Cougs get televised matchup

The College of Charleston men's basketball team received a prime time spot on national television against one of college basketball's great Cinderella stories in the ESPN BracketBusters, a two-day college basketball festival featuring 98 mid-major teams.

The Cougars will face George Mason at 8 p.m. on Feb. 20 on ESPN2. George Mason, a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, became a household name in the 2005-06 NCAA Tournament when the Patriots received an at-large bid and advanced through Michigan State, Wichita State and No. 1 seed Connecticut to earn a spot in the Final Four.

George Mason, in Fairfax, Va., is 15-7 and 10-1 in the CAA this year, while Charleston is 14-8 and 9-2 in the Southern Conference.

Cougars coach Bobby Cremins said what George Mason did in making it to the Final Four is one of the best basketball stories of the modern era.

"They took it all the way," said Cremins. "(Coach Jim Larranaga) made George Mason a household name in college basketball. He could have had any job he wanted, but he stayed at George Mason and looks like he's going to finish his career there. Every year they're in contention."

Cremins said he and Larranaga are close friends and played a lot of tennis during recruiting trips before Larranaga suffered a back injury.

"We go way back," Cremins said. "We're both from the Bronx. We both played in the Catholic School League. We're Irish-Catholic New York kids."

BracketBusters features 98 mid- major teams playing over the weekend of Feb. 19-20. Eleven of the contests are on either ESPN2 or ESPNU.

Charleston is 2-1 in BracketBuster games, losing to Western Michigan in 2004, beating Virginia Commonwealth in 2005 and downing Georgia State in 2006. George Mason is 2-3 in BracketBuster contests.

As part of the BracketBusters contract, each team agrees to a home-and-home series with its opponent, with the return game to be played in November or December of the following season. The College of Charleston will host the Patriots next season.

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Cremins said the game will continue to give the Cougars great exposure, which helps in recruiting, but currently he's more worried about the team's five home conference games that will be played before the BracketBuster. Charleston is unbeaten at home this season.

"Right now, my thoughts are on Chattanooga (7 p.m. on Thursday at Carolina First Arena), getting Jeremy Simmons back and playing well at home," he said.

"Simmons (who has missed four games after spraining an MCL against Furman) practiced with us today. I was encouraged with what I saw, but he was not at full speed all the time. So we'll see what happens the next few days.

"Now that we've played 11 games in the conference, one thing I realize is that anybody can beat anybody. Chattanooga has great wins over Western Carolina and Appalachian State."

Western Carolina also received a televised slot in the BracketBusters and will travel to Kent State for an 8 p.m. contest on Feb. 20 that will be broadcast on ESPNU.

In other BracketBusters games involving Southern Conference or Big South schools, Winthrop (Big South) will play at Eastern Kentucky, Presbyterian (Big South) will play at Jacksonville State, Tennessee Tech will play at Appalachian State (SoCon), Elon (SoCon) will play at Gardner-Webb (Big South) and UNC Wilmington will play at Radford (Big South).

College of Charleston (14-8, 9-2 in Southern Conference)

vs. George Mason (15-7, 10-1 in Colonial Athletic Association)

When: 8 p.m., Feb. 20, ESPN2

Where: Patriot Center (10,000), Fairfax, Va.

Series: Teams have split four previous meetings with Cougars winning most recent matchup, 74-70, in 1998.