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It's been a couple of years since the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament had this much attention. Charlotte, Dayton and Rhode Island all hosted games and needed to move on to Atlantic City in order to maintain their hopes of getting into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large. But while the Rams took care of business by beating Saint Joseph's 87-76 and Dayton beating George Washington 70-60, the 49ers weren't as fortunate, falling to an opponent you have to beat if you're to make a solid case to the selection committee. 

For all the bubble teams not playing on Tuesday night there's really just one game they need to pay full attention to: the Horizon League final between host Butler and second-seeded Wright State. Point blank: if the Raiders find a way to knock off Gordon Hayward and company at Hinkle Fieldhouse one more bid goes off the board (if you're of the thinking that Saint Mary's wasn't a lock themselves before Monday night).

Wright St 69 - Detroit 50

 

Detroit Frustrates Green Bay

While three leagues begin conference tournament play on Tuesday there's also plenty of things to be settled in conferences who won't start their tourneys until next week. Florida and Illinois are two teams that look to be in good shape as of right now but both are faced with ranked opponents who would vault them into the Big Dance for sure were they to win. The Gators host Vanderbilt, a team that's still got designs on the SEC's overall title, in a game they can win provided guards Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton make sound decisions with the basketball.

Billy Shepherd is Butler University's all-time leading scorer, a former Indiana Mr. Basketball, and former professional who got to play with Dr J & George Gervin. CHN's Jon Teitel was lucky enough to spend some time with this Indiana basketball legend:

Jon Teitel: You played at Carmel High School for your father: what was it like to play for your dad, and what did you learn from him?

Going into Saturday's game at Butler it would have been fair to assume that Siena's "big three" of Alex Franklin, Ronald Moore and Edwin Ubiles would play well in their biggest game of the season. But on a day that saw Clarence Jackson come out hot on his way to 24 points none of them got going as Butler used a second-half push to win going away in impressive fashion 70-53. Shelvin Mack led the Bulldogs with 23 points while Gordon Hayward added 15 points and 12 rebounds, but it was the cold shooting of Siena's three stars that played a major role in the outcome.

FRIDAY RECAP
Northern Iowa 71, Old Dominion 62
The Panthers won their second straight without center Jordan Egleseder, knocking off the Monarch in Cedar Falls behind a 23-point night from Ali Farokhmanesh. Farokhmanesh hit five of nine shots from behind the arc and Kwadzo Ahelegbe added ten points. Gerald Lee led the Monarchs with 19 points but it wasn't enough to prevent ODU's first loss in the BracketBusters event.

Iona 69, William & Mary 53

Butler (24-4, 17-0)

Cornell (21-4, 7-1)

Northern Iowa (23-3, 14-2)

Old Dominion (21-7, 13-3)

Siena (22-5, 15-1)

Utah St (21-6, 11-2)

Other (Louisiana Tech, Murray St, Northeastern, Wichita St, William & Mary, etc)

INDIANAPOLIS -- It is Saturday night in the Horizon League, the crowd is big, ESPN2 is televising the game and the first and second place teams are playing.

For a college basketball fan it doesn’t get much better than this and watching this all happen in historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, almost guarantees a good night for all the 8528 fans that came out to enjoy the action.

They got quite a show as Butler shot an incredible 67.5 percent (27-40) for the game to beat Wright State 74-62.