6-1 in Western Athletic Conference play) have participated in BracketBusters. Last year they won at Oral Roberts, 71-65, and in 2006 they beat Northwestern State, 66-63.

The time of the game on ESPN will be announced Feb. 11, the day the Aggies play their make-up game at Nevada.

“Santa Barbara is one of the favorites to win the Big West Conference, and they are right there,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “We are very familiar with their program and their system, and we have great respect for them and the job coach (Bob) Williams does. It will be a tremendous challenge for us in that they will bring a well-coached, athletic-looking, defensive-minded team into here.”

The Gauchos (16-5, 5-3 in the Big West) are 6-3 on the road this season and return four starters and seven letter winners from last season, when they placed second in the Big West.

The game will be the 59th meeting between USU and UC Santa Barbara. The Aggies have won each of the past four games in the series and 10 of the last 12.

All of the WAC’s nine teams will be taking part in the BracketBusters event this season.

Before the Santa Barbara match-up, the Aggies play three of four on the road.

-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu