2009 Horizon League Tournament Predictions

The 2009 Horizon League Tournament tips off on Tuesday March 3rd and continues through Tuesday March 10th. Early round action can be seen on the Horizon League Network with the semifinals being broadcast on ESPN U and the championship game on ESPN. The big question on everyone’s mind is ” can anyone beat Butler?” Jimmy Boyd explores this question as he makes his predictions on one of the more exciting mid-major conference tournaments.

The Favorite: Butler Bulldogs
Butler is the defending Horizon League Tournament champion and won the regular season title this season despite losing the majority of its scoring from last year. Butler won the regular season championship by 2 games with a 15-3 mark. The Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 25-4 record and bring a No. 24 national ranking into the tournament. Butler has a big advantage over the rest of the league in this tournament for a couple different reasons. First, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeded teams receive first and second round byes so it will only take one win by Butler to reach the championship game. Secondly, Butler will play its semifinal game at home and then the championship game at home as well since the title game in played on the home court of the highest seed. This puts the rest of the league at a major disadvantage considering that Butler is 14-1 at home this season. It was supposed to be a bit of a down year for the Bulldogs, but they rose to the top again thanks to sensational freshman Gordon Hayward. The 6′8” guard averages 13.8 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per contest. He was sensational in Butler’s Bracket Buster game with Davidson, scoring 27 points and collecting 9 rebounds. 6′7” forward Matt Howard leads the team in scoring with 14.3 points per game and plays much bigger than his actual size on the block.

Another Team That Can Win: Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix
While Cleveland State and Wright State have come on strong, No. 2 seed Wisconsin-Green Bay looks to be the team that can knock off the Bulldogs. The Phoenix finished second in conference play this season with a 13-5 record and they were sure tough on Butler. After losing by 9 at Butler in January, they turned around and beat the Bulldogs by 9 at home in early February. Having already beat the Bulldogs certainly gives the Phoenix the confidence necessary to do it again. As I already mentioned, the Phoenix get a first and second round bye so they will only have to win one game to advance to the championship. Home court has been huge in this conference and getting the semifinal game at home gives the Phoenix a nice edge as well. This team is led by 6′1” guard Troy Cotton and his 12.7 points per game. He came up big with 19 points in the Phoenix’s win over Butler.

Recap of 2008 Horizon League Tournament:
Butler was the hands down best team in the league as season ago and cruised to a tournament championship with a 16 point win over UIC and a 15 point win over No. 2 seed Cleveland State in the title game. It was Butler’s fifth conference tournament title and first since 2001. The Bulldogs went on to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

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