March Madness 2012: Detroit Basketball's Path To NCAA Tournament

For the first time since 1999, Detroit is headed to the NCAA tournament. The Titans received a No. 15 seed in the 2012 NCAA tournament bracket and will take on Kansas on Friday in Omaha.

The beginning of this tournament run for Detroit really started when Ray McCallum decided to sign with his dad's team a couple years ago. He spurned offers from bigger schools to stay home, and now he is being rewarded for that decision with a trip to the Big Dance with his dad.

During the regular season, Detroit showed a lot of promise against teams from bigger conferences, but their record wasn't all that impressive in the first half of the season. In the second half, with conference play underway, the Titans started to get things going. They won nine of their final 11 regular-season games, giving them a lot of momentum heading into the Horizon League tournament.

In the Horizon League tournament, Detroit opened with victories over Youngstown State and Cleveland State. In the championship game against Valparaiso, McCallum put the team on his back and led the Titans to an impressive 70-50 victory. The win gave Detroit the Horizon League tournament title and a 22-13 record and punched its ticket back to the Big Dance.

For more on Detroit, visit our Detroit team page. For more coverage of the Titans in the 2012 NCAA tournament, visit SB Nation Detroit's StoryStream. Click here for a link to our NCAA bracket 2012.

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