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During the 2010 Horizon League tournament championship game, Wright State was defeated 70 to 45 by the Butler Bulldogs, who are now guaranteed a place in the 2010 NCAA tournament. Butler is coming into the 2010 tournament undefeated – with a pure winning streak of twenty games! The team finished the first part of the season with a record of 28-4. Butler is now hoping to make it to the Final Four this year.

Although the Bulldogs don’t find themselves in any major conference, they are at least involved with a conference, unlike many other schools. Throughout the 09-10 season for standard basketball, Minnesota beat Butler, who then managed to defeat Xavier, UCLA, and Ohio State. The team’s last defeat was on the 22nd of December, with a final score of 67 to 57 – a mere 10 points, with the victor being UAB.

Many of the players on the Bulldogs will certainly be recognized by fans throughout the country. Gordon Haywood, the team’s sophomore forward, is currently leading his team in rebounds and points. Shelvin Mack is Butler’s sophomore guard and he manages to maintain fourteen points each game. About 37 percent of his shots are for 3 points. An upcoming player to watch is definitely Zach Hahn. Approximately forty three percent of his shots are from beyond the arc! He also acts as an extremely dependable shooter from the free throw line – which is something that no team can do without.

Unfortunately, the Butler Bulldogs may not be the best team for rebounding, or even for scoring a high amount of points in each game. This could be a problem when they’re facing a team much like Siena in the upcoming tournament. The Bulldogs have the ability to really control the momentum of the game, though. When Butler was facing Loyola a few months ago, they were down but still managed to emerge victorious. Twenty consecutive victories with zero losses is no easy task, and only five teams in all have managed to complete the standard season with 20 or more wins.

While I maintain that Butler does hold the talent to get to the Sweet Sixteen, I don’t really see them coming out on top in 6 games against some of the greatest teams in the nation. They will certainly take home a few victories, but the bracket this year will have to be extraordinarily easy for Butler to make it to the Elite Eight.

The 2010 Horizon League basketball tournament is scheduled on March 2nd through March 9th, 2010 at conference team locations. The winner of the 2010 Horizon League basketball tournament will receive an automatic bid to the 2010 NCAA basketball tournament. The following is the 2010 Horizon League Basketball Tournament TV schedule and bracket.

2010 Horizon League Basketball Tournament Schedule

2010 Horizon League Basketball Tournament First Round
Tuesday, March 2
Game #1  #10 Youngstown State vs #3 Green Bay 8:00 PM   HLN
Game #2 #7  Detroit vs #6 Valparaiso 8:00 PM HLN
Game #3 #9 UIC vs #4 Milwaukee 8:00 PM  HLN
Game #4 #8 Loyola vs #5 Cleveland State 7:00 PM HLN

2010 Horizon League Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals
Friday, March 5, 2010
Game #5 Winner Game 3 vs Winner Game 4 6:00 PM  HLN
Game #6 Winner Game 1 vs Winner Game 2 8:00 PM HLN

2010 Horizon League Basketball Tournament Semifinals
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Game #7 Winner Game 5 at #1 Butler 6:15 PM ESPNU
Game #8 Winner Game 6 vs #2 Wright State 8:05 PM ESPNU

2010 Horizon League Championship Game
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Winner Game 7 vs Winner Game 8 9:00 PM     ESPN/ESPN360.com

The Horizon League has best been known as the conference that the Butler Bulldogs play in after making nine NCAA tournament appearances in the past 14 seasons. The Bulldogs will be going for their fifth straight 20 win season upcoming and were one of four Horizon League teams to win 20 or more games last season t include Green Bay, Cleveland State, and Wright State.

2008-09 Horizon League Results:

Butler                    15-3     26-6
Green Bay               13-5    22-11
Cleveland State       12-6     26-11
Wright State           12-6     20-13
Milwaukee               11-7    17-14
Illinois-Chicago         7-11    16-15
Youngstown State    7-11    11-19
Loyola                    6-12    14-18
Valparaiso               5-13     9-22
Detroit                   2-16     7-23

#1 Horizon League Team- Butler Bulldogs

The Butler Bulldogs return all five starters from last season’s squad that went 26-6 and won the Horizon League for a third straight year. Coach Brad Stevens has plused the Bulldogs schedule up to ensure they are as competitive as possible when its time for the NCAA selection committee to pick and seed tournament teams in the spring with teams such as Georgetown, Ohio State, UAB, Xavier, and Davidson on the schedule this season. Matt Howard is the lead returning scorer from last season’s squad having averaged 14.8 ppg and 6.8 rpg last season. Gordon Hayward was the second leading point producer with chipping in 13.1 ppg last year. Look for the Bulldogs to win the Horizon League again this eason and to make it back to the NCAA tournament.

#2 Horizon League Team- Wright State

Wright State goes for their fourth consecutive 20 win season this year. They missed Vaughn Douglas who only played four games last year after being an All-Horizon League choice during his sophomore season the previous year. They will have one of the most experienced squads in the league this season with four of the probably starters being seniors.

#3 Horizon League Team- Milwauke

Milwauke has three starters back and is looking to improve upon their 17 win season from last year. Senior Tone Boyle is the lead returning scorer this season with James Eayrs also chipping in pionts at a 15.6 ppg clip over the last portion of the season. If the team gets Ricky Franklin back as a fifth year senior to run the point, they will be competitive for trying to take first place in the Horizon League away from Butler.

#4 Horizon League Team- Cleveland State

Cleveland State won 26 games last season and had two great seniors in Cedric Jackson and J’Nathan Bullock. They not only won the Horizon Tournament, but had a great showing in the NCAA tournament last year. JC guard Lance James will be eligible this year to take over some of the void left by the departed starters.

#5 Horizon League Team- Green Bay

Green Bay lost Mike Schachtner, Terry Evans, and Ryan Tillema from last seaon’s team. All three players scored more than 1,000 lifetime points and were difference makers on the team. Green Bay is led by their returning backcourt of Rahmon Fletcher and Troy Cotton who will also have Randy Berry back in the post position to feed the ball to. Troy Snyder is the top rated Green Bay recruit who could be on the starting roster by the beginning of the regular season.

#6 Horizon League Team- Valparaiso

Valparaiso had only their second losing season since 1993 last year. They have a deep recruiting class along with 7 footer Beas Hamga who transferred from UNLV and wil be eligible to play in December. Brandon McPherson will also be back after going down with a season ending knee injury last January.

#7 Horizon League Team- Youngstown State

Youngstown State will be trying to crack the .500 barrier this season. Coach Jerry Slocum has his top four scorers back from last year. If the team defense can be something better than last in the league, they should have a shot to reach .500 this season.

#8 Horizon League Team- Illinois-Chicago

Senior point guard Spencer Stewart is back to lead the offense who will be missing Josh Mayo and Scott VanderMeer from last season.

#9 Horizon League Team- Loyola

Loyola is down three starters from last season’s squad who posted their second losing season in a row. Senior Andy Polka will be back after missing 21 of the final 22 games last season.

#10 Horizon League Team- Detroit

Detroit never made it to double digits for wins last year. They SHOULD exceed 10 victories, but maybe not by much this year.