By: Chris Coon

The 10th annual Sears BracketBusters match up was announced Monday and the University of Akron men’s basketball team will take on Oral Roberts Saturday, Feb. 18 at Tulsa. Okla.

Akron who has a record of 15-7, 7-1 in the Mid American Conference, are 1-2 the last three years in the BracketBusters matchup.  Their only win was against Creighton last year at home 76-67.

Oral Roberts, who plays in the Summit League are 20-4 this season and 12-0 in the conference.  Some notable games for the Golden Eagles, is their 78-71 loss to West Virginia who the Zips also lost to back on Nov. 28, 77-56. Oral Roberts also defeated then No.9 Xavier 64-42.

The Zips who last defeated Oral Roberts 84-80 on Jan. 3, 2011 hold an all-time record of 4-0 against them, along with a 2-0 road record.

Overall, this is the ninth year Akron has participated in the Bracket Busters series where they have gone 3-5 overall. The last five matches have been on TV.

The BracketBusters field features teams from 16 conferences: 12 of those teams being from the MAC, while the Summit League has 10 in this year’s matchup.

The NCAA tournament hopefuls participating in the BracketBusters event will be selected from a group of 142 teams from 16 conferences, the largest in the event’s history.

The game with the Zips and Golden Eagles will be broadcasted on either ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNU or ESPN3.

Other MAC schools that will be broadcasted on TV will be Ohio University, who will take on UNC-Ashville away on ESPN 3 and Buffalo who will face South Dakota State away on ESPNU.

Akron will be at home for their next four games before they face Oral Roberts, starting with Eastern Michigan. The Eagles are currently 10-11, 5-2 in the MAC West, putting them in first place in that division.