Murray State University Athletics
Racers Draw Vanderbilt in NCAA First Round
3/14/2010 10:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State men's basketball team will open the 2010 NCAA Tournament against Vanderbilt on Thursday at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. Game time is set for 1:30 p.m. and will be aired live on CBS.
The winner of the Murray State-Vanderbilt game will face the winner of the UTEP-Butler matchup on Saturday.
"They are a well coached and very deep team," said head coach Billy Kennedy. "They have been in the Top 20 all season and it will be a tough task. You have to beat good teams in the tournament. They are a good team and we are a good team. We are looking forward to it."
The Commodores enter the NCAA Tournament with an overall record of 24-8 and a 12-4 mark in the SEC. VU defeated Georgia in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, before falling to Mississippi State in the semifinals.
Jermaine Beal leads the Commodore scoring attack at 14.7 points a game. He is joined in double figures by A.J. Ogilvy (13.4), Jeffery Taylor (13.4) and John Jenkins (10.9). Ogilvy is averaging a team-best 6.2 rebounds a contest.
Four regular-season conference champions and two third-place teams that won conference tournaments are among the eight teams coming to San Jose for the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball First and Second Round Championship games, March 18 & 20.
San Jose State University and HP Pavilion will host Butler (28-4), Marquette (22-11), Montana (22-9), Murray State (30-4), New Mexico (29-4), UTEP (26-6), Vanderbilt (24-8), and Washington (24-9).
Butler of the Horizon League, UTEP of Conference USA, Murray State of the Ohio Valley and New Mexico of the Mountain West Conference were regular season conference champions. Butler, which has won 113 games the last four seasons, was the only one of the four that also won its conference post-season tournament.
Washington of the Pacific-10 and Montana of the Big Sky won their respective conference tournaments to earn an automatic bid.
Game times for March 18 are listed below. The winners will meet in second round action on March 20.
West Region #4-Vanderbilt (24-8) vs. #13-Murray State (30-4) 1:30 p.m. (CST)
West Region #5-Butler (28-4) vs. #12-UTEP (26-6) 25 minutes after the first game
South Region #6-Marquette (22-11) vs. #11-Washington (24-9) 6:20 p.m. (CST)
South Region #3-New Mexico (29-4) vs. #14-Montana (22-9) 30 minutes after the third game
