Wild Final Week on Tap in Horizon League Men's Hoops

Feb. 21, 2005

The final week of the 2004-05 Horizon League regular season is shaping up to be a wild one as only three of the nine seeds for next week's League championship have been determined. In fact, entering the week each of the eight games on this week's schedule can impact the third through eighth seeds in the tournament. And, taking it a step further, there is the potential for a four-way tie for third place at 8-8 by the end of the coming weekend.


The only confirmed seeds are regular-season champion UW-Milwaukee (21-5, 13-2) as the No. 1 seed, runner-up UW-Green Bay (17-8, 10-4) as the No. 2 seed and Youngstown State (5-20, 2-12) as the No. 9 seed. Both the Panthers and Phoenix have clinched byes to the tournament semifinals.


Entering this week's action, there is a three-way tie for third place among Wright State (13-13, 7-7), Detroit (10-15, 7-7) and UIC (13-12, 7-7) with the current tiebreaker in that order based on each team's record against the other two (WSU 2-1, UDM 2-2 and UIC 1-2).


Detroit is the only one of the three to control its own destiny for the pivotal third seed that includes a bye to the tournament quarterfinals. Wright State and UIC, who will play this Wednesday in Chicago, each must win both of its games and have Detroit lose once to guarantee the third seed. The Titans, Raiders and Flames can all clinch at least a first-round home game with one win this week.


In another key head-to-head matchup, sixth-place Loyola (10-16, 7-8) will play at seventh-place Cleveland State (9-14, 6-8) on Wednesday. The Ramblers can clinch a first-round home game with a victory, while the Vikings need to win both of their games this week, including Saturday's home game against UW-Milwaukee, to do so.


Butler (11-14, 5-9), which enters the week in eighth place, can move up to at least seventh with two wins and two Cleveland State losses. The Bulldogs will play host to UIC on Saturday in the final FSN Horizon League Game of the Week on FSN Chicago, Midwest and North. Tip-off is noon ET (11 a.m. CT).


With so many teams so closely ranked in the standings, the seeding for the championship likely will come down to the final game of the regular season when Wright State hosts UW-Green Bay on Sunday, Feb. 27, at 2 p.m. ET (1 p.m. CT).


The 2005 American Family Insurance Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship will begin with first-round games on the campuses of the fourth through sixth seeds Tuesday, March 1. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be hosted by regular-season champion UW-Milwaukee and played Friday and Saturday, March 4-5, at U.S. Cellular Arena in downtown Milwaukee. The championship game will be held Tuesday, March 8, at the site of the higher remaining seed and will be televised live on ESPN at 9:05 p.m. ET (8:05 p.m. CT) as part of "Championship Week."

Tracking the Men's Bracket