Tournament Tracker: March 15

For college basketball fans, the best week of the season has arrived.  For Horizon League fans, it brings the chance to watch four Horizon League teams carry the League flag into tournament play.  The action begins tonight, as Cleveland State (26-8) hosts Vermont in the first round of the Postseason NIT.  Whether it be at the Wolstein Center, Valparaiso, Chicago or Washington, D.C., HorizonLeague.com will be there to document the action and sights and sounds of each postseason venue.

Horizon League Men's Basketball Weekly Release (March 15, 2011)

Cleveland State opens the postseason for the Horizon League after earning a No. 2 seed in the NIT (bracket), hosting Vermont at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN3.com.  Regular season co-champions of the Horizon League, setting a new school record for League victories, the Vikings welcome the regular season victors of America East.  The Vikings are in the postseason for the third time in the last four years under Gary Waters, who is looking for his 100th win at Cleveland State.

Elton Alexander of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer says the Vikings are well-rested, both mentally and physically, as they enter tonight's showdown.

Wednesday will see both Milwaukee (19-13) and Valparaiso (23-11) return to postseason action, as the Panthers enjoy a short drive down I-94 to Chicago to face Northwestern, while the Crusaders receive the comforts of home in a matchup with Iona.  Fifth-seeded Milwaukee and No. 4 Northwestern will tip at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN3.com in the NIT, with Valpo and Iona beginning at 8:05 p.m. ET on Fox College Sports Broadband.

For the Panthers, regular season co-champions of the Horizon League, the game at Northwestern marks a return to postseason play after a four-year absence.  Horizon League Coach of the Year Rob Jeter took Milwaukee to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 and after a makeover of the roster, brought the Panthers within a game of the Big Dance this season before landing the NIT auto-bid.

Jeter knows that the Panthers and Wildcats will be familiar with each other by Wednesday night, according to Tom Enlund at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Valparaiso is a familiar participant in the postseason, taking part in its 10th postseason tournament in the last 16 years.  Part of the 24-team CollegeInsider.com Tournament bracket, the Crusaders meet the Gaels from the MAAC, who finished tied for second with a 13-5 conference record and are 22-11 overall.  Valpo finished just a game out of the three-way tie for first in the Horizon League, holding down a 12-6 League mark.

The CIT will be played on campus sites, with the top four seeds earning byes into the quarterfinals.

St. Patrick's Day will mark the beginning of Butler's NCAA Tournament run, as the Bulldogs, seeded No. 8 in the Southeast Regional, will face No. 9 seed Old Dominion in the second round of the 2011 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.  The game is slated for a 12:40 p.m. (ET) tip at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.  The Bulldogs (23-9) will be facing Old Dominion (27-6) for just the third time.  The two teams met in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, and Butler came away with a 57-46 victory.  Butler also defeated the Monarchs, 75-62, in the second round of the 1999 NIT at Hinkle Fieldhouse.  Old Dominion earned an automatic bid to this year's tournament by winning the Colonial Athletic Association championship.

Full Bracket

ESPN's Andy Katz breaks down the Southeast Region