On The Horizon

Jim Squire

The Morning Dish – Saturday, March 3, 2018--Hoopville

Tonight’s Menu

A marathon day of games is ahead of us, including a couple of rivalry games, and the first NCAA Tournament bid will be handed out as well.
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The Horizon League has quarterfinal action in Detroit with No. 7 Green Bay taking on No. 2 Wright State (5:30 p.m.), then No. 8 Cleveland State taking on regular season champion Northern Kentucky (8 p.m.)

The Morning Dish – Sunday, March 4, 2018--Hoopville

Side Dishes:
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Kahlil Small scored 34 and also grabbed 11 rebounds in a herculean effort for Wisconsin-Green Bay, but the Phoenix’s season ended in the Horizon quarterfinals with an 87-72 loss to Wright State. Outside of tourney’s,
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Today’s Menu:
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The Summit League’s remaining two quarterfinal games are played, including No. 5 North Dakota State vs. No. 4 IPFW and 6 seed Oral Roberts against No. 3 Denver. The same goes for the Horizon League, where Wisconsin-Milwaukee meets 3 seed Illinois-Chicago plus former Summit foes IUPUI and Oakland square off now in the Horizon quarters in the 4/5 game.

The Morning Dish – Monday, March 5, 2018--Hoopville

As conference tournaments take over the entirety of the landscape until Selection Sunday, we’ve just gone through quite a weekend. Four NCAA Tournament bids went out on Sunday, and we had a little bit of everything among them. And other tournaments continue on, a few with championship matchups all set.
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Side Dishes
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The Summit League was among those that had quarterfinal action on tap, and both games were dandies. Fort Wayne rallied from being down by 18 at the half to beat North Dakota State 86-82, then Denver beat Oral Roberts 90-88 in double overtime to close out the entire day. In the Horizon League, Milwaukee knocked off UIC 80-75 and Oakland beat IUPUI 62-55, with the note that both of those games were tied at the half.
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Tonight’s Menu

It’s all conference tournament action from this point on until next week. Two more automatic bids go out tonight.
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In Detroit, the Horizon League has its semifinals as well, with Cleveland State taking on Oakland (7 p.m.) followed by Milwaukee taking on Wright State (9:30 p.m.)

Wright St. beats Green Bay in Horizon tourney quarterfinals--CBS Sports
Cleveland State upsets N. Kentucky 89-80, advances to semis--CBS Sports
Milwaukee moves on beating UIC 80-75 in Horizon quarterfinal--CBS Sports
Nunn hits late FTs, Oakland advances to Horizon League semis--CBS Sports
Oakland vs. Cleveland State odds: Horizon League tournament picks from proven model--CBS Sports
Cleveland State upsets Oakland 44-43--CBS Sports
Love, Wright St. beat Milwaukee in Horizon League semifinals--CBS Sports
Champ Week Live Blog, 3/3: THIS IS MARCH--Mid-Major Madness

UPDATE: 10:19 p.m.

Down goes another 1 seed. Cleveland State, which came into the game 10-22 overall and 6-12 in the Horizon League, knocked off top-seeded Northern Kentucky in the Horizon League quarterfinals, 89-80.

Tyree Applebee, who led the eight-seeded Vikings with 24 points, hit the dagger — a long three with 1:13 to go to put Cleveland State up by eight.

The Norse led by five at the half, but wilted down the stretch amid a Cleveland State run. Drew McDonald led NKU with 24 in the losing effort.

Northern Kentucky is now the third 1 seed to lose in a conference tournament — Rider and UNC Asheville also lost theirs. Even weirder, this is the third year in a row that the top seed in the Horizon League tournament failed to win a game.

Championship Week Video Notebook: Day 6, Sunday--Hoops HD