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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL
- Wright State
- Northern Kentucky
- UIC
- Oakland
- Green Bay
- Youngstown State
- Milwaukee
- Detroit
- IUPUI
- Cleveland State
MEDIA DAY HORIZON LEAGUE PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Antoine Davis – Detroit
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE 1ST TEAM
Antoine Davis – Detroit
Jalen Tate – Northern Kentucky
Xavier Hill-Mais – Oakland
Tarkus Ferguson – UIC
Loudon Love – Wright State
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE 2ND TEAM
JayQuan McCloud – Green Bay
Tyler Sharpe – Northern Kentucky
Marcus Ottey – UIC
Bill Wampler – Wright State
Darius Quisenberry – Youngstown State
NOTES FROM DAVID. Northern Kentucky and Wright State have been the league frontrunners for the last several seasons, and the coaches and media don’t seem to think it will be any different this year. Northern Kentucky has four starters back from a team that won 26 games and made the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately someone who isn’t back is head coach John Brannen, who left for Cincinnati. Darrin Horn, who had some decent runs at Western Kentucky and South Carolina, will take over. He certainly has the tools he needs to repeat as league champions.
Wright State is who the media likes. Scott Nagy is a fantastic coach, and he’s got one of the best frontcourt players in the conference in Loudon Love. Bill Wampler gives them some strength at the guard position. This is a team that will likely go deep into it’s bench and is returning a lot of experience. It should be a neck and neck race between them and Northern Kentucky.
UIC returns four starters from a team that went 10-8 in league play last year and actually beat both Wright State and Northern Kentucky in the latter half of the season. While they are good enough to win some games, I don’t think they can win consistently enough to keep pace with the top two.
Oakland has had some really good teams, but has taken a step back in recent years. Three starters are back, but they did lose two key players, and perhaps their best player, to transfer. Xavier Hill Mais is a standout player, but he can’t do it by himself. He’ll need others to step up if the Griz are going to be successful.
Green Bay has four starters back. The problem is the one starter they don’t have back was far and away their best player. Still, the Phoenix should benefit from the experience and could improve from last year’s 10-8 conference record.
Youngstown State is yet another team with four of its starters back. They won just ten D-1 games a year ago and don’t have a history of being a strong team. Yet, they did have one stretch last year in conference where they won six straight games. That in and of itself was one of the better basketball moments that I can ever remember this program having. They did almost nothing outside of that, but hopefully they can build on that going into this season.
I’m guessing that Milwaukee, Cleveland State, and IUPUI will be battling it out for those last two conference tournament spots with one of them having to sit out. Detroit is ineligible for the conference tourney due to an APR ban.