March 14, 2010

IRVING, Texas - Conference USA tournament champion Houston and regular-season champion UTEP earned berths to the 2010 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Sunday. The Cougars earned the automatic bid and will be the No. 13 seed in the Midwest Region, while UTEP is a No. 12 seed in the West Region.

Houston (19-15) will face No. 4 seed Maryland (23-8) in the first round on Friday. First- and second-round games are scheduled to be played at the Spokane (Wash.) Veterans Memorial Arena. If the Cougars beat Maryland, they would play a second-round game on March 21, against the winner of No. 5 seed Michigan State vs. No. 12 New Mexico State.

The Cougars are making their 19th overall NCAA appearance but first since 1992. Houston is 26-23 in NCAA tournament history, making five Final Four and 11 Sweet 16 appearances.

Houston head coach Tom Penders is making his 11th NCAA appearance, compiling a 12-10 record in his career. This is Penders' first berth with Houston, becoming one of just four coaches in NCAA history to lead four different schools to the NCAA Tournament. His last appearance was in 1999 with George Washington. He led the 1988 Rhode Island team to the Sweet 16 and earned eight bids in 10 seasons as head coach at Texas. He joins Rick Pitino, Eddie Sutton and Lon Kruger as the other three coaches to lead four different teams to the tournament. Penders enters Friday's game with 648 career wins in his 36-year coaching tenure to rank 24th in NCAA Division I history.

UTEP (26-6) will play No. 5 seed Butler (28-4) at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday. If they advance, the Miners would face the winner of No. 4 seed Vanderbilt vs. No. 13 Murray State. UTEP rode a 16-game win streak into the Conference USA Championship final, where they were edged by Houston, 81-73. That was the third-longest win streak behind Butler, who holds a 20-game streak entering Thursday's match-up. UTEP and Butler have had one common opponent this season in UAB. The Miners swept the Blazers in Conference USA play, but UAB defeated Butler, 67-57, on Dec. 22.

The Miners have played in 16 previous NCAA Tournaments, winning the national title in 1966 and are the only team in Texas to win a national title. Their last appearance in the NCAA Tournament was in 2005.

UTEP coach Tony Barbee is making his first NCAA appearance as a head coach, but has coached in six other tournaments - one as a graduate assistant at Massachusetts (1996), and five as an assistant coach at UMass and Memphis (1997, 1998, 2003, 2004 & 2006).

Penders and Barbee also have NCAA experience as players. Penders was a member of the 1965 and 1967 Connecticut teams that earned berths, while Barbee was on the 1992 and 1993 NCAA teams at UMass.

Times will be announced Monday morning and all games will be televised on CBS and NCAA March Madness on Demand.

• FACEBOOK
• RSS
• TWITTER
• DAILY UPDATE
• B-LINE

Which C-USA player will have the biggest impact in Super Bowl XLVI?