Horizon Tourney Preview

FIRST ROUND
At higher seeds
Tuesday, March 3
Game 1: No. 10 Detroit vs. No. 3 Cleveland State
Game 2: No. 7 Illinois-Chicago vs. No. 6 Youngstown State
Game 3: No. 9 Valparaiso vs. No. 4 Wright St.
Game 4: No. 8 Loyola vs. No. 5 Milwaukee

QUARTERFINALS
At Hinkle Fieldhouse (Indianapolis)
Friday, March 6
Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner (6 p.m.)
Game 6: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner (8 p.m.)

SEMIFINALS
At Hinkle Fieldhouse (Indianapolis)
Saturday, March 7
Game 7: Game 5 winner at No. 1 Butler (ESPNU, 7 p.m.)
Game 8: Game 6 winner vs. No. 2 Green Bay (ESPNU, 9 p.m.)

CHAMPIONSHIP
At Hinkle Fieldhouse (Indianapolis)
Tuesday, March 10
Game 9: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner (ESPN, 9 p.m.)

Team to watch: Butler. This year will be the third year in a row that the Bulldogs will be in the NCAA tournament. They have won at Davidson and Xavier and nearly pulled off an upset at Ohio State. This will be a very dangerous team that nobody will want to face in the tournament.

Player to watch: J'Nathan Bullock. The senior forward from Cleveland State averages 15 and 7 per game and can take over a game when he wants to. Bullock, along with guard Cedric Jackson will be the keys for the Vikings.

Upset watch: Cleveland State. The Vikings have the league's biggest upset this year when Jackson hit a sixty footer at the buzzer to win at Syracuse. If they want to make the NCAA tournament, they must win this one first!

Tourney watch: Butler is in the tournament, no questions asked. Green Bay has an outside chance to pull an upset as well, but they must go through Cleveland State first. It's tourney time and while Butler will be playing in front of the home crowd, I still think the Vikings of Cleveland State will pull off the upset and make the Horizon Conference a two bid league.