Big Win in the Horizon League, and The Butler Didn't Do It

It's been a long time since any regular season Horizon League game was truly a huge matchup.  Of late, there's been little question as to who wore the crown, it was obviously Butler's.

It's been even longer since there was a huge game in the Horizon League and Butler wasn't even playing.

Tonight's Valparaiso v. Cleveland State game was that delightful rarity.  The Vikings held off Valpo at home to earn the 76-65 win and take firm control of the conference lead.  Jeremy Montgomery and Norris Cole were enormous in the win, scoring 26 and 25 points respectively, thrilling the nearly 4,500 fans on hand to watch the battle for first place.

Capturing their sixth straight win tonight, Cleveland State is inching into very interesting territory.  They are now 21-3 overall and 10-2 in the Horizon League.  Two weeks ago I would have said no one aside from Butler had a real chance at earning an at-large bid.  Now?  I'm starting to lean towards the side of the Vikes.  Their three losses are all very reasonable; road losses at West Virginia, Butler and Valparaiso.  Those losses are even more forgivable when you take a look at all the major conference and NCAA-likely teams who lost to their respective conference cellar-dwellers on the road this week (Kentucky, Washington, Xavier, Missouri State, Minnesota, Michigan State, VCU).  Good teams lose on the road in college.  It just happens when conference play gets rolling - even to the elite teams.

The problem with Cleveland State's at-large credentials is their complete absence of a true marquee win.  When your best out-of-conference wins are Kent State and South Florida, it leaves little room for extraneous losses.  Their RPI is a very solid #29, plenty strong enough to merit a bid, but with the weakness of their schedule (144th), even a single bad loss can send them plummeting down the rankings.

Nice pic from BradleyFans.com

Cleveland State has two enormous opportunities remaining on their schedule.  Saturday they host Butler, followed by a date at Old Dominion for Bracket Busters on Feb 20th.  Provided they can avoid a loss elsewhere, a split in those two games should be enough to get them Dancin.'

I'm just hoping they can somehow get Bobby Knight to broadcast the game if they do make the Dance so someone can ask him doggedly and repeatedly about the 1986 stunner Cleveland State unleashed on the Hoosiers.  That'd be kinda fun...

Elsewhere in the Horizon, it is safe to say Butler has officially played themselves into "must win the conference tournament" territory if they have any aspirations of repeating last year's tourney magic.  It is looking like they'll be going kNITting after tonight's 62-60 loss to lowly Youngstown State.  When asked for comment, proud Youngstown State alum Jim Tressel said, "wait, we had a basketball team?"

At this point, the Horizon is Cleveland State's to lose.  You can bet there are a host of BCS-league bubble teams hoping they don't.

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