Horizon League Basketball: 2022 conference tournament preview

Horizon League Basketball: 2022 conference tournament preview and predictions

By Dylan Kelly | Feb 28, 2022

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MARCH 09: Head coach Dennis Gates of the Cleveland State Vikings celebrates with his team after winning the Horizon League tournament against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies at Indiana Farmers Coliseum on March 09, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

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Horizon League Marques Warrick Northern Kentucky Norse (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

We’ve finally made it to March. The greatest time of the year for college basketball fans around the country. While some conferences are still finishing up regular season play, a handful of mid-major conferences are beginning conference tournaments.

The Horizon League Conference tournament will tip-off on March 1st at 7:00 PM. This league is without a clear favorite. There are several teams that have an opportunity to make a run in this tournament and earn the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

At times, mid-major conference tournaments can be more exciting and more interesting to break down because winning the tournament means everything to these teams. Winning a regular-season title will be forgotten about rather quickly if you can’t win the conference tournament and secure a bid to the NCAA tournament.

According to WynnBet the odds to win the Horizon League are as follows.

Cleveland State +275
Oakland +375
Wright State +400
Northern Kentucky +500
IPFW +550
Detroit +1500
Youngstown State +3000
Illinois-Chicago +7500
Robert Morris +10000
Wisc-Milwaukee +20000
Wisc-Green Bay +30000
IUPUI +50000

By losing the last two games of their season, Cleveland State was unable to win the Horizon League regular-season title outright. Both Cleveland State and Purdue Fort Wayne finished with a conference record of 15-6 and will share the title as regular-season champions.

After the games on March 1st, play will continue on March 3rd for the quarterfinals, followed by the semifinal games on March 7th, and lastly the championship on March 8th. First-round and quarterfinal games can be found on ESPN+. Semifinal and Championship games can be viewed on ESPNU/ESPN2.

Let’s take a look at key players to watch in the Horizon League Conference tournament.