On The Horizon

Jim Squire

The Morning Dish – Saturday, March 5, 2016--Hoopville

Tonight‘s Menu

Conference tournaments lead the way as the first automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament go out today, but there is much more than that.
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The Horizon League Tournament gets going in Detroit with Cleveland State taking on Green Bay, Northern Kentucky taking on Milwaukee, UIC taking on Wright State and Youngstown State taking on Detroit.

Green Bay beats Cleveland State 65-53 in Horizon tourney--CBS Sports
Milwaukee controls Northern Kentucky 86-69--CBS Sports
Wright State rolls past Illinois-Chicago 74-43 in Horizon--CBS Sports
Detroit eliminates Youngstown State, 92-79--CBS Sports
Horizon League Tournament: First Round Recap--Mid-Major Madness
On The Menu: Saturday, March 5, 2016: Conference Tourney Edition--Blogging the Bracket

Horizon League First Round

ESPN3 will stream all four games.

Game 1: No. 9 Cleveland State Vikings (9-22, 4-14) vs. No. 4 Green Bay Phoenix (19-12, 11-7), 12 p.m.
The Phoenix swept the season series.
Game 2: No. 8 Northern Kentucky Norse (9-20, 5-13) vs. No. 5 Milwaukee Panthers (19-12, 10-8), approx. 2:30 p.m.
The pair split their season series with each winning at home.
Game 3: No. 10 UIC Flames (5-24, 3-15) vs. No. 3 Wright State Raiders (19-12, 13-5), approx. 5 p.m.
The pair split their season series with each winning at home.
Game 4: No. 7 Youngstown State Penguins (11-20, 6-12) vs. No. 6 Detroit Titans (15-14, 9-9), approx. 7:30 p.m.
The Titans swept the season series.

The Horizon has a unique format. The top two seeds, the Valparaiso Crusaders and Oakland Golden Grizzlies, have a bye until Monday's semifinals, so the four winners of today's games will meet tomorrow in the quarterfinals. Also of note is that NKU, in its final year of its transition from Division II, is participating in its second consecutive conference tournament in its second conference in as many years. The Norse didn't disrupt the Atlantic Sun event as much last season as ineligible Stetson is this time around.

Note that this season's the Horizon tournament begins a long stay in Detroit, starting at Joe Louis Arena and moving to the Red Wings' new arena upon its completion.

The team in this group to keep an eye on is Wright State, who managed to defeat Valpo twice ... and also to lose to Oakland twice. The Raiders also managed to be one of UIC's three conference victims.

Motor City Madness: No. 4 Green Bay forces 27 turnovers in 65-53 win over Cleveland State to open tourney--Press Row Sports
Motor City Madness: No. 5 Milwaukee cruises past Northern Kentucky, 86-69, in first round action of Horizon League tourney--Press Row Sports
Motor City Madness: No. 3 Wright State clamps down on UIC in 74-43 victory--Press Row Sports

Wichita State’s locker room somber, silent following MVC semifinal loss (+video)--Wichita Eagle

On the other side of a small partition, senior forward Anton Grady got dressed quickly, pulling on a gray Nike pullover and sweats before starting interviews. He addressed the elephant in the room after the Shockers placed themselves firmly on the bubble come NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday on March 13.

“For whatever reason, we didn’t have the consistency we needed,” Grady said. “That was lacking, and it’s tough to deal with, but we put ourselves in this situation. Now we wait.”

Analysts quick to cast doubt on Shockers’ NCAA chances--Wichita Eagle

Grady as the go-to option — Senior center Anton Grady provided Wichita State its lone consistent scoring threat. He just couldn’t stay on the floor long enough to make it matter more.

Grady scored 14 points in 22 minutes before fouling out. He made 7 of 12 shots by taking advantage of Northern Iowa’s desire to cut off driving lanes for VanVleet and Baker. The Panthers obstructed their path with a big man and tried to keep them away from the middle of the court, leaving Grady open for mid-range jump shots.

“We worked hard not to allow the ball to get back to the middle of the floor with Fred and Ron, to use that ball screen to get to that spot,” UNI coach Ben Jacobson said. “That’s one of the decisions that we had to make: Do we allow Fred to get to the middle and have his options? Or, we know they’re going to put Grady at 15 to 17 feet and he’s going to be open.”

Grady said the Shockers worked on his movements during shootaround on Saturday.

“(Marshall) put in a new play for us, and the play was just for a 15-foot jump shot, or swing it to the opposite wing,” he said. “I was able to knock that shot down today.”