Kansas, Texas, Memphis coming to BOK Center for NCAA Tournament
BY Staff Reports
Sunday, March 13, 2011
3/13/11 at 10:57 PM
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS TO NCAA TOURNAMENT GAMES AT THE BOK CENTER.
All-session tickets are available for $237 by clicking the link above or by calling 1-866-726-5287.
Click here to print an NCAA Tournament bracket.
Get ready for a Jayhawk invasion from the north. Longhorns are coming from the south. And Tigers will arrive from the east. They'll converge at the BOK Center this week, when Madness will ensue.
The NCAA Tournament field has been announced, and the Kansas Jayhawks are headed for Tulsa. They'll be joined on Friday in the BOK Center by the Texas Longhorns -- giving the site the Big 12's top two teams.
Another team with a strong local connection will be in Tulsa, too -- the Memphis Tigers, who compete in Conference USA with the University of Tulsa.
They're among 68 teams in the men's basketball event that’s become known as March Madness because of dramatic finishes that often feature small schools battling -– and sometimes defeating –- their better known powerhouses.
The BOK Center matchups Friday are:
In the West Regional: No. 4 Texas (27-7) vs. No. 13 Oakland (25-9) at 11:15 a.m.; No. 5 Arizona (27-7) vs. No. 12 Memphis (25-9), 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Texas game.
In the Southwest Regional: No. 1 Kansas (32-2) vs. No. 16 Boston University (21-13) at 5:50 p.m.; and No. 8 Nevada-Las Vegas (24-8) vs. No. 9 Illinois (19-13), 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Kansas game.
None of Oklahoma’s teams made the NCAA field. It's the first time since 1981 that all the state teams -– Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oral Roberts and Tulsa –- missed the NCAA field in the same season.
Oklahoma State received a bid to the NIT and will face Harvard at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Oral Roberts has accepted a bid to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament and will play a road game against SMU at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The University of Tulsa's season is over. Oklahoma's season also is over.
The NCAA women's tournament field will be announced at 6 p.m. Monday, and the University of Oklahoma is the only school from the state expected to receive a bid.
Friday's four games at BOK Center are the beginning of what teams hope will end with a national championship after three weeks of play.
Friday's winners advance to games Sunday. The winner of the Kansas-Boston game will play the winner of the UNLV-Illinois game. Sunday's survivor will move on to the Sweet Sixteen in San Antonio.
In the West Regional, the Arizona-Memphis winner will play the Texas-Oakland winner on Sunday. The winner will move on to a Sweet Sixteen game in Anaheim, Calif.
The tournament's overall No. 1 seed is Ohio State, in the East Regional. Pittsburgh (Southeast) and Duke (West) also received No. 1 seeds.
If the No. 1 seeds aren't upset, the Final Four would look like this: Kansas vs. Pittsburgh and Ohio State vs. Duke. The national semifinals are April 2 and the championship game is April 4, both in Reliant Stadium, in Houston.
Monday's Tulsa World will include a special section on the tournament.
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS TO NCAA TOURNAMENT GAMES AT THE BOK CENTER.
All-session tickets are available for $237 by clicking the link above or by calling 1-866-726-5287.
Associated Images:
Kansas coach Bill Self and his team celebrate a Big 12 Tournament championship on Sunday in Kansas City, Mo. The Jayhawks received a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will play at the BOK Center on Friday. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Audience members file into the BOK Center on Thursday for the Sesame Street Live show in downtown Tulsa. ADAM WISNESKI / Tulsa World
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