Conference USA Tournament 2013 bracket: Memphis, Southern Miss try to play off the bubble at conference tourney

The eleven-team Conference USA basketball tournament tips off Wednesday, with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line. The conference’s top five teams -- Memphis, Southern Miss, UTEP, Tulsa, and East Carolina -- each received a bye to Thursday’s second round, while the bottom six seeds are in action Wednesday. Of the conference’s eleven eligible teams, only Memphis is currently projected in the NCAA field out of Conference USA, though Southern Miss is on the bubble.

No. 7 seed UAB and No. 10 SMU start the tournament at 4:30 p.m. ET Wednesday. No. 6 Houston and No. 11 Rice follow at 7 p.m., with the 8/9 game between Marshall at Tulane rounding out the first day at 9:30 p.m.

Television coverage of the Conference USA tournament begins Thursday on CBS Sports Network. The semifinals will also be shown on CBS Sports Network Friday, with Saturday morning’s final getting network coverage on CBS.

The full schedule is below (all times Eastern). The tournament bracket is available at the Conference USA official site.

4:30 p.m.: No. 7 UAB vs. No. 10 SMU (Game 1)
7:00 p.m.: No. 6 Houston vs. No. 11 Rice (Game 2)
9:30 p.m.: No. 8 Marshall vs. No. 9 Tulane (Game 3)

1:00 p.m.: No. 2 Southern Miss vs. Game 1 winner (Game 4)
3:30 p.m.: No. 3 UTEP vs. Game 2 winner (Game 5)
7:00 p.m.: No. 1 Memphis vs. Game 3 winner (Game 6)
9:30 p.m.: No. 4 East Carolina vs. No. 5 Tulsa (Game 7)

4:00 p.m.: Semifinal 1
6:30 p.m.: Semifinal 2

11:30 a.m.: Championship Game

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