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Pairings for the Sears BracketBusters event were announced Monday with the University of Hawai`i men's basketball team pitted against Montana on the road in a non-televised matchup. The game will be held on Saturday, Feb. 18 with a 7:00 p.m. MT (4:00 p.m. HT)  tip-off time.
 
This is the second straight year that UH will play on the road and the first time in six years that UH is paired against a team outside of the Big West Conference. The 'Bows, who are joining the Big West following this season, won at UC Davis last year, 83-79. UH is 4-5 all-time in the event and 3-2 on the road.
 
Montana is currently 15-6 overall and tied for first in the Big Sky with an 8-1 mark. This will be the fifth all-time meeting between the teams and the first in Missoula. As part of the BracketBusters agreement, Montana will play a return game in Honolulu next season.
 
The 10th annual Sears BracketBusters, a two-day men's college basketball event pitting potential NCAA Championship hopefuls against each other Feb. 17-18, features 13 nationally televised games – on either ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN3. The NCAA hopefuls were selected from a pool of 142 teams from 14 conferences, the largest Sears BracketBusters pool in the event's history, including two teams (Butler and Virginia Commonwealth) that reached the 2011 Final Four.
 
All eight WAC teams are in the BracketBusters pool, with conference leader Nevada (at Iona) and second-place New Mexico State (vs. Drake) earning television appearances.  
      
The BracketBusters concept, named because of the success of teams from these conferences in NCAA Tournament play through the years, provides participating programs with an opportunity to play top non-conference opponents about three weeks before Selection Sunday.