For the first time in the history of ESPN’s BracketBuster series, the SIU men’s basketball team will not be featured on the ESPN family of networks.

While SIU will not play in front of a national audience, the Salukis will get a chance to play in front of their fans and alumni in the Chicagoland area.

SIU (10-12) drew Illinois-Chicago in this season’s BracketBuster matchup that will take place on Feb. 21 in Chicago. It will be the team’s second trip to the northern Illinois region this season.

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Saluki head coach Chris Lowery said this season’s event will likely have a different feel from years past, but it will be a good experience for teams that usually do not get national exposure.

‘This is the first year it works against us,’ Lowery said. ‘When you’re on TV you have a chance to play, and obviously it’s a great deal, because people get to see you at the end of the season.’

Lowery said despite the lack of television coverage this season, one of the benefits is one less game needs to be scheduled next season as the Flames are required to play in Carbondale.

The Salukis lead the all-time series against the Flames, 4-3, but fell 73-71 to UIC in the team’s most recent meeting on Dec. 14, 2002.

Southern is 5-1 in BracketBuster games, which are aimed to give more notoriety to quality teams from non-power conferences. The Salukis victories in the series have come against Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2003), Hawaii (2004), Kent State (2005), Butler (2007) and Nevada (2008).

Its only loss came in 2006 at home against Louisiana Tech.

UIC (10-11) is also 5-1 in BracketBuster games.

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Lowery said there are too many Missouri Valley Conference games between now and the BracketBuster game to look ahead at the late-February matchup.

‘I really don’t know much about them,’ Lowery said of the Flames. ‘Usually I don’t know much about our BracketBuster opponents unless they’re in our region.’

All 10 MVC teams will participate in the series with Northern Iowa, Illinois State, Creighton and Evansville being featured in televised games.

Director of Athletics Mario Moccia said even though the Salukis game will not be televised this season, a trip to Chicago could spark interest from the school’s alumni and get a desired game that has been hard for the athletics department to schedule.

‘We struggle to get games in Chicago. We call everybody every year because we have such a huge fan base it would be great for our Chicago people to watch us,’ Moccia said.

‘We’ve got three Chicago kids and I know we’re still recruiting in that area. So whatever we can get in Chicago would be huge.’