in the horizon league tournament, stevens' bulldogs used their home-court advantage to beat milwaukee 68–59 in the semi-finals and to beat wright state 70–45 in the finals. the win earned the team an automatic bid into the 2010 ncaa tournament, and completed a 20–0 run through league play. stevens became the first coach to lead a horizon league team to both an undefeated regular season and conference tournament since the league was formed in 1979. stevens was also the only coach in division i to lead his team to an undefeated conference schedule during the 2009–10 season.