Off to Frisco

It's bracketology time.

The NCAA's Division I brackets won't be filled until St. Patrick's Day, but the Lone Star Conference has its own basketball tournament bracket ready.

For the Eastern New Mexico men's and women's teams - who have known for weeks they were LSC bracket-bound and are each now fourth seeds - the fun begins later this week in Frisco, Texas, with the men tipping off opening-round play on Thursday, the women on Friday.

At least, they hope it's fun.

There are four men's games on Thursday at Frisco's Comerica Center, with the ENMU men (13-13) going last of the four when they take on fifth-seeded Tarleton State (20-9) at 8:30 p.m. Central Standard Time.

Thursday's previous three men's games feature: third-seeded Angelo State (20-7) against sixth-seeded Texas A&M Kingsville (12-14) at noon CST; second-seeded Texas A&M-Commerce (21-7) against seventh-seeded UT Permian Basin (14-14) at 2:30 p.m.; and top-seeded West Texas A&M (28-3) against eighth-seeded Cameron (9-19) at 6 p.m.

Friday, it's the women's turn at Comerica, as ENMU (19-9) goes last of four again, battling fifth-seeded Texas A&M-Commerce (19-9) at 8:30 p.m. Earlier in the day, third-seeded Tarleton State (21-7) plays sixth-seeded Midwestern State (12-15) at noon; second-seeded Angelo State (22-4) faces seventh-seeded Texas Woman's (10-18) at 2:30 p.m.; and top-seeded West Texas A&M (25-3) takes on eighth-seeded Texas A&M-Kingsville (9-18) at 6 p.m.

It would seem the Eastern women's game could easily go either way, after they split with A&M-Commerce during the regular season, beating them 90-79 at Greyhound Arena on Jan. 19 but losing the road rematch 62-55 on Feb. 21.

Friday comes Round Three.

"Obviously, we'd be playing somebody a third time for sure," ENMU head women's coach Josh Prock said. "It's going to be tough. They're very well-coached. They play extremely fast. Transition defense is going to be key. We're going to have to take away their driving angles. It has to be a complete defensive effort to get the job done on Friday.

"I feel like we match up well with them," Prock continued. "I personally think we're a tough matchup for a lot of teams because we're so big and we've done a great job of taking advantage of that in our recent games. But it's definitely going to be a tough challenge."

Offensively for Eastern's women, it begins in the paint.

"We're going to start inside out," Prock said. "We're going to work through our posts and get our offense rolling."

On the men's side, Eastern is hoping to make it a clean sweep against Tarleton State this season.

The Greyhounds beat Tarleton at Greyhound Arena on Jan. 17 and on the road Feb. 23 by identical 70-68 scores. Those close games seem to portend a difficult matchup for the Greyhounds, even though they're 2-0 in the head-to-head competition so far.

"You can't take them lightly whatsoever and we take them very seriously," Eastern men's head coach Tres Segler said. "I'm just glad we have them as an opponent where we feel we match up well. Honestly, we're excited about the matchup with us playing well against them both times. It's a matchup that suits us well. They run mostly zone and lately we've been playing well against zone offenses. We've got offensively powerful guys who can score the ball."

Segler was happy with the fourth seed, giving the Hounds a better draw than last year's eighth-seeded Eastern team that ran right smack into an opening-round matchup with top-seeded West Texas A&M. Not surprisingly, it was a short run for those Greyhounds, who trailed by 30 in the first half.

"Any time you've got to play against the No. 1 seed, that's hard," Segler said. "So we're excited now that we get to have a little bit of a buildup so we can get back to West Texas A&M."

The 'buildup', though, will require beating Tarleton a third time.

"We've really got to do a good job of trying to get the ball in the lane," Segler said, "and playing through our forwards to get some high-percentage rim shots."

They also have to can a few from the perimeter.

"If you can get them to respect you outside, you can change their shape (defensively)," Segler said. "If you can make shots from the outside, they'll leave the rim area and you can make rim shots. ... It kind of sounds goofy, but it's like a boxing match - head-body, head-body."

As for scheduling, neither Eastern coach has a problem with his team playing the last game of the night.

"It really doesn't make much of a difference," Prock said, "because either way you've got to play. You've got to be ready to go. So Friday night it is, and we'll have to be ready."

"I think our guys are better in the evening, later in the evening," Segler said. "At my very first (Division II) Elite Eight at Midwestern State, we played at 10:30 in the morning and it was a joke, man. ... The crowd was kind of dead. It didn't feel like that big-time college basketball experience that you're fighting all year for."

So playing the nightcap, the main-event game, is a lot better than that 2011 national quarterfinal game Segler coached in Springfield, Massachusetts.

"I think later in the evening, that's more like a championship experience," he said. "That's like your prime time big Monday experience. So I'm excited about that for sure."