Butler knocked off Xavier on Saturday in a game whose ending had plenty of drama. The matchup featured two schools that might seem unlikely to be the powerhouses they have become.

It is that time of the year when my e-mail inbox and Facebook inbox are loaded with offers to get in NCAA Bracket Challenges and office pools. Some are for fun and some are for money, but all of them offer heartbreak and frustration. Last year for the first time in years I did not fill out a NCAA Tournament Bracket ahead of the actual tournament.

It is that time of the year again, the first two days of the NCAA Tournament where they inconveniently schedule games during business hours on Thursday and Friday. For some employees catching the games is as simple as taking a paid day off or doing what I used to do, schedule an out of town business trip to allow you to take care of some important business like watching college hoops.

Bill checks in with some notes on the Horizon League championship game, including the All-Tournament team.

Cleveland State trailed by 12 at one point, but wore down Wisconsin-Green Bay and pulled it out, advancing to the Horizon League Championship.

The numbers might not seem to add up at first glance, but Butler managed to knock off Wright State and advance to the Horizon League championship game.

The free throws were the difference in this game. But the Raiders fought until the end to catch Butler and the Bulldogs worked very hard to keep the Raiders, at bay . There was no quit in either team. With 15 seconds left Wright State’s Todd Brown got the ball with a chance to tie the game at 59 points, faked, got his defender in the air, then got off a shot, but it never even found iron and Butler held on to make it to the final championship game.

Hinkle Fieldhouse is known for the venue where the big game in the movie Hoosiers was played but this court and fieldhouse has seen all kinds of history. For starters almost every major player from the Midwest has played here. Oscar Robertson played high school games here, Steve Alford once scored 50 points in a high school game at Hinkle. Cazzie Russell came in with Michigan to play Butler. You can’t forget Larry Bird playing here in high school and college. Maybe the most amazing thing is they still use the original court.

A good early start, along with Wright State’s stellar defense and Scott Grote’s career high at Wright State, helped the Raiders move on in the Horizon League Tournament.

Tyler Dierkers’ numbers won’t jump out at you. What will is the timing of when he scores. In the meantime, he’s busy doing things that help a team win games but that the average observer doesn’t notice.

Wright State coach Brad Brownell was amazingly calm after winning a nail-biter 65-64 against Green Bay. In the span of 26 seconds Wright State came within hair of blowing a four-point lead and losing.