While the field mostly played out by the seeds last night, the Rice Owls were able to eke out a win over the SMU Mustangs to inject some excitement into the field. Now on Thursday, the top seed byes are over and the big guns will be in action. Rice will take on the No. 2 seeded Tulsa Golden Hurricane in the nightcap game, and Arsalan Kazemi and company are the last big conference chance Houston has of sending someone to the tournament from the city.
Here's the complete schedule and bracket so far:
Wednesday
#8 East Carolina Pirates 64 vs. #9 Central Florida Knights 50
#5 Southern Miss. Golden Eagles 63 vs. #12 Tulane Green Wave 47
#11 Houston Cougars 87 vs. #6 Marshall 97
#10 Rice Owls 58 vs. #7 SMU Mustangs 57
Thursday
#1 UAB Blazers vs.#8 East Carolina Pirates -- 12 PM
#4 Memphis Tigers vs. #5 Southern Miss. Golden Eagles -- 2:30 PM
#3 UTEP Miners vs. #6 Marshall Thundering Herd -- 6:30 PM
#2 Tulsa Golden Hurricane vs. #10 Rice Owls -- 9:00 PM
Friday
Winner of UAB-ECU vs. winner of Memphis-S. Miss-- 3:00 PM
Winner of UTEP-Marshall vs. winner of Tulsa-Rice -- 5:30 PM
Saturday
Championship -- 10:30 AM
All games today will be shown on CBS College Sports, and they do stream online if you're willing to sign up and pick around for a bit. Looks like a pretty solid slate of games today, but I'm most excited about the Memphis-Southern Miss. game. That's a pair of really good teams, and the Golden Eagles could easily pull the upset. And of course, here's hoping Rice gives Tulsa a run for their money as well.