Deonte Tatum, who is Hawai'i's top point guard, is from Milwaukee. He has a cousin and a former high school teammate on the Wisconsin-Milwaukee roster, and played pick-up games with several other Panther players last summer.

"They got some good players, I know that," Tatum said. "It'll be fun to play against all those guys out here. I don't think anybody back home (in Milwaukee) could have expected that."

ESPN will not announce its television schedule until next week, but the Hawai'i-UWM game is one of 11 being considered for an ESPN or ESPN2 broadcast. One Bracket Buster game will be televised on ESPN and five others will be on ESPN2.

"We're hoping to get one of those TV games," Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace said. "We're trying to get a sellout and all our fans will be wearing green, so it'll be a great atmosphere."

Hawai'i, which is 12-5 overall and in a tie for sixth place in the Western Athletic Conference at 4-5, is participating in the Bracket Buster for the third consecutive year.

UWM is 15-5 overall and in first place in the Horizon Conference at 8-2. The Panthers will play a home conference game Feb. 16, and then make a flight of approximately 4,250 miles to Honolulu the next day.

"We know we have a ways to travel, but the opportunity to play a team like Hawai'i and the chance for our kids to experience the island was something I couldn't deny," UWM head coach Bruce Pearl said.

What's more, the Panthers will play Hawai'i on Feb. 19, and then will not have to play another game until Feb. 26.

"The thing you fear about traveling to Hawai'i is the Polynesian paralysis that sets in on the way back," Pearl said. "But our schedule worked out great. We'll have time to recover from the trip."

This is the first year that Hawai'i was allowed to host a Bracket Buster game. Prior to yesterday's pairings, several teams expressed concern about playing a game in Honolulu in the middle of a conference season.

"I was never told to stay away from certain teams as far as Hawai'i was concerned, but logistically, there were some things taken into consideration," said Burke Magnus, ESPN's vice president and general manager of college basketball events. "I can tell you this much, we didn't have to ask Wisconsin-Milwaukee twice about making a trip to Hawai'i."

Magnus said the Hawai'i-UWM game could be picked for a television broadcast "because of the geographic contrast."

"We always like to get some kind of hook to interest viewers," Magnus added. "But this is also a great matchup because the teams have similar profiles as far as record and RPI."

The Panthers will bring one of the nation's top shooters in Ed McCants, a 6-foot-3 senior guard. He ranks fifth in NCAA Division I with 65 3-pointers, and leads UWM in scoring with 16.6 points per game.

"We try to be balanced and up-tempo," Pearl said. "But Ed is a very fine shooter who we look to a lot."

Joah Tucker, a 6-5 junior forward, is contributing 14.1 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. He is Tatum's cousin.

"He was calling me two weeks ago when he heard they might play us," Tatum said.

Tatum was recruited by UWM out of high school and junior college. Last summer, he chose Hawai'i over UWM and several other schools.

"We definitely wanted him here," Pearl said. "But we still consider him a friend and we're happy that he's doing well."

Pearl said he is most concerned about Hawai'i's size. The Panthers do not start a player taller than 6-7. In contrast, the 'Bows start 7-foot center Chris Botez alongside 6-9 forward Julian Sensley and 6-8 forward Jeff Blackett.

"I've known Riley (Wallace) for a long time and I've always thought he was one of the best coaches in the country as far as getting his teams to play hard," Pearl said. "If there is one thing that's a problem about going to Hawai'i, it would be playing against that big team of his."

The 'Bows are 1-1 in previous Bracket Buster games. They won at Kent State on ESPN2 in 2003, and lost at Southern Illinois on ESPN last season.

"We've been lucky — we got good matchups every year," Wallace said. "This will be another good one, so hopefully it draws some attention."

In keeping with Bracket Buster rules, Hawai'i will have to play a "return" game at UWM next season, which is just fine with Tatum.

"That's going to be cool to play in front of my family again," he said.

One of Hawai'i's new recruits for next season, Matt Lojeski, is also from Wisconsin.

All 10 teams in the WAC are participating in the Bracket Buster this season. The event was created by ESPN in 2003 as a way to showcase some of college basketball's so-called "mid-major" programs.

The games featuring other WAC teams: Texas-El Paso at Pacific, Vermont at Nevada, Buffalo at Fresno State, Murray State at Rice, Weber State at Boise State, New Orleans at Louisiana Tech, San Jose State at Drake, Southern Methodist at Toledo and Northern Arizona at Tulsa.