Butler Receives No. 8 Seed, Will Face Old Dominion in Southeast Region

2011 NCAA Men's Tournament Bracket

INDIANAPOLIS – The Butler Bulldogs, champions of the Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship, were given a No. 8 seed in the Southeast Regional of the 2011 NCAA Tournament.  Butler (23-9) will face No. 9 Old Dominion in the second round on Thursday, March 17, at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Butler is making its fifth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and was the national runner-up in 2010.  Overall, the Bulldogs are 8-4 in the last four years of tournament play.  The Bulldogs met Old Dominion in the 5-12 game of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, with Butler emerging with a 57-46 victory en route to a trip to the Sweet 16.

The winner of Butler and Old Dominion will face No. 1 Pittsburgh, No. 16 UNC-Asheville or No. 16 Arkansas-Little Rock in the third round.  The second and third round games at the Verizon Center feed to the Southeast Regional in New Orleans, which will be held March 24-26.  The Final Four will be held April 2-4 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas.

Horizon League member Cleveland State met Old Dominion this season in the Sears BracketBusters, with the Monarchs downing the Vikings, 74-63, at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.

The No. 8 seed marks the seventh time that the Horizon League has had a member receive a seed in the upper half of the bracket.  The League has received the eighth seed two times before, with Evansville falling 55-50 to UTEP in 1992 and Green Bay dropping a 61-48 decision to Virginia Tech in 1996.  The Bulldogs have been seeded eighth or higher in four of their last five NCAA Tournament appearances.

The Horizon League is the only conference outside of the BCS conferences to have reached at least the round of 32 in each of the last six seasons and will look to improve upon the eighth-best winning percentage among the 31 automatic qualifying conferences over the last eight seasons.  Butler, Cleveland State and Milwaukee have combined for 14 NCAA Tournament wins over those eight years.

Broadcast information and tip-off time will be announced shortly.