Championship Rematch Highlights Game of the Week, Saturday Slate

Horizon League Men's Basketball Weekly Release (Dec. 30, 2011)

Saturday, Dec. 31 Horizon League Men's Basketball Schedule:
Milwaukee at Butler, 2 p.m. ET - Horizon League Game of the Week (syndicated)
Wright State at UIC, 2 p.m. ET - Horizon League Network
Detroit at Loyola, 2 p.m. ET - Horizon League Network
Youngstown State at #-/rv Cleveland State, 2 p.m. ET - Horizon League Network
Green Bay at Valparaiso, 5:05 p.m. ET - Horizon League Network

The Horizon League Game of the Week returns for the third straight year on Saturday, Dec. 31, with a rematch from the 2011 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament championship opening the year. Butler, who claimed the tournament title in March, hosts Milwaukee at 2 p.m. ET.

The game of the week is syndicated across the Midwest, with coverage provided on WNDY (Indianapolis), Time Warner Cable Sports 32 (Wisconsin), Comcast Sports Net Chicago (Chicago, Champaign-Urbana, Madison, Valparaiso), Time Warner Cable Dayton (Dayton, Cincinnati, southwest Ohio), SportsTime Ohio (Cleveland), MyYTV (Youngstown) and WADL (Detroit). The Horizon League Network will have live coverage of the game, as will ESPN3.

Veteran sportscaster Jim Barbar will be on the call of all eight games of the week; Barbar is familiar to Horizon League basketball fans as he has worked numerous Friday night ESPNU broadcasts featuring League teams. Barbar is also providing fans with a regular blog on HorizonLeague.com throughout the year.

Joining Barbar on the broadcasts is Joel Cornette. Cornette starred at Butler for four years from 1999-2003. Leading the Bulldogs to 100 victories, Cornette was a part of four Horizon League regular season titles, two tournament crowns and three trips to the NCAA Tournament. One of 31 Bulldogs with 1,000 or more career points, Cornette earned Horizon League All-Defensive accolades from 2001-03 and collected NCAA East Region All-Tournament Team honors in 2003.

Cornette spent three years as an assistant coach at Iowa after a year on the Butler coaching staff. Cornette worked Horizon League broadcasts on ESPN3 last year.

Saturday's game brings Milwaukee (10-4, 3-0 Horizon) to Hinkle Fieldhouse on an 11-game winning streak in the Horizon League regular season. The Panthers snapped Butler's League-record 22-game streak last year en route to a regular season sweep of the Bulldogs, giving them hosting duties during for the Horizon League Tournament.

Through the first half of the 2011-12 season, the Panthers have committed to defense, holding opponents to 58.2 points per game and 23.5 percent shooting from three-point range. The latter rate is the second-best in the country.

On Thursday, both Milwaukee and Butler (7-7, 1-1 Horizon) displayed their respective defenses, with the Panthers limiting Valparaiso, who entered the night as the highest-scoring team in the Horizon League, to just 55 points in a 57-55 road win. Butler held Green Bay to 27.8 percent shooting in a 53-49 victory.

The battle between point guards Kaylon Williams and Ronald Nored will be worth the price of admission. Williams enters the game leading the League in assists with 5.8 per game and is 11th in scoring (12.3 ppg) and seventh in reounding (5.5 rpg). Nored has earned his stripes on the defensive end of the court, picking up All-Defensive Team honors in 2010 and 2011; in the last two games, he has led Butler in scoring, averaging 15.5 ppg in the stretch.

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Up I-65, Valparaiso (8-6, 1-1 Horizon) and Green Bay (6-7, 2-1 Horizon) will each be looking to salvage the weekend after difficult losses on Thursday. Both teams came out of the night feeling as if they could have won the weekend opener, with the Crusaders falling by two and the Phoenix by four.

Valpo enters the 2011 finale as the third-best shooting team inside the three-point line in the country, knocking down 56.1 percent of its attempts. That rate will be tested against the formidable front line of Green Bay, who boast 7-foot-1 Alec Brown and 6-foot-9 Brennan Cougill. Battling the duo down low will be the Crusaders' Kevin Van Wijk and Ryan Broekhoff. Van Wijk is among the nation's leaders in field-goal percentage, knocking down 62.4 percent of his attempts and posting 14.8 ppg.

Broekhoff's versatile inside-outside game has allowed him to average 15.2 ppg and a League-leading 9.4 rpg. The Aussie has tallied seven double-doubles on the year, including an 18-point, 12-rebound effort against Milwaukee.

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Switching from I-65 to the Skyway, UIC (5-8, 1-2 Horizon) and Wright State (7-8, 2-1 Horizon) will each be looking to build on Thursday night wins. UIC hung on down the stretch to knock off Detroit, 63-59, while Wright State hassled Loyola throughout a 64-48 victory.

The matchup to watch in the game is in the back court, where UIC's duo of Gary Talton and Daniel Barnes will attemp to limit the Wright State tandem of Reggie Arceneaux and Julius Mays. Since returning from injury, Mays is averaging 21.0 ppg as the Raiders have won three straight games. Arceneaux, in his first year of play, has put up 12.7 ppg during the winning streak, adding 10 assists in the stretch.

After playing in five games last year before taking a redshirt, Barnes has emerged as UIC's leading scorer, posting 12.2 ppg (12th in the Horizon) and knocking down 2.4 three-pointers per game, second in the League. Talton, in his first year of League play, scored a career-best 21 points in the win over Detroit.

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On the north side of the city, Detroit (6-9, 0-3 Horizon) and Loyola (5-8, 0-3 Horizon) will square off in a battle for each team's first League win of the year. The Jesuit battle will feature one of the best overall offenses in the Horizon League against one of its stingiest defenses.

Detroit will be trying to get its offense on track against a Loyola team allowing just 58.7 points per game. The Titans averaged 76.8 ppg in non-conference play, but have been bottled up in three League losses, putting up just 60.3 ppg. Still, with three Preseason All-League picks in Ray McCallum, Chase Simon and Eli Holman, Detroit remains dangerous.

After a disappointing effort against Wright State, Loyola will look to bounce back behind Ben Averkamp and Walt Gibler. In a foul-plagued effort, Averkamp had just five points, while Gibler led the Ramblers with 12 points. Loyola will have to cut down on its 21 turnovers from Thursday; 15 first-half miscues helped put Loyola into a hole from which they could not recover.

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In the teams' sole conference game of the week, Cleveland State (12-2, 2-0 Horizon) will seek to improve to 26-3 in the last two Novembers and Decembers when Youngstown State (6-6, 1-1 Horizon) visits the Wolstein Center.

The game will pit one of the stingiest defenses in the Horizon League against the top three-point shooting team in the conference. The Penguins enter the contest knocking down 38.2 percent of its attempts, averaging 9.8 three-pointers per game. DuShawn Brooks and Blake Allen lead the long-range gunning for YSU, with Brooks hitting 46 percent of his attempts and Allen 44 percent. Allen's 3.3 makes per game easily pace the League.

Conversely, Cleveland State is holding its opponents to 26.7 percent shooting from three-point range, the 14th-best mark in the nation. The trio of Trey Harmon, Jeremy Montgomery and D'Aundray Brown has helped control the perimeter while combining to average over half of Cleveland State's points. Brown's defense has helped him become one of the premier defenders in the country, ranking fourth in the country in steals per game.

Offensively, Brown paces the Vikings with 12.4 ppg, while Harmon is adding 11.4 ppg.