Jan. 30, 2012

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball team will play Fairfield in the 2012 BracketBusters event.

The two teams will square off Sat., Feb. 18 at the U.S. Cellular Arena at a time to be announced. The game was not selected as one of the televised contests.

The announcement of the pairings for the event was made this evening.

The matchup pits a pair of teams that won league titles and played in the NIT a season ago. In fact, Fairfield advanced to the second round of the tournament after winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.

This season, the Stags are 11-10 with non-league wins over Arizona State and Old Dominion as well as close losses to UCONN, Minnesota and Providence. Rakim Sanders leads the team at 16.3 points per game while Derek Needham adds 11.0 points per contest. Sydney Johnson, who led Princeton to the NCAA Tournament a season ago, is in his first season as the head coach at Fairfield. The Stags will play four of their next five games at home before coming to Milwaukee.

The Panthers are 14-9 overall and locked in a tight battle for the top spot in the Horizon League. In fact, Milwaukee is in third place in the league as the week begins and is one of seven league teams within three games of the top spot.

UWM and Fairfield have met twice previously, with each team winning at home. Milwaukee claimed a 75-59 victory in the 1992-93 season while Fairfield captured an 83-65 victory the following season.

This is the 10th year UWM is participating in the BracketBusters event. The BracketBusters event also includes a return game for the Panthers at Fairfield in a future season.

In another scheduling update, UWM's game at Detroit Feb. 10 has been selected for broadcast on ESPN3 and will tipoff at 7 p.m. EST/6 p.m. CST.