Four Teams Alive for No. 1 Seed as Regular Season Winds Down

Horizon League Men's Basketball Weekly Release (Feb. 24, 2011)

Horizon League TV Schedule (all times ET)
Thursday, Feb. 24:
Milwaukee at Cleveland State -- 7 p.m., HorizonLeague.com
Green Bay at Youngstown State -- 7:05 p.m., HorizonLeague.com
Loyola at #-/rv Valparaiso -- 8 p.m., HorizonLeague.com

Friday, Feb. 25:
Detroit at Wright State -- 7 p.m., ESPNU

Saturday, Feb. 26:
Milwaukee at Youngstown State -- 1:05 p.m., HorizonLeague.com
Loyola at Butler -- 2 p.m., HorizonLeague.com
Green Bay at Cleveland State -- 2 p.m., Horizon League Game of the Week
UIC at #-/rv Valparaiso -- 8:05 p.m., HorizonLeague.com

A historic Horizon League regular season concludes this weekend, with the closest race for the regular season crown in the conference's 32-year history.  Entering Thursday night, four teams are within a game of the top seed, while every tournament seed is still up for grabs with three nights of play remaining.

The spotlight falls on the Wolstein Center on Thursday night, when either Cleveland State (23-6, 12-4 Horizon) or Milwaukee (16-12, 11-5 Horizon) will emerge with a firm grasp of control of the top seed with a victory.  Sitting one game ahead of its pursuers, the Vikings can simply win out in their final two contests to capture their first Horizon League regular season crown.   

In a matchup of two of the League's top point guards, Norris Cole will square off against Kaylon Williams, who has handed out 24 assists in his last three games, including a school-record 14 on Feb. 12.  Cole, meanwhile, has put on a show over the last two weeks, averaging 29.8 points per game, while grabbing 8.3 rebounds and handing out 7.8 assists over his last four contests.

Milwaukee enters the game on a seven-game League winning streak, its longest since the 2004-05 season, when the Panthers went 14-2 on their way to the NCAA Tournament.  The Panthers come in to the game banged up, with Ryan Allen, Anthony Hill and Williams expected to play, and will look to avenge an 82-59 defeat at the hands of the Vikings on Dec. 4, before Milwaukee truly hit its stride.

Green Bay (13-16, 7-9 Horizon) remains in the hunt to host a first round tournament game, but will need to get some help and win out over the weekend, beginning with Thursday night's game against Youngstown State (9-18, 2-14 Horizon) at the Beeghly Center.  The Phoenix will be seeking to build on a thrilling 81-80 overtime win agaisnt Valparaiso on Monday, while the Penguins are coming off a Sears BracketBusters win over Bowling Green.

Youngstown State has been playing some of its best basketball lately, especially at the Beeghly Center, where the Penguins are 9-5 on the season.  The 'Guins knocked off Butler and took Valparaiso to the wire before playing Wright State and Cleveland State tough on the road.

Green Bay has struggled away from the Resch Center, going 3-10, but broke a string of last-second losses with a win in the closing seconds on Monday, getting a Bryquis Perine jumper with 11 ticks left to stay in contention for a home tournament game.

The Wisconsin schools will swap places for Saturday's set of games, with the Panthers and Penguins wrapping up their regular seasons at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday.  Green Bay will meet Cleveland State in the Horizon League Game of the Week on Saturday at 2 p.m., with the game available in all 10 League markets.

In the final Thursday night contest, Loyola (15-13, 6-10 Horizon) heads across the border to take on Valparaiso (20-9, 11-5), who has dropped its last two League games to fall a game back of Cleveland State in the hunt for the regular season crown.  Both of the Crusaders' losses have come in the final minute, as they had chances to win at both Milwaukee and Green Bay.

Valpo does return to the friendly confines of the ARC, where they are 11-2 this year after an 80-67 drubbing of Missouri Valley frontrunner Missouri State on Saturday.  Brandon Wood has picked up his game of late, going over 20 points in each of the last three games for the Crusaders.  A victory would keep Valpo in the hunt for the regular season title, which it has not won since joining the Horizon League.

The Ramblers enter Thursday night one game behind  Green Bay for the seventh seed and could take the spot depending on this weekend's results.  Closing out his career, Andy Polka sits 42 rebounds shy of 1,000 in his career with at least three games left to play.  The senior is just 58 points away from a grand and if he can achieve both, he would become just the third player in Loyola history to achieve the feat.

Loyola will head down I-65 to close out the regular season on Saturday, when Butler (20-9, 11-5 Horizon) hosts the Ramblers on Senior Day.  The Bulldogs are the fourth team in the hunt for the League title and are trying to get in position for the coveted double bye into the semifinals.  Riding a six-game winning streak to return to the NCAA Tournament at-large conversation, Butler has not missed receiving the bye since 2004-05, when the Bulldogs went 13-17.

Senior Matt Howard will be among those recognized before the game, and the senior will wrap up his time with the Bulldogs as one of the top players in Butler history, presently ranking third in both career points and rebounds.  The Division I Academic All-American of the Year, Howard is also a finalist for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, presented at the Final Four.

The Friday night spotlight comes on Wright State (18-12, 10-7 Horizon) and Detroit (15-15, 9-8 Horizon), when they clash for the fifth seed in the League tournament.  A Raiders win puts them in position to potentially move into a tie for fourth, depending on the weekend's results.  A victory by the Titans gives them the fifth seed, as they would have swept the Raiders, thereby earning the tiebreaker.

Each team is coming off of almost a week of rest after high-scoring efforts.  Wright State matched its season-high with 82 points in a 23-point rout of visiting Hofstra in front of a national television audience in the Sears BracketBusters.  Senior Vaughn Duggins, who will be part of Senior Night ceremonies following the game on Friday, put on a show last Saturday, posting a career-high 31 points while outplaying the nation's fourth-leading scorer.  Duggins is up to second in scoring in the League, averaging 17.7 points per contest.  His backcourt mate, N'Gai Evans, forms one of the League's top-scoring duos, adding 14.3 ppg and 3.3 assists.

Detroit comes to the WSU Nutter Center with the League's only starting five that all average 10 or more points per game.  The Titans scored 76 points at Drake, but a late run sent Detroit home with an 84-76 defeat in the BracketBusters.  Nick Minnerath has emerged for the Titans, leading the team with five 20-point games - all coming since the new year.

The Horizon League regular season will wrap up on Saturday night, when UIC (7-22, 2-15 Horizon) heads to the ARC in a rematch of one of the League's most entertaining games this year.  All the way back on Dec. 2, the Flames held a 10-point lead on the Crusaders, only to see it vanish down the stretch in an eventual 68-66 Valpo overtime victory.

With the Saturday night tilt potentially holding the difference between a top seed and a first round game for Valpo, UIC would like nothing more than to spoil Senior Night at the ARC and possibly move up a seed in the League tournament.  Seniors Paul Carter and Robo Kreps have given UIC one of the best inside-outside duos in the League, with Kreps posting 15.8 ppg and Carter tallying 11 double-doubles on the year.