We’ll be doing NCAA Tournament profiles for all automatic bid conference winners leading into the NCAA Tournament. See below for previous team profiles.

Conference/Record: Horizon (26-7)

Location: Valparaiso, Indiana

Famous Alums/Attendees: Bryce Drew and Scott Drew (Baylor head coach) both attended Valparaiso, as did sports agent Eugene Parker.

Social Media: @valpoathletics is the Twitter account for Valpo sports.

Random Fun Fact: Bryce Drew, who hit the most famous shot in Valparaiso history (below) while playing for his father, is now the head coach.

Tournament History/Most Recent: In seven prior appearances, Valparaiso is 2-7, with the only two wins coming in 1998. The last appearance was 2004, when they lost to Gonzaga in the first round.

Record against Projected At-Larges/Bubble Teams: 0-2

Good Wins/Bad Losses: Lost three games in the Horizon league. Non-conference losses of note include New Mexico and St. Louis. Best win was at Murray State.

Notable Player(s): Australian born forward Ryan Broekhoff is the star of the team, and hit the key shot that kept the Crusaders alive for a tournament berth in the semifinal against Green Bay.

All-Important Rankings: RPI (59), Ken Pom (67), SevenOvertimes (78).

Outlook/Seed: Valparaiso projects as a 13 seed, and if they get seeded there, it will match 2002 (lost to Kentucky) and 1998 (beat Mississippi). Valparaiso is one of the best shooting teams in the nation, and takes a high percentage of threes, with three different players who have more than 100 attempts, all of whom shoot at least 39% from distance.

[photo via USA Today Sports Images]

Previous Team Profiles:

James Madison
Florida Gulf Coast
Harvard
Liberty
Creighton
Belmont

Bucknell

Gonzaga