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HORIZON LEAGUE MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Cleveland State
- Wright State
- Northern Kentucky
- Milwaukee
- Detroit Mercy
- Oakland
- Youngstown State
- UIC
- PFW
- Robert Morris
- Green Bay
- IUPUI
MEDIA DAY ALL CONFERENCE 1ST TEAM:
-Torrey Patton – Cleveland State
-Antoine Davis – Detroit Mercy (Preseason Player of the Year)
-Patrick Baldwin Jr. – Milwaukee
-Jalen Moore – Oakland
-Grant Basile – Wright State
MEDIA DAY ALL CONFERENCE 2ND TEAM:
-DeAndre Gholston – Milwaukee
-Trevon Faulkner – Northern Kentucky
-Marques Warrick – Northern Kentucky
-Jarred Godfrey – PFW
-Tanner Holden – Wright State
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-I’ll start with this. The conference has opted for a full double round robin despite having 12 teams: that’s 22 league games! That limits the number of OOC opportunities and I’m not sure how good that is for the teams at the top of the league.
-Cleveland State was last year’s first place team and conference tournament winner. All five starters are back, so they are clearly the frontrunners this year. The question is are they good enough to play their way inside the bubble? Dennis Gates has done a fantastic job as coach, the team has balanced scoring and a lot of threats, and has the depth they need to really make some noise this year.
-Wright State is another team to keep an eye on. Four starters are back from a team that tied for first last year, and Coach Scott Nagy once again appears to have a team that can contend for the top of the league and play their way into a position to where they can make a postseason tournament such as the CIT if they come up short of the auto-bid. They have good outside shooting, balanced scoring, and a lot of weapons all around.
-Northern Kentucky has been a force in the league since the time they joined it, and they have the makings of another good team this year. Four returning starters give them some pretty good experience, and considering how well they played down the stretch a year ago they should be one of the horses in the race for the top of the league.
-Milwaukee signed Patrick Baldwin Jr., who was one of the top recruits in the nation. That’s why they are being voted as high as 4th after a season where they posted a losing conference record and didn’t have many other pieces coming back. That’s a lot of weight to put on the shoulders of a true freshman, but he certainly has given this program a big jolt of energy. Coach Pat Baldwin Sr. did a fantastic job of recruiting his son!!
-Detroit Mercy had a very respectable season last year where they finished 4th in the league. While they lost some key players, Antoine Davis is back, who is perhaps the best player in the entire conference. I don’t know how much he’ll have in the way of help, but it goes without saying that this team will be relying heavily on him.
-Oakland finished in the middle of the pack a year ago, has three starters back from that team, and given the way things are looking I expect them to kind of finish in the middle of the league again this year. They do have a fantastic player in PG Jalen Moore. He’ll need some help if they want to finish far up the standings, though.
-Youngstown State has posted back to back winning seasons for the first time in…well…I don’t know exactly how long, but it is not something they do very often! The bad news is they lost some key players. The good news is they’ve added some transfers that should be able to help them out. I don’t know why, but the Penguins are a team that we always seem to have a soft spot for and hopefully they can continue to grow their program.
-UIC returns three starters and looks to have added some key transfers. I’m not ready to pick them at the top of the league but they do have reason to be optimistic.
-PFW has four starters back, but seeing as how they only won 8 games a year ago and finished at the bottom of the league, it’s hard to say just how improved they are going to be.
-Robert Morris had some pretty good years in the NEC, but last year was not one of them, and it’s not looking all that promising for this season either. They have added some transfers to try and get some help right away, but after winning just four games a year ago it’s hard to project them to finish that high from the bottom.
-Green Bay and IUPUI could also be in for long seasons.