The University of Maine men’s basketball team could get even more national exposure this year, having been selected to participate in a 2011 ESPN BracketBusters game.

The Black Bears already are having their Feb. 12 game at Stony Brook televised nationally on ESPNU. On Thursday, Maine announced it will be among five teams from America East to play in a non-conference game between February 18-20, 2011. Maine will be on the road at an opponent to be announced January 31.

Maine, which is coming off a 19-11 campaign and third place finish in America East, has been picked to finish first in America East by the Sporting News. The Bears will be led by Auburn’s Troy Barnies, Gardiner’s Sean McNally and all America-East selection Gerald McLemore.

ESPN’s BracketBusters is an annual three-day men’s college basketball event pitting potential NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other, will feature 11 nationally televised games on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. This year’s participants are selected from a pool of 114 teams, the largest BracketBusters pool in the event’s history.

The event provides the 22 televised teams an opportunity to play other top non-conference opponents three weeks before Selection Sunday. The 92 teams not selected for BracketBusters will compete against each other through the same three days.

 As part of the agreement, all 11 of the BracketBusters home teams in televised games, as well as the remaining 46 home squads, will play a “return” game at the home facility of their opponent in November or December of the 2012-13 season