For the seventh straight year, the Eastern basketball team will be competing in the Sears BracketBusters on ESPN.

This year’s games, currently in its 10th year, will feature a pool of 142 teams from a total of 16 conferences, the largest ever for the event. Some of the games will be televised on four different ESPN channels. The events will take place on Feb. 17-19.

Eastern has won three straight BracketBuster games, defeating Toledo last year and Northern Illinois and Western Michigan in the years prior.

Eastern will be a home team in its game. There will be seven other teams also playing at home. The games will be announced on Jan. 30th.

The Panthers will have an exhibition game on Nov. 6 at home against Olivet Nazarene before starting the regular season against Indiana State on the road on Nov. 11.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7944 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.