Men's Basketball: WVU to Face Providence
March 04, 2007 09:20 PM | General
March 4, 2007
TOURNAMENT BRACKET
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University men’s basketball team will face Providence in the first round of the 2007 Big East Championships, presented by Aeropostale on Wednesday, March 7, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The Mountaineers, seeded seventh with a 21-8 overall record and a 9-7 mark in conference play, will face No. 10-seeded Providence at 7 pm in a game that will be televised on ESPN. The Friars are 18-11, 8-8, after having lost at St. John’s earlier today.
The winner of the WVU-Providence game will play No. 2-seeded Louisville at 7 pm on Thursday, March 8, in the tournament quarterfinals.
Other opening round games on Wednesday pit No. 8-seeded DePaul against No. 9 Villanova at noon, No. 5-seeded Syracuse against No. 12 Connecticut at 2 pm, and No. 6-seeded Marquette playing No. 11 St. John’s at 9 pm.
Conference regular season champion Georgetown earned the tournament’s top seed and will face the DePaul-Villanova winner at noon on Thursday. Pitt captured the third seed with a 12-4 conference record and will face the Marquette-St. John’s winner on Thursday at 9 pm.
Notre Dame is the No. 4 seed after a 23-6, 11-5 regular season and will face the Syracuse-Connecticut winner at 2 pm on Thursday.
The Big East tournament quarterfinals will take place Friday night at 7 and 9 pm, while the championship game will be on Saturday night at 9 pm.
All 11 Big East tournament games this year will be televised on ESPN.
West Virginia and Providence will be meeting in a Big East tournament first-round game for the third time in the last five years. Providence defeated West Virginia 73-50 in a Big East tournament first-round game in 2003 and the Mountaineers knocked off the Friars 82-59 in a first-round game in 2005.
West Virginia is 4-10 all-time in Big East tournament play.
The Mountaineers will depart Tuesday morning for New York City and arrive in time for the 2007 Big East awards banquet.
