Horizon League NCAA Tournament Betting

Horizon League NCAA Tournament Betting

The Horizon League is not as great as it was in the past. The Horizon was considered one of the best mid-major conferences for decades when Butler and Xavier were dominating, but the conference fell off dramatically after the Bulldogs left for the Atlantic 10 and then the Big East 10 years ago. This conference hasn’t had nearly as much success in the NCAA Tournament, but it has been pretty competitive this season.

Only a half-game separated the top four teams in the conference. Cleveland State lost its last two games of the regular season, but the Vikings did enough to edge out the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastadons for the regular season conference title. Northern Kentucky and Wright State finished a half-game behind both teams, ensuring that we will have a solid conference tournament.

Cleveland State is the No. 1 seed and will get to face the lowest remaining seed throughout the Horizon League Tournament. The Vikings haven’t played at home since February 12 though due to the Horizon’s unbalanced schedule. This was the second-best offense in the conference, and they are making 55.4% of their twos. They nearly knocked off Oklahoma State in Stillwater earlier this season, so this could be a sneaky team if the Vikings made the NCAA Tournament.

We’ve seen Purdue Fort Wayne win nine straight games to close out the regular season. The Mastadons knocked off the Vikings in triple overtime on Valentine’s Day, and they went on the road to win four straight games to close out the campaign. This team is led by its guards, as the top four scorers are all guards, and they are hitting 37.6% of their threes this year.

Northern Kentucky has been a perennial contender since making the jump from Division II. The Norse have won three of the last five Horizon League Tournaments, and they overcame a 6-9 start this season. They do not shoot the ball well, but they rank ninth nationally in offensive rebounding percentage, and they are great at forcing turnovers.

Grant Basile and Tanner Holden will make Wright State a team to fear. Basile and Holden are both averaging at least 18 PPG while making 50% of their field goals, and they are the leading rebounders on the Raiders too. Three-point shooting has been a major problem for Wright State all season though.

Horizon League Tournament Format

The top four teams in the Horizon League receive an automatic bye into the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. The other eight teams will play on campus this Tuesday, March 1 with the winners going on to face the teams that had byes on Thursday, March 3.

The semifinals and finals will take place at Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis on March 7-8. There is a reseeding after every round of the conference tournament, so Cleveland State has a big advantage over the other three teams if we see an upset or two.

Most Wins All-Time in Horizon League Tournament

It's going to be a while until one of the active members of the Horizon League runs down the great Butler teams that won seven championships in this league from 1997 through 2011.

The Bulldogs are the gold standard for what teams in this conference could become, as they went from a team that was just a magical little Cinderella who occasionally busted some brackets to one that nearly won a national championship and ended up parlaying that success into Big East membership.

The Bulldogs followed the path of Xavier. The Musketeers dominated this conference when it was known as the Midwestern Collegiate Conference. Xavier played in nine MWCC Championship Games from 1983 to 1993, winning six of those games. That led to Atlantic 10 and then Big East membership for the Musketeers.

In terms of the active teams in the Horizon League, UW Milwaukee leads the way with four titles, while Northern Kentucky and Detroit Mercy have each claimed three championships.

Wright State is probably one of the tougher luck teams in the Horizon League. The Raiders were beaten in the final of this tourney in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2019, but they won the conference title in 2018.

Recently, Northern Kentucky has dominated the Horizon. The Norse joined the league shortly after they completed their transition from Division II in 2015. They were previously a D-II powerhouse, and that has translated into success here with three conference titles in four years from 2017 to 2020.

Horizon League Tournament Championship Games

NCAA Basketball Conferences

• America East
• American Athletic
• Atlantic 10
• Atlantic Coast
• Atlantic Sun
• Big 12
• Big East
• Big Sky
• Big South
• Big Ten
• Big West
• Colonial Athletic Association
• Conference USA
• Horizon League
• Ivy League
• Metro Atlantic Athletic
• Mid-American
• Mid-Eastern Athletic
• Missouri Valley
• Mountain West
• Northeast
• Ohio Valley
• Pac-12
• Patriot League
• Southeastern
• Southern
• Southland
• Southwestern Athletic
• Summit League
• Sun Belt
• West Coast
• Western Athletic

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