Breaking down the Horizon League basketball tournament schedule

The Horizon League has an interesting tournament layout, with seeds 3-10 battling it out in an eight-team bracket to earn the rights to meet the top two seeds on a neutral floor in Indianapolis at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The highest seed will play host in the first two rounds on March 3rd and 5th, prior to shifting to the neutral floor the following week.

The early round will be featured on ESPN+ with the final two rounds airing on some combination of ESPN networks.

March 3 (Campus sites, ESPN+)

Game 1: No. 4 UIC 93-59 over No. 9 IUPUI
Game 2: No. 5 Youngstown State 63-57 over No. 8 Milwaukee
Game 3: No. 6 Oakland 80-59 over No. 7 Cleveland State

March 5 (Campus sites, ESPN+)

Game 5: No. 3 Green Bay 78-63 over No. 6 Oakland
Game 6: No. 4 UIC 67-61 over No. 5 Youngstown State

March 9 (Indianapolis, Indiana Farmers Coliseum)

Game 7: No. 4 UIC 73-56 over No. 1 Wright State
Game 8: No. 2 Northern Kentucky 80-69 over No. 3 Green Bay

March 10 (Indianapolis, Indiana Farmers Coliseum)

Championship (Game 9): No. 2 Northern Kentucky 71-62 over No. 4 UIC

The Wright State Raiders and Northern Kentucky Norse are head and shoulders above the rest of the pack in this conference, so we shouldn’t see them until the tourney shifts to Indy. Assuming each team can win its opening game, we should see them play for the rights to make the Big Dance in March. Wright State and Northern Kentucky both have KenPom rankings below the top-120, so there’s no chance this is a multi-bid league.