Cleveland State’s win a loss for someone else
If you are a Cleveland State fan, you are celebrating today after the Vikings upset Butler on Tuesday night to win the Horizon League Tournament, but if you are fan of one of those so-called bubble teams from a major conference, you just lost one spot.
With CSU’s win, that means the Horizon will send two teams to the Big Dance, with Butler a lock as an at-large team. In fact, maybe going the at-large was is a good thing for ranked Butler. The Bulldogs will get one for a third time in seven years. The previous two years — 2003 and 2007 — resulted in runs to the Sweet Sixteen.
Most experts say there are currently about 23 bubble teams fighting for 10 at-large spots heading into Wednesday’s action. Obviously another upset could change that number.
The irony of Cleveland State making to the Big Dance is that it is coached by former Rutgers coach Gary Waters. Rutgers, for what it’s worth, hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since 1991, with Waters stepping down at Rutgers in 2006.
Cleveland State, which lost to Butler in the Horizon championship game last year and twice to the Bulldogs this regular season (both by two points), earned its first tournament title and first NCAA bid since 1986.
CSU is led by Cedric Jackson, who transferred to the school after spending two seasons at St. John’s between 2004 and 2006.
Basically, teams like Miami (Fla.), Maryland, San Diego State, UNLV, Northwestern, Florida, South Carolina, Minnesota, Michigan, etc., now have even more pressure to put together something special in their respective league tournaments. This probably really hurts mid-majors like Dayton, Saint Mary’s and Creighton.
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