The league went 5-5. Five wins, five losses. I could make the argument that this weekend was a huge success with Butler's lopsided victory over Siena on national TV. I won't. The depth of the league was exposed and it took a Robo Kreps buzzer beater to get that 5-5 mark. Here's a quick rundown from Saturday.
Let's start with the good:
Butler: 70 Siena: 53
Butler handled the third best BracketBuster participant (not including themselves and Norhern Iowa) without Willie Veasley and limited contributions from Matt Howard. They slowed Siena's high-paced attack with good defense, excellent passing, and timely shooting. The last ten minutes were dominated by the Bulldogs thanks in some part by Siena's inability to hit the broadside of a barn. It was a statement game for Butler and should really help with their seeding come NCAA Tournament time.
Cleveland State: 87 Toledo: 63
Cleveland State proved their BracketBuster pairing with Toledo was a joke. The Vikings shot 64% from the field and thoroughly dominated the Rockets in the second half. Was this Charlie Woods' coming out party? The slight freshman went 5-5 from 3-pt range, scoring in double figures for the first time in his young career. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Vikings had their best perimeter shooting game of the season with Tre Harmon sidelined by injury. Harmon is a gunner in the truest sense of the word. The problem is he isn't a great shooter. He is a career 30% 3-pt shooter in 240 career attempts. Just because you shoot, doesn't make you a shooter. This game didn't prove much besides Cleveland State is a lot better than Toledo. We already knew that.
The Unexpected:
UIC: 82 Evansville: 80
The UIC Flames got their first road win of the season against Evansville. Robo Kreps and Spencer Stewart both played 40 minutes as the Flames tied their season high with 82 points and shot a season high from the floor at 54.9%. A win like this could have given this team some confidence earlier this year. Unfortunately, there are only a few games left for the Flames and they'll need to continue to shoot well from the floor AND defend much better to make any *noise in the HL Tournament.
*noise in this case is defined by any win from the Flames from here on out.
Detroit: 68 Eastern Michigan: 66
When the BB pairings came out I was disappointed with Detroit's draw. It turns out the powers that be knew what they were doing by pairing the Eagles with the Titans. Detroit squeaked out a two-point win in a game that saw coach McCallum's team continue to turn the ball over. The most surprising stat may have been the Titans getting beat on the glass by their MAC counterparts. A win is a win and Detroit had lost 3 straight and 5 of 6 so this will hopefully get the Titans' ship righted.
Ohio: 64 Wright State: 59
Ohio is better than their record. I still think Wright State is better than Ohio. Unfortunately for the Raiders making baskets is still a big part of winning basketball games. Wright State shot 19-60 on the road which is a recipe for disaster. This may be the most disappointed result of the day. The Bobcats are in last place in the MAC East and we all know Wright State is currently the second best team in the HL. On the surface this looks like a bad loss. Then you dig deeper and it still burns. This version of the Raiders is missing something. They need attitude, swagger, mojo, whatever you want to call it, but they need it pronto.
Green Bay: 60 Indiana State: 59
Green Bay held serve at home against Indiana State. Why is their victory unexpected? I thought they'd win handily. Indiana State was without Harry Marshall and Dwayne Lathan, who were both injured in early February. Lathan and Marshall are ISU's top two scorers, combining for 26 ppg. The Sycamores limped in losers of 2 of 3 and hung tough with the Phoenix for 40 minutes. Green Bay shot poorly and didn't get to the line. It took a career night from freshman Rian Pearson for Green Bay to pull this one out. Indiana State is a lower-level Valley team this year but still hung tough with one of the Horizon League's finest on the road.
The Bad:
Niagara: 85 Milwaukee: 79
Niagara's athleticism got them to the free throw line twice as much as the Milwaukee Panthers and Tyrone Lewis hit 6 threes to get the Purple Eagles a nice road win. This was a tough matchup for the Panthers and their defense really failed them. They didn't force turnovers, defend the paint, or the three-point line. Normally when you have your best shooting game of the season at home you win. If the Panthers can keep that offensive momentum and get some stops they can still be dangerous.
Bowling Green: 87 Valparaiso: 70
Valpo allowed a below average team to score 87 points in a moderately paced game. What I'm saying is the Crusaders played ZERO defense on the road and lost by 17 to another average MAC team. Cory Johnson and Brandon Wood didn't shoot well and Valpo simply couldn't keep up with the ridiculous shooting percentage they were allowing on the defensive end. This was another winnable game for the HL that didn't turn out they way I thought. Coach Drew and the boys now have a week to prepare for a much better offensive team: Butler.
Creighton: 78 Loyola: 58
Loyola had a very difficult task in traveling to the Qwest Center for a road game. Creighton is having a down year but is still in the middle of the pack in the MVC and Loyola has really struggled down the stretch in the Horizon League. Coach Altman's spread offense hurt Loyola's normally stout defense. On the bright side, Andy Polka registered his third straight double-digit rebound game.
UC-Riverside 62 Youngstown State: 60
When all of the BracketBusters pairings were announced one stuck out. The most geographically eastern team in the HL had to travel to California. UC-Riverside, 4-9 in the Big West, won what amounts to a toss-up game between two teams in need of some wins. Penguins don't like California.
Five wins. Five loses. For a league that consistently has a good conference RPI, performs well in the NCAA tournament, and has more history than most people give it credit for, this was not a banner weekend. The Wright State and Valparaiso losses were particularly painful. A UWM win over Niagara could have made BracketBusters tolerable, but it was not to be.
The next barometer for the league will be post-season tournaments. That is the quickest and best way to earn your league respect nationally. Butler's in, will anybody else join them?
