Valparaiso University officially joins Horizon League -- Tuesday, July 3 2007
Valparaiso, Ind. - Valparaiso University officially joined the Horizon League on Sunday, becoming the 10th member school of the Indianapolis-based league.

All of the Crusaders' athletic teams with the exception of football, which remains in the Pioneer Football League, will begin competition in the league this fall, and will immediately be eligible for conference championships as well as automatic bids to the NCAA Championships.

The Horizon League was founded in 1979 as the Midwestern Collegiate Conference and sponsors championships in 19 sports for men and women. Valpo will be joining Butler University, Cleveland State University, University of Detroit Mercy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wright State University, and Youngstown State University.

"Sixty-one percent of all Valparaiso alumni reside in the five states encompassed by the Horizon League," Valparaiso University President Dr. Alan Harre said. "Seventy-one percent of our students come from these five states. In addition, many of the alumni in these states are in metropolitan areas not served by our previous conference affiliation, so a greater number now will have an opportunity to watch the performances of student-athletes representing their alma mater."

The Horizon League sponsors competition in baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis and indoor and outdoor track and field for men and in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis and indoor and outdoor track and field for women. Valparaiso competes in all sports except golf.

"The addition of Valparaiso University as our 10th member marks a very exciting time for the Horizon League," Jonathan B. LeCrone, Horizon League Commissioner, said. "As the fourth private school member, Valpo is an extraordinary fit for the League. They share our core values of academic achievement, community service and personal responsibility, and their location in the middle of our League's Midwest footprint, in addition to their highly competitive athletics program, enhances the profile of the Horizon League."

Valparaiso kicks off Horizon League action on September 16 with a men's soccer match against Loyola at Toyota Park in Chicago. The Crusader volleyball team hosts UIC on September 21, the first Horizon League competition to take place on the Valparaiso campus.

Valpo will also host the 2007 Horizon League Cross Country Championships at Sunset Hills Farm Park on October 27. This is also the first chance for the Crusaders to compete for a League title.

"By becoming a member of the Horizon League we give our student-athletes the opportunity to compete in a Midwestern conference with a national reach," Mark LaBarbera, Valparaiso University Director of Athletics said. "We will be renewing and strengthening relationships and rivalries that have historic significance to our student-athletes, our alumni, and all of our constituents."

Valparaiso University makes the move to the Horizon League after having been a member of the Mid-Continent Conference since its inception in 1982.

UDM's Grant Earns Athlete Of The Week Honors -- Friday, April 20 2007
Titan track athlete Tom Grant was named Horizon League Athlete of the Week Tuesday for his performance at the Bison Outdoor Classic in Lewisburg, Virginia. He earned the honor with a win in the long jump and a second place performance in the 110 meter hurdles.

Grant won the long jump with a leap of 22 feet 10 inches, beating out 22 other competitors. While he finished second out of 28 in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 15.05, he was the top collegiate finisher. Those performances gave him his first Athlete of the Week honor since May 4, 2004.

Detroit next makes the short trip to Eastern Michigan on Saturday April 21for the EMU twilight. Events will be going on all day.

Bulldog's Lead Gives Way Late -- Saturday, March 24 2007
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Al Horford and Joakim Noah had small spots of blood speckled across their shirts and shorts -- remnants of Butler's aggressive, physical play.

For Florida's big men, the red dots were a reminder of how tough it can be to try to repeat as national champions.

Butler Advances to the Sweet-16 -- Saturday, March 17 2007
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Butler can shed the mid-major label. A.J. Graves and company proved the Bulldogs can play with anyone -- including Maryland.

Graves scored 19 points, including a clutch 3-point basket with 2:09 remaining to lift the Bulldogs to a 62-59 win over Maryland in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday.

Butler (29-6), the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Regional, advances to the round of 16 for the second time in school history. The Bulldogs did it previously in their last tournament appearance in 2003.

Maryland (25-9), making its first tournament appearance since 2004, has not advanced past the second round since 2003. The Terps were undone by an aggressive and smaller team, which kept their offense out of rhythm.

Brandon Crone scored with three minutes left to put the Bulldogs ahead 58-56. Then, after Maryland's Ekene Ibekwe missed a 6-footer, Graves hit a 3-pointer from the left corner to all but seal the victory.

In the final half-minute, with his team trailing by two, Maryland coach Gary Williams decided to let Butler run down the clock. Butler missed in the final seconds but got the rebound, forcing the Terrapins to foul.

A free throw made it a three-point deficit, and Maryland ran out of time before it could get off a final shot.

Mike Jones scored 21 for the Terps, but the team couldn't make up for D.J. Strawberry's tough night. The senior managed eight points.

The game ended when Jones was unable to control Eric Hayes' inbounds just before the buzzer sounded.

It was an exciting finish to a game that featured seven lead changes and was tied three times in the second half.

Butler, coming off a 57-46 win over Old Dominion in the first round on Thursday, picked the right time to win two consecutive games for the first time in more than a month. The Bulldogs entered the game 5-4 in their past nine.

Crone scored 13 points for Butler while Green added eight points and eight rebounds.

James Gist had 13 points and eight rebounds for Maryland, which capped an up-and-down season with a tough loss.

Maryland lost the opening game of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament to Miami and also endured a difficult midseason stretch in which it went 3-5 against league rivals.

The Bulldogs, by comparison, add Maryland to a high-profile list of teams they've beaten this season -- a group including Notre Dame, Indiana and Purdue.

Butler squandered an 11-point lead early in the first half but never trailed after going up 39-36 lead on Drew Streicher's 3-point basket five minutes into the second half.

The Terps were particularly stymied in the first half, going 6:29 without scoring a field goal before Gist hit a reverse layup with 1:13 remaining. Maryland missed three attempts, committed four turnovers and hit 1-of-4 free throws during its drought.

The Bulldogs slowed the pace, and got back quickly after their missed shots, making it very difficult for the Terps' to be effective in transition. Butler was also tenacious in collapsing inside, preventing Maryland's big men from putting the ball on the floor in the paint.

Maryland committed 17 turnovers, including five by Strawberry.

(5) Butler 57, (12) Old Dominion 46 -- Friday, March 16 2007
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Pete Campbell was out of his zone. He found it in the nick of time.

After missing all three of his shots in the first half Thursday, Campbell found his range midway through the second, hitting three 3-pointers to spark a 17-0 run and help Butler beat Old Dominion 57-46 in a first-round NCAA matchup between mid-majors.

The three baskets were the only ones of the game for Campbell, but the first came with the score tied at 32-all and the next two followed in a span of just 54 seconds.

"It's huge whenever he goes off for us," said Brandon Crone, who finished with 12 points. "It definitely gives you a lift, but he's done that all year, coming in and hitting big shot after big shot. You definitely feed off of that. Once he gets going, they start focusing on him and it opens up a lot. It's huge whenever he goes off for us."

It was anybody's game until then. Butler (28-6), trailing 32-29 after Valdas Vasylius hit a 3-pointer with 12:22 remaining, tied it with A.J. Graves' 3 from right wing, and then Campbell found his range.

"We just calmed down," said Graves, who led Butler with 18 points. "In the first half, we were rushing our shots. In the second half, we calmed down with the environment around us, got some open looks, and just knocked them down."

Campbell connected twice to break the 32-all tie. He nailed his first 3 from right wing at 10:28 and, after Brandon Johnson missed a 3 for Old Dominion, followed with a 3 from left wing for a 38-32 lead with 9:34 left.

"The first time it was in transition, and they kind of just lost me out on the wing," said Campbell, who was an impressive 62-for-109 in the previous 19 games (56.9 percent). The next two plays were called for me out of timeouts."

"When he hit another, we thought, 'Well, let's try again,"' Butler coach Todd Lickliter joked. "He's a terrific shooter, understands that's his job and probably gets anxious. I thought in the second half he settled down a little bit and we were able to find him."

Campbell made his third 3 from the left side, missed another, then watched Mike Green drain one from the top of the key and follow that with a driving layup to boost the lead to 46-32 with 6:19 left.

Old Dominion (24-9) had won 12 of 13 games and even posted an early season victory over eventual Big East champion Georgetown, a second seed in the NCAA tournament. But Butler, ranked in the top 20 for 15 weeks, held Old Dominion scoreless for 7:24 during the decisive run.

"Doggone it. I see 12 lead changes, and with 12 minutes left in the game we had every opportunity in the world," ODU coach Blaine Taylor said. "But Butler's had a fabulous season. It seems like they've found a way many nights, many days, to get to the winners' circle."

The Monarchs featured three senior starters -- Vasylius, Drew Williamson, and Arnaud Dahi -- who put together the winningest four-year class in school history with 93 victories.

On this day, the seniors struggled, going a combined 7-for-28. Dahi had 10 points, but the 6-foot-7 Vasylius, the team's leading scorer at nearly 16 points per game, finished with 10 points on 3-for-12 shooting. Williamson, who didn't score until he converted his own steal with a fast-break layup with 16:20 left in the game, finished with two points before fouling out in the final minute.

"You just miss some shots sometimes," Williamson said. "I hate that it was this game."

Butler, the fifth seed in the Midwest and tournament-tested with six appearances in 11 years, set a school record for victories in a season.

The Bulldogs will meet fourth-seeded Maryland in the second round Saturday. The Terps (25-8) beat 13th-seeded Davidson 82-70.

The Bulldogs have become one of the nation's model mid-major programs. They had equaled the team record set four years ago, when they pulled off two big upsets as a 12th seed to make it to the round of 16. And they were determined not to become a victim of a 12th seed.

Brandon Johnson led Old Dominion with 11 points and freshman Gerald Lee, a native of Finland, had 10 points and 11 rebounds, his first career double-double.

A 12th seed has beaten a No. 5 in each of the last six years. Butler did it in 2003 and this year had landed the highest seed in school history, prompting many experts to pick Old Dominion for an upset.

"Whenever we play for championships, we want to be successful," Lickliter said. "This team has competed. I know they had a lot of doubters."

(3) Pittsburgh 79, (14) Wright St. 58 -- Friday, March 16 2007
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Pittsburgh was just too big, too strong, and too accurate for Wright State.

The Panthers, ousted in the first round seven times in 18 previous appearances in the NCAA tournament, hit 10 of 21 3-pointers, repeatedly muscled the Raiders away from the basket, and beat them 79-58 on Thursday night.

Pittsburgh defeated both Marquette and Louisville in last week's Big East tournament before suffering a humbling 65-42 loss to Georgetown in the title game. It was Pitt's lowest point total of the season and its most lopsided loss in seven years.

The Panthers recovered nicely against 14th-seeded Wright State, which was fresh from a 60-55 victory over Butler in the Horizon League championship game. The Raiders, behind the hot shooting of guard DaShaun Wood, had won 11 of their previous 12 games, including two over Butler, the fifth seed in the Midwest and a winner earlier in the day.

"Them winning the conference and their tournament with Butler in it, that says a lot," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "It was so easy to tell our guys how good this team was. We were able to do some things that I wasn't sure that we could do as far as making this kid Wood take the tough shot. He didn't get a lot of open looks. It showed our guys were ready to really try to contain him."

The Panthers threatened to make the game a rout at the outset, storming to a 13-0 lead as Levon Kendall, Mike Cook and Antonio Graves each hit wide-open 3-pointers in the first 94 seconds while the Raiders worried too much about 7-foot center Aaron Gray.

"It was huge," said Gray, who finished with 11 points, nine rebounds and four blocks despite being double- and triple-teamed all game. "We knew that to be successful in the tournament, you've got to get a good start. You never want to play a game having to work from behind because sometimes you use so much energy coming back you don't have that energy you need in the stretch."

But with their band playing loudly and more than 400 fans cheering them on, the Raiders finally got untracked, and it was a freshman who provided the spark. After missing two straight shots, Todd Brown hit a reverse layup off a missed 3 by Wood, then hit two mid-range jumpers.

After Keith Benjamin followed his own miss to give Pitt a 21-10 lead at 12:03, Wright State went on a 12-1 run to tie it, Wood finishing the spurt with a 3 from right wing to make it 22-all at 8:32.

But then Brown intentionally fouled Gray under the Pitt basket, pulling him to the floor with 6:41 left as the Panthers reeled from the Wright State surge.

The game was never the same again. Gray hit a short hook and Sam Young followed with a 3 from right wing to put Pitt ahead for good as the Panthers outscored the Raiders 17-5 to close the half.

"That play just kind of re-ignited us," Gray said, "We had kind of lost something. We allowed them to tie the game back up. It just kind of kicked something back in us. We're a blue-collar city, we're tough players out there, and a play like that just kind of reminded us."

Young converted a fast-break layup with 1:51 remaining and Ronald Ramon followed with a 3 from the top of the key to give Pitt a 43-30 halftime lead. And when the Panthers began the second half with an 11-3 spurt, the Raiders couldn't recover.

Wright State's only previous trip to the NCAA tournament in its 20 years in Division I came in 1993, when it was pounded 97-54 by Indiana in the first round after capturing the Mid-Continent Conference tournament title. And the Raiders started tentatively against Pitt, seemingly overwhelmed by the moment, missed their first four shots, committed a turnover and fell way behind.

"It was our first time in the tournament and it kind of looked like it early," Wright State coach Brad Brownell said.

Ramon hit four 3s and finished with 14 points, and Young had 13 to lead the Panthers, who never trailed. Kendall had 10 points, Graves had eight, and Levance Fields had nine assists, matching his career high.

Pittsburgh (28-7), the third seed in the West Regional, will meet 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth (28-6) in the second round on Saturday. VCU upset Duke 79-77 just moments before the Panthers and Raiders took the floor at HSBC Arena.

UIC Women's Basketball Falls To Minnesota In First Round Of WNIT -- Friday, March 16 2007
Minneapolis, Minn. - The UIC women's basketball team fell in the first round of the WNIT to Minnesota, 97-54, in its first postseason appearance in school history at Williams Arena on Wednesday night. The Flames finish the season with a 19-13 overall mark and two school records under their belt.

Senior Jacquay Holmes became the 13th player in school history to score 1,000 career points with a team-high 22 against the Golden Gophers. Holmes hit 10-of-14 from the field, while adding four rebounds, three steals and a team-high four assists on the night. Senior LaShonda Grant contributed 10 points and a team-best seven rebounds.

Five Golden Gophers scored in double figures with Emily Fox leading the squad with 19 points. Korinne Campbell notched a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards.

Tied at 4-4 early in the first half, Minnesota went on an 8-2 run (12-6). UIC responded with four unanswered points to get within two points at the 13:56 mark.

The Golden Gophers sparked another 11-2 burst for an 11-point lead (7:55). The Flames cut the deficit down to six points twice before Minnesota sparked a 9-2 run (32-19) late in the half.

Shooting 55 percent from the field (19-for-34) in the first half, Minnesota headed into halftime with a 43-23 lead.

Minnesota continued to dominate offensively in the second half, shooting 60 percent from the field (23-for-38) and 57 percent from beyond the arc (4-for-7).

With the 97-54 win, the Golden Gophers will travel to play Western Kentucky on Monday, March 19 in the second round of the WNIT.

UIC Faces Minnesota In First Round Of WNIT On Wednesday Night -- Wednesday, March 14 2007
Chicago, Ill. - The UIC women's basketball team squares off against Minnesota in the first round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) on Wednesday, March 14. The game is set for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, Minn. The winner will travel to face Western Kentucky on Saturday, March 17 or Sunday, March 18 in the second round.

This marks UIC's (19-12) first postseason appearance in school history. The Flames posted the best regular season finish in history with 19 wins and an 11-game winning streak.

UIC finished second in the Horizon League with an 11-5 mark. The Flames are coming off an 88-83 loss in overtime to Butler in the 2007 Horizon League Tournament semifinals in Green Bay, Wis. on March 9.

The Flames are led by senior LaShonda Grant with 15.7 points. Senior Jacquay Holmes owns a team-high 5.1 rebounds per game, while averaging 11.8 points per game.

Minnesota is making its first WNIT appearance after earning bids to the NCAA Tournament the last five seasons. The Golden Gophers (16-15) tied for fourth place (7-9) in the Big Ten Conference. Minnesota fell in the quarterfinals to Michigan State (77-68) on Friday, March 2.

Senior Kelly Roysland paces the Gophers with 13.1 points per game. Freshman Ashley Ellis-Milan owns a team-best 7.2 boards per game.