Green Bay won the Horizon League regular season title last year by two games, earning themselves a bye into the conference tournament semifinals and a right to host that game on their home court. Normally, that is a recipe for a berth in the tournament finals and a shot at an NCAA bid. Unfortunately for the Phoenix, the Milwaukee Panthers had other plans, turning a 7-9 conference regular season into four straight wins, including at Green Bay in the semifinals and at Wright State in the championship before eventually losing to #2 seed Villanova in the Round of 64. Green Bay did earn a spot in the NIT, which was a fairly weak consolation prize for a team that had all the tools to win one or more games in the NCAAs. The Horizon also placed three teams into the CIT: Wright State, Cleveland State and Valparaiso.
This season, Green Bay has a chance at redemption as the Phoenix will once again be the favorites to win the league. They also will not have to worry about Milwaukee knocking them out of the conference tournament, as the Panthers are banned from postseason play due to low APR scores (and the Panthers lost their top two scorers from last season as well). While Green Bay did lose Alec Brown to graduation and the NBA draft, virtually everyone else is back including Keifer Sykes who may be the best player in the Horizon. Green Bay will be challenged this season by a Cleveland State team that features four returning starters and a Detroit team that is led by Juwan Howard, Jr. Also, keep an eye out for Valparaiso which returns four starters, three of them being only sophomores.
Predicted Order of Finish:
1. Green Bay: Three other returning starters join Sykes, plus 6-11 Henry Uwadiae from Nigeria (assuming he can learn to play the game) should help make up for the loss of Brown. If the Phoenix can score a few non-conference wins of note, they may not even need the automatic bid to dance this season.
2. Detroit: Howard is joined by a pair of transfers, Chris Jenkins (Colorado) and Patrick Ackerman (Penn State) plus four other returning players that averaged 7 or more points per game to give this team enough depth to challenge for the league crown.
3. Cleveland State: Trey Lewis and Anton Grady lead a balanced team that should still compete despite Bryn Forbes’ decision to transfer to Michigan State.
4. Valparaiso: Rarely do you see a team with four returning starters and three of them only sophomores, but that is exactly what we have here. Alec Peters is one of the top forwards in the conference in only his second year and could become a real star for the Crusaders this season.
5. Milwaukee*: A couple of transfers (Akeem Springs and Brett Prahl) will look to make up for the loss of their top two scorers. Also, keep an eye on Justin Jordan, nephew of another Jordan of some note (hint: he played college ball for North Carolina and his first name starts with M).
6. Wright State: Reggie Arceneaux is the only returning starter from last season’s conference tournament runner-up, but he is joined by three other seniors to give this team enough experience to win games.
7. Oakland: With two of the top three scorers gone from a 20 loss team, this could be a long season. Corey Petros will need to step up his game and hopefully Max Hooper (who is at his third different school already in his career) can contribute.
8. Illinois-Chicago: It will hard to be worse than the Flames 6-25 record last season, but a battle to avoid the league basement is probably in store. JC transfer Kaylen Shane could be a force for them down low.
9. Youngstown State: After three straight years above or near the .500 mark, the Penguins look like they will fall back to the bottom of the league this season with the loss of their top three players from last year’s 15-17 squad.
*Milwaukee is ineligible for the Horizon League and NCAA tournaments due to low APR scores.