Valpo bludgeoned Detroit out of the gate, hammering the slow-footed Titans on the boards behind Kevin Van Wijk and Ryan Broekhoff, who combined for 30 points on the night. Valpo acquired a 23-14 lead late in the first half, but since the Crusaders failed to hit a number of open shots, they were unable to establish a lead that reflected the full extent of their quality. Valpo should have been up by 15, but it was only up by nine, and when Detroit made a late flurry to trim its deficit to 27-24 by halftime, it felt as though this game was being played on even terms. Valparaiso might have enjoyed home-court advantage, but it had squandered an opportunity to consolidate a position of leverage.

Detroit, having shot under 30 percent from the field in the first half, took advantage in the second half.

The Titans intuitively sensed that they had played a poor half of ball and had gotten away with it. They gained confidence from that realization and blitzed Valpo with fresh legs and constant energy. The Titans swarmed Valpo’s guards just past the midcourt line, applying pressure far beyond the top of the key. Valpo could not deal with this relentless pressure, and a stream of turnovers poured forth from the Crusaders’ backcourt, feeding easy transition opportunities for Detroit and jacking up the Titans’ shooting percentage. Detroit hit Valpo with an 11-0 run early in the second half to take a 36-31 lead. Then, after Valpo closed within two points at 44-42, Detroit landed an 8-0 run which gave the home team a standing eight count. The Titans then closed with a final knockout punch, pulling away for a 20-point thrashing and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Detroit is a city that likes to think of itself as tough and resilient. Its college basketball team surely fits that description.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

They couldn’t take advantage of it.

Brown did score 17 points, but Cleveland State once again struggled from the field, hitting just under 36 percent of its shots. The third-seeded Detroit Titans hit only 40 percent of their shots and just 4 of 16 threes, but that was good enough to dig out a five-point win over Cleveland State and earn a spot in Tuesday night’s championship game against Valparaiso. Ray McCallum was the man for Detroit, scoring 26 points on 7-of-10 field goal shooting and an 11-of-13 performance from the foul line. Detroit’s starters outscored Cleveland State’s starters, 51 to 35.

(1) Valparaiso 65 (5) Butler 46

And so, the run is over. Butler’s two straight appearances in the NCAA national championship game will not turn into a third one in 2012. The Bulldogs will not even make the NCAA Tournament after getting bounced from the Horizon League Tournament in the semifinal round. The regular-season champion of the league, the Valparaiso Crusaders, put home-court advantage to very good use, whacking Butler by 19 points to set up a match with third-seeded Detroit in the title tilt on Tuesday. Valparaiso beat Butler at home a week earlier to deny Butler the No. 2 seed in this tournament, but the downside for Valpo was that it had to face Butler in the semifinals, not the final. The Crusaders could have buckled under the pressure of the moment, but they responded marvelously instead.

Butler spent the past two Marches grinding down opponents with ruthless defense en route to its runs through the NCAA Tournament, but on Saturday night, the Bulldogs were on the receiving end of a defensive masterclass. Valparaiso limited four of Butler’s five starters to eight combined points, but BU’s Chrishawn Hopkins being the only Bulldog starter who was able to bust loose for a big night (18 points). Butler hit just 17 of 51 shots and made only two three-point field goals. Valparaiso just needed to be passable on offense to win, and it was. Ryan Broekhoff starred for the Crusaders, scoring 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Broekhoff made his biggest imprint on the game by snapping down 16 rebounds. Butler, as a team, managed only 20 boards for the whole game.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Youngstown State did an okay job in this regard, but Detroit was off the charts. The Titans watched Youngstown State shoot really well, but they responded by shooting even better than the Penguins. Indeed, while YSU hit almost 55 percent of its field goal attempts, Detroit hit a sizzling 60 percent of its shots, rolling to a 17-point win and a date with second-seeded Cleveland State in the first of two Horizon semifinals. Detroit did not play great defense in this contest, especially not against YSU’s Damian Eargle, who scored 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field. Eargle eviscerated Detroit’s porous defense, as did teammate Kendrick Perry, who collected 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. When two guys shoot over 63 percent from the field and take at least 11 shots, you might think that you have a good chance of winning. Yet, Youngstown State didn’t come remotely close on Friday night. That’s because Detroit smoked the Penguins’ defense to a far greater degree.

The Titans did not have a single player who shot below 50 percent from the field. Eight Detroit players scored, and all of them made at least half of their field goal attempts. All five Detroit starters attempted at least six shots and made at least three of them. LaMarcus Lowe led the charge for Detroit by hitting 6 of 7 field goals. Teammate Ray McCallum scored 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting and a 6-of-6 effort from the foul line. Detroit raced to a 50-34 halftime lead and cruised home to the finish line. We’ll see if Detroit can shoot as well against Cleveland State.

(5) Butler 71 (4) Milwaukee 49

The Butler Bulldogs entered this Horizon League Tournament game as the lower seed, the team “ostensibly” supposed to lose on the bracket sheet. However, the school that has made two straight NCAA title games has won a lot of March contests as a lower seed over the past few years. Butler coach Brad Stevens hadn’t lost a game in the month of March since 2009. That’s right – Stevens hasn’t lost in March in three years because his teams lost in April… at the Final Four. Did the Milwaukee Panthers really think they could beat back Butler and end the Bulldogs’ hopes of getting back to the NCAA Tournament?

Well, they might have THOUGHT they could win, but they didn’t come close. Butler threw down a vintage performance on Friday, hammering Milwaukee in much the same way that it did in the championship game of last year’s Horizon tournament. Butler’s suffocating defense took Milwaukee out of the game in the first half and simply did not let go. The Panthers hit just 32 percent of their shots and hit just 6 of 23 threes. It was everything you’d expect out of Butler in the month of March, and as a result, the fifth-seeded Bulldogs will get to face regular-season champion Valparaiso in the Horizon semifinals. The game is likely to produce the champion in the tournament, although the Detroit-Cleveland State winner will definitely get to have a say in the matter. Butler will be very hard to beat, however, if forwards Khyle Marshall and Roosevelt Jones combine to hit 16 of 24 shots. Butler’s low-post players are flourishing at the moment. If they can have their way with the Crusaders near the rim, the Butler just might “do it” again.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Detroit allowed Loyola-Illinois, the last-place team in the Horizon League, to hit 50 percent of its field goal attempts and 6 of 14 threes. The third-seeded Titans also allowed the 10th-seeded Ramblers to take 31 foul shots, making 23. One would think that such a shoddy defensive effort would lead to defeat, but the saving grace of the Titans’ defensive performance was that it forced 22 Loyola turnovers, compared to just 12 for Detroit. That was a key point of differentiation in this contest, as was Detroit’s own prowess in getting to and converting at the foul line. The Titans earned 36 trips to the charity stripe and converted on 30 of them. The plus-seven differential in free throw makes enabled the third seed to survive and face sixth-seeded Youngstown State in the second round of this tournament. Detroit was not at its best in this game, but it will have to be markedly better as it goes forward. Loyola-Illinois ended its season with just one win in 19 Horizon League contests.

(6) Youngstown State 77 (7) Green Bay 60

Continuing one of the main themes of the night in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament, turnovers also told the tale in this tilt between the seventh-seeded Phoenix and the sixth-seeded Penguins. Green Bay committed 17 turnovers while Youngstown State coughed up the rock only six times, and that enabled the Penguins to pull away for a comfortable victory. Two other aspects of this competition broke strongly in YSU’s favor. First, the Penguins hit 10 of 23 threes, compared to just four (in 12 attempts) for the losing Phoenix. Youngstown State also received substantial scoring production from all five of its starters, getting double-figure outings from each one. In marked contrast to that picture of balance, Green Bay had only one player hit double figures in the scoring column, Alec Brown. The center posted 20 points on a night when none of his teammates were able to offer a substantial amount of help. Youngstown State now advances to play third-seeded Detroit in the second round of the tournament. Green Bay’s season came to an end; the Phoenix are not likely to land in a postseason tournament.

(4) Milwaukee 68 (9) Illinois-Chicago 55

Milwaukee won this game with defense, clamping down on Illinois-Chicago from start to finish. The victorious Panthers limited the Flames to just 33 percent field goal shooting and a 6 of 22 performance (27 percent) from three-point range. Milwaukee hit only 43 percent of its shots, but it did drill 11 of 25 triples to win this game between the fourth and ninth seeds in the conference. James Haarsma led Milwaukee with 18 points, and teammate Tony Meier grabbed 11 rebounds to give ballast to the Panthers on the glass. Milwaukee would have won this game by a much larger margin if the Panthers had been able to shoot well from the foul line. Milwaukee hit only 13 of 24 foul shots. That will not get the job done in a second-round game with fifth-seeded Butler. The Bulldogs will not allow Milwaukee to get away with that kind of a performance.

(5) Butler 70 (8) Wright State 52

The team that has made the national championship game in each of the last two NCAA Tournaments remained alive in the Horizon League Tournament. The Bulldogs played a mediocre first half and led by a scant 30-29 margin at halftime, but they blew out the visiting Raiders by a 40-23 margin in the second half. Center Andrew Smith led the charge for Butler, scoring 25 points on 6-of-7 field goal shooting and a stellar 12-of-14 outing at the foul line. Butler advances to play fourth-seeded Milwaukee in the second round. The game is a rematch of last year’s Horizon League Tournament championship game, won by Butler on Milwaukee’s home court.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 21

Butler 69 Illinois-Chicago 44

Green Bay 71 Cleveland State 67

Valparaiso 66 Loyola-Illinois 62 (OT)

Thursday, February 23

Cleveland State 77 Detroit 64

Youngstown State 61 Wright State 54

Milwaukee 72 Illinois-Chicago 61

Green Bay 73 Loyola-Illinois 70 (OT)

Friday, February 24

Valparaiso 71 Butler 59

Saturday, February 25

Cleveland State 77 Wright State 55

Green Bay 71 Illinois-Chicago 63

Milwaukee 78 Loyola-Illinois 69

Detroit 76 Youngstown State 74

It’s a happy time for the team that was Butler before Butler was Butler. Indeed, before one Indiana-based school went to two straight NCAA national championship games, it was another school from the Hoosier state that evoked memories of scrappy underdogs defying all the odds and hitting clutch shots to create a magical narrative in the late hours of winter. The 1954 Milan High School team etched its name in the annals of Indiana basketball lore, but in 1998, the Valparaiso Crusaders did the same with their remarkable run to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament. A young man named Bryce Drew hit an improbable shot in the first round of the tournament against Ole Miss, enabling Valpo to upset the fourth-seeded Rebels and push onward to the second weekend of the Big Dance. The story of the little engine that could, winning on heart and guts and savvy in the face of more imposing foes from power-conference schools, captured the heart of a nation. It was the same basic template Butler would draw from when it made the 2010 and 2011 national championship games despite being outsized by most opponents.

Now, Valparaiso is back in the limelight, with Butler being relegated to the position of spoiler. As the Horizon League season ends and the time to prep for the league tournament begins, it is Valpo who wears the crown of the outright regular-season champion. Yes, the Crusaders wrapped up the title earlier this week with a victory and a Cleveland State loss. Drew, the son of longtime Valpo coach Homer Drew, is now the man on the bench for the Crusaders, the coach who is sustaining a family name… and its winning ways. Valpo punctuated its championship season on Friday by beating Butler at home. The win is good for VU in that it pushes Butler into the preliminary round, but it’s bad for VU in that it sets up a possible meeting with the Bulldogs in the Horizon semifinals. Cleveland State did falter toward the end of the conference season, but the Vikings have to be very happy with Valpo’s win over Butler, because it paved the way for CSU to get the second seed and a bye in the first two rounds of the tournament. Cleveland State is a team short on depth, so being able to win just two games for the Horizon title, as opposed to four, was always going to be a prerequisite for the Vikings’ championship aspirations. The pieces are in place for Cleveland State to challenge either Valparaiso or Butler in what is likely to be the Horizon final. Third-seeded Detroit should be taken very seriously as well.

Horizon League Tournament Matchups:

First Round At Campus Sites Of The Higher Seeds:

(9) Illinois-Chicago vs. (4) Milwaukee

(8) Wright State vs. (5) Butler

(10) Loyola-Illinois vs. (3) Detroit

(7) Green Bay vs. (6) Youngstown State

Second Round – At Valparaiso, Indiana (Since Valparaiso won the regular-season league championship):

Game 1: 10/3 winner vs. 7/6 winner

Game 2: 9/4 winner vs. 8/5 winner

Semifinals – At Valparaiso, Indiana

Game 1 winner vs. (2) Cleveland State

Game 2 winner vs. (1) Valparaiso

Final – At Valparaiso, Indiana

Semifinal winners

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 14

Butler 63 Loyola-Illinois 57

Milwaukee 86 Cleveland State 84

Green Bay 71 Youngstown State 65

Valparaiso 74 Illinois-Chicago 65

Wednesday, February 15

Detroit 71 Wright State 55

Friday, February 17

Loyola Marymount 61 Valparaiso 53

Saturday, February 18

Drexel 69 Cleveland State 49

Butler 75 Indiana State 54

Detroit 82 James Madison 70

Green Bay 54 Eastern Michigan 49

Milwaukee 67 Fairfield 63

Wright State 76 UMKC 62

Illinois-Chicago 67 Eastern Illinois 63

Austin Peay 71 Youngstown State 68

Loyola-Illinois 56 Bradley 44

It was a very tough week for the Horizon League. If there was any remaining shred of hope for the conference in its attempt to get an at-large candidate for the NCAA Tournament, it was eliminated in the BracketBusters event matching mid-majors from different leagues against each other. On Friday night, Loyola Marymount of the West Coast Conference turned back the Valparaiso Crusaders in a fiercely contested game in Los Angeles. Valpo was the ascendant team in the Horizon League, having stormed past Cleveland State for the top spot in the neighborhood, but the Crusaders didn’t have enough quickness or three-point shooting to get past the Lions on the road. Valpo was rocked on its heels at times by Loyola Marymount’s speed, but the Crusaders largely stood their ground. They used clever drive-and-kick plays to draw in LMU’s defense and then find an open three-point shooter on the perimeter. LMU’s defense was left scrambling and chasing for much of the second half, and this is why the Horizon leaders were able to stay close for quite some time. However, those three-point shots simply didn’t fall – not enough of them, at any rate. A couple of threes that would have sustained Valparaiso’s momentum rimmed in and out, stifling the visitors’ rally and snuffing out whatever chance the Crusaders had of getting an at-large slot in Bracketville.

Then came Saturday, which was Cleveland State’s absolute last stand following a series of losses in conference play. If the Vikings were going to make one last push at an at-large bid, it needed to happen against the Drexel Dragons. However, the Vikings instead looked spent from start to finish. Without playmaker D’Aundray Brown, Cleveland State just didn’t have the weapons or the resources it needed to stay on the court with a Drexel team that is making a serious case for an at-large NCAA bid out of the Colonial Athletic Association. BracketBusters games are meant to sift pretenders from contenders, and so it must be said that the Horizon League didn’t really measure up – not at the top tier, anyway. Butler and Milwaukee produced encouraging wins over Indiana State (Missouri Valley) and Fairfield (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference), but the Bulldogs and Panthers are not part of the at-large conversation and never really were to begin with. The Horizon League will be a one-bid league this season, and the BracketBusters event confirmed as much.

Now the focus shifts to the race for positioning in the league with one week left in the regular season. Valparaiso, at 12-4, leads second-place Cleveland State by 1.5 games. However, if the two teams tie, Valpo also owns the head-to-head tiebreaker as a result of a two-game sweep of the season series. This means Valpo just needs to win one of its final two games to clinch the top seed and home court in the tournament semifinals. Cleveland State is therefore a longshot to overtake Valpo for the top seed; the Vikings are trying to hold off Butler and Detroit, who both sit at 10-6 in the league, for the second seed and the other double bye in the tournament (seeds 3 through 10 play each other in two rounds before the semifinals). The challenge for Cleveland State is that it is a short-handed team facing a three-games-in-five-days gauntlet from Feb. 21 through Feb. 25. The Vikings must win two of three if they want to expect a No. 2 seed, and one of those wins will need to come on Feb. 23 against Detroit.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Thursday, February 9

Valparaiso 59 Cleveland State 41

Butler 68 Youngstown State 59

Friday, February 10

Detroit 58 Milwaukee 57

Green Bay 53 Wright State 48

Saturday, February 11

Butler 52 Cleveland State 49

Loyola-Illinois 78 Illinois-Chicago 69

Youngstown State 71 Valparaiso 53

Sunday, February 12

Detroit 77 Green Bay 74

Wright State 70 Milwaukee 46

It’s not the best of times for the people who run the Horizon League. From the commissioner through the rest of the administrative ranks, a lot of frowns have to be filling Horizon League offices after the past week of basketball results.

The week began with the Cleveland State Vikings sitting in a very advantageous position, ready to take a big step toward an NCAA Tournament at-large candidacy with two wins over formidable conference opponents. CSU had already won at Vanderbilt in the non-conference portion of this season, meaning that if it could have taken hold of the Horizon’s regular-season race, it would have put itself in a very good spot for an NCAA ticket in the event that it fails to win the Horizon tournament in early March. Cleveland State was the team that gave the Horizon League the hope for a two-team NCAA haul this season. CSU needed to hold up its end of the bargain in order to give a big boost to league coffers, which depend on the extra cash infusion created by NCAA Tournament revenues.

Now, those hopes are pretty much gone.

Cleveland State played two home games this past week. The first of two titanic tilts came against Valparaiso in a battle for first place in the league. The second main-event throwdown came against the most iconic and credentialed program in the Horizon, the Butler behemoth that – while struggling this season – still carries that six-letter name on its chest and will be a tough out in the Horizon tourney. Cleveland State had a chance to really impress the NCAA selection committee in these two games. Instead, it fell flat on its face. Coach Gary Waters looked on in horror as his team failed to reach 50 points in either one of these home games. The Vikings simply couldn’t hit the side of a barn against the Crusaders or the Bulldogs, turning a hoped-for Valpo-Butler sweep into a distressing and disillusioning “0-fer.” Cleveland State has a veteran lineup, but the Vikings looked like a young and inexperienced team against Valpo’s and Butler’s rugged defenses. CSU hoisted a lot of long shots early in possessions without working the ball into the paint or prying open opportunities with interlocking patterns of screens and cuts. The Vikings bailed out on possessions instead of using 30 seconds to find a better opportunity. When Cleveland State managed to get the ball near the rim, the Vikings lacked touch and eschewed the bank shot at great cost. This team failed to re-calibrate the way it shot the ball, flipping or pushing the ball instead of finding better angles and strategies. Neither Valparaiso or Butler hit 60 points in either of these games, but with Cleveland State stuck in the 40s, it didn’t matter. The Vikings now have to win the Horizon tournament to make the NCAAs, which is the situation facing every other team in the league. The only value in winning the regular season is an automatic bid to the NIT in the event of a loss in the Horizon tournament. This will be a one-bid league when Selection Sunday rolls around, and Valparaiso’s surprising loss on Sunday to Youngstown State pretty much confirms that line of analysis.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Tuesday, January 31

Youngstown State 73, Milwaukee 65

Thursday, February 2

Butler 64, Wright State 53

Valparaiso 78, Detroit 73

Illinois-Chicago 72, Youngstown State 68

Friday, February 3

Cleveland State 65, Loyola-Illinois 47

Saturday, February 4

Detroit 65 Butler 61

Milwaukee 81 Green Bay 75

Valparaiso 63 Wright State 54

Sunday, February 5

Cleveland State 70 Illinois-Chicago 42

Youngstown State 80 Loyola-Illinois 63

In the 2012 incarnation of the Horizon League, the arrival of February is bringing about not just one surprising twist, but two. It’s been known for some time that the Butler Bulldogs were not going to dominate the league, but they’re slipping instead of gaining traction as the season moves along. That’s the first shocker. The second surprise in the Horizon might be more subtle, but it’s no less significant: The Milwaukee Panthers, the defending regular-season champions, are also losing ground while other teams pass them by.

Milwaukee started strong out of the blocks this season, gaining the early upper hand and giving the strong impression that after winning the Horizon League in 2011 and hosting Butler for the tournament championship, it was going to defend its crown with an appropriate level of vigor and pride. The Panthers were steering the season in the direction they wanted; through the first half of January, it appeared that the Horizon was not going to be completely overturned; if Butler didn’t make the finals of the Horizon tournament, Milwaukee was a likely bet to return to that main event and compete for the league’s bid to the NCAAs.

Now, though, it’s a certainty that Milwaukee will miss the at-large chase for the Big Dance. Only one team in the Horizon will be able to snap up an at-large ticket to March Madness, and it’s not the team residing in America’s beer capital. Milwaukee was stunned on the last night of January by the upstart Youngstown State Penguins. Even though YSU has put together a superb bounce-back campaign after finishing at the bottom of the league in 2011, the Penguins are still just a 7-5 Horizon team, a middle-of-the-road club whose improvement has been “from awful to respectable,” not from awful to elite (there’s a difference). Youngstown State, after all, lost to Illinois-Chicago on Thursday, proving how far it needs to go to reach the top tier of the Horizon. Milwaukee could not have afforded to lose to the Penguins, but it did, and now its NCAA hopes lie solely in the ability to win the Horizon tournament. What’s hard and complicating for the Panthers, though, is that with the top two seeds in the Horizon tournament getting byes into the semifinals, Milwaukee – now outside the top two – is unlikely to get that bye. The Panthers’s disappearance from the top of the Horizon standings is something that couldn’t have been foreseen three weeks ago.

The two teams that are taking hold of the Horizon are Valparaiso and Cleveland State. Valpo won two games this past week to move to 10-3 in the conference, good for that second seed in the league tournament if it can maintain its place for the rest of February. Cleveland State has done Valpo one better, however; the Vikings, who were expected to contend this season, have flourished under their newly constituted veteran lineup. They miss Norris Cole from last season, but not enough for it to hurt. CSU – thanks to an early-season win at Vanderbilt – owns the kinds of poker chips on its resume which could deliver an at-large bid to the NCAAs. The Vikings are the one team that could lose in the final of the Horizon tournament and still find their way to the field of 68.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Wednesday, January 25

Detroit 67, Loyola-Illinois 52

Wright State 69, Illinois-Chicago 63

Thursday, January 26

Milwaukee 53, Butler 42

Green Bay 75, Valparaiso 60

Friday, January 27

Detroit 70, Illinois-Chicago 66

Wright State 47, Loyola-Illinois 41

Saturday, January 28

Green Bay 80, Butler 68

Cleveland State 67 Youngstown State 47

Valparaiso 55, Milwaukee 52

It’s a decidedly different kind of season in the Horizon League… no, not in the sense that the league is cluttered and contentious – that’s how things usually are – but because the Butler Bulldogs, who have made the last two NCAA national championship games, are increasingly likely to not figure in the final few weeks of the conference championship chase.

Yes, Butler did not win the Horizon last year, but the Bulldogs still finished second, which was very valuable for coach Brad Stevens’s club because the two seed in the league tournament gave BU a first-round bye. Butler managed to win the league tournament on the strength of that bye, setting up another deep run in the month of March. This year, Butler’s not very likely to get a top-two finish, meaning that the Bulldogs are going to have to do things the hard way in the Horizon tournament. BU got waxed by the Green Bay Phoenix this past weekend. And what was even more shocking about the Bulldogs’ setback was not (just) that it occurred by a double-digit margin; the Bulldogs’ vaunted defense got shredded by a conference foe. Butler doesn’t have the offensive horsepower it once possessed, but Stevens and his coaching staff are still quite adept at coaxing solid defensive performances from their players. It’s Butler’s defensive wobbliness this season which has left the Bulldogs particularly vulnerable, and Green Bay showed why on Saturday. Butler is 6-5 in the league, tied for fifth place while other schools play for the Horizon title and the all-important second-place spot. Milwaukee and Youngstown State, with four losses apiece, form a buffer between Butler and the top two teams in the Horizon, Cleveland State (the leader at 8-2) and Valparaiso (8-3). A top-two finish just can’t be seen as a realistic possibility at this point. Something will have to change drastically over the next two weeks to give the Bulldogs the opening they simply have to find.

Elsewhere in the Horizon, the key result was Valparaiso’s three-point win at Milwaukee on Saturday. The Crusaders’ ability to win on the road against the defending regular-season conference champion will do wonders for their confidence. Valpo usually flourishes on offense, so this 55-52 grinder against the Panthers will tell the rest of the Horizon that the boys from Indiana can win with elbow grease as well as shotmaking flair. It’s a bitter pill to swallow for Milwaukee, which had been setting the pace in the first half of January but has been repeatedly wounded over the past few weeks.

Cleveland State, though, is the current pace-setter in the Horizon, even more than Valpo. Youngstown State has been a vastly improved team this year; the Penguins were in the 2011 basement but entered this past Saturday’s game against Cleveland State with a 6-3 league record. CSU was unimpressed; the Vikings administered a 20-point beatdown to leave no doubt about their superiority. Cleveland State coach Gary Waters is doing a terrific job with a veteran team that lost point guard Norris Cole to the NBA last season.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer