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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Purdue Fort Wayne
- Northern Kentucky (tied 1st)
- Wright State
- Oakland
- Youngstown State
- Detroit Mercy
- Cleveland State
- Robert Morris
- Milwaukee
- Green Bay
- IUPUI
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE 1ST TEAM:
-Antoine Davis – Detroit Mercy (Preseason Player of the Year)
-Marques Warrick – Northern Kentucky
-Jalen Moore – Oakland
-Jarred Godfrey – Purdue Fort Wayne
-Dwayne Cohill – Youngstown State
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE 2ND TEAM:
-Trevon Faulkner – Northern Kentucky
-Sam Vinson – Northern Kentucky
-Kahliel Spear – Robert Morris
-Trey Calvin – Wright State
-Amari Davis – Wright State
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-Expectations are high for Purdue Fort Wayne. They were having a pretty unspectacular season until the second half of conference play began, and then they thundered down the stretch and ended up in a first place tie before losing in the semis of the conference tournament. With four starters back, including a really good all-around player in Jarred Godfrey, they are expected to be frontrunners this year.
-Northern Kentucky has been at or near the top of the conference for several seasons, and it is no surprise to see them up there again. They also have four starters coming back, and also looked really good in the latter part of the season before losing to Wright State in the HL Championship Game. This is my pick to win the league this year.
-Wright State is another program that has just been consistently good with 20+ win seasons in each of the last seven seasons with the exception of the COVID year. They were in the hunt for a first place finish all through last year and are the defending conference tournament champions. With a lot of pieces back they should again be in the hunt for a first place finish.
-Oakland has three starters back from a team that won 18 D1 games a year ago, and it would not shock me to see them competing with the teams at the top of the conference. They were not quite as strong down the stretch last year but also had to battle some injuries to key players. If they stayed healthy they would have almost undoubtedly finished stronger.
-Youngstown State has never made a lot of noise in this conference. In fact off the top of my head I cannot really remember a year where they ever finished in the top half of it. But, expectations are higher than normal this year. They return a lot of key pieces from last year’s team and add some pretty good looking transfers. This team might be able to battle this year!
-Detroit Mercy has an outstanding player in Antoine Davis but it is hard to say how good the rest of his supporting cast is. They do add a couple of transfer players and will need to get some production out of them if they want to solidly land in the top half of the conference.
-Cleveland State has been one of the strongest teams in the league for the past two years, but I guess people are expecting them to take a substantial step back this year. They have a new coach in Daniyal Robinson after Dennis Gates departed for a P5 program. They also lost a lot of key players who were instrumental in their recent success so they are in a bit of a rebuilding mode right now.
-Robert Morris won just eight total games last year and four the year before that. Four starters are back, and experience can be an indicator of future success, but they still have a long way to go. They have added some freshmen who they should be able to get some production out of as well as some notable transfers. While I think we will see some improvement out of RMU this year, I do not think we will see them in the top half of the league.
-Expectations were high last year for Milwaukee due to having Patrick Baldwin Jr. on the roster, but he is now in the NBA after playing in just 11 games last season. And…well…everyone else is gone too. No starters return and Milwaukee is now back at the drawing board.
-Green Bay won just five games a year ago and seems to be going in the wrong direction as a program.
-Last season IUPUI finished the season with just three total wins and five available players. They were unable to bring anyone off the bench during their last few games because they had no one! Things will likely be rough again this year but they cannot possibly be as bad as they were a year ago.