CLICK HERE For All of Hoops HD’s Continued and Extensive Preseason Content
HORIZON LEAGUE MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Milwaukee (tied 1st)
- Purdue Fort Wayne (tied 1st)
- Northern Kentucky
- Oakland
- Wright State
- Youngstown State
- Cleveland State
- Green Bay
- Robert Morris
- IU Indianapolis
- Detroit Mercy
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-HL 1ST TEAM:
-Trey Robinson – Northern Kentucky
-Sam Vinson – Northern Kentucky
-Rasheed Bello – Purdue Fort Wayne
-Jalen Jackson – Purdue Fort Wayne
-Brandon Noel – Wright State
MEDIA DAY PRESESON ALL-HL 2ND TEAM:
-AJ McKee – Milwaukee
-Erik Pratt – Milwaukee
-DQ Cole – Oakland
-Quinton Morton-Robertson – Purdue Fort Wayne
-Alex Huibregtse – Wright State
.
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-Expectations are high for Milwaukee. They struggled for much of the season last year, but really turned it on down the stretch winning 8 of their last 9 before losing in the HL Championship game to Oakland. With four starters back, and AJ McKee who transfers in from Queens, Milwaukee appears to be stacked. The frontcourt and backcourt are both solid, they have good balance, and it would not shock me at all to see them Panthers win the league.
-Purdue Fort Wayne also returns four starters and also played well down the stretch making it all the way to the CIT Championship game. They were not quite as good in conference play only finishing in 7th place, but the pieces appear to be there for them to be much better this year. Rasheed Bello/Jalen Jackson give PFW what is probably the strongest backcourt in the conference.
-Northern Kentucky was a bit of a disappointment last season, but they got things turned around in the second half of conference play. With three key starters back, as well as a few solid transfers, they have the potential to be at or near the top of the standings. Sam Vinson is back after missing part of last season due to a knee injury, so the Norse should be much improved. I think this league is a three-horse race…with them being the third horse.
-Oakland had a magical run last year, and it was great to see Greg Kampe (who is simply one of the better coaches in all of college basketball), finally win an NCAA Tournament game as the Grizzlies got a big win against Kentucky in the Round of 64. It capped off a 24-win season and was a high water mark for this program as a whole. They do have some rebuilding to do as just two starters are back from that team. Trey Townsend and Chris Conway both transferred out. Part of me really hates that: imagine if they were back!! Oakland would probably be looking at a top-25 ranking had they returned. If not in the preseason, then as the season played out. But, in the modern era of the transfer portal and NIL it is hard to build anything from year to year, because once the Oaklands of the world start to develop those kinds of players, they will often leave for what they feel is a better opportunity. Anyway, as for this year, Jalen Jones returns, and they also add some solid-looking JUCO transfers that should be able to contribute right away. While they lost some key players, Oakland should still be a solid team.
-Clint Sargent takes over at Wright State, which is a program that has seen a fair amount of success in recent years, but that may be in a bit of a rebuild mode now. Brandon Noel/Alex Huibregtse both return, and both saw a lot of minutes last year, but some other guys will have to step up in order for the Raiders to compete with the top of the league.
-Penguin Fever!! We at HoopsHD were all impacted by it!! We all love it!! And now, after back-to-back 20+ win seasons for a Youngstown State program that has seemingly never been that good, I fear that Penguin Fever is over. All five starters are gone from last year’s 2nd place team, and Coach Jerrod Calhoun is gone as well. Ethan Faulkner takes over, and he will be relying on a transfer heavy roster. The good news is they do have guys with D-1 experience that are used to playing key roles, so maybe finishing in about the middle, which is where they have been picked, is not too far out of the question.
-After three straight 20+ win seasons for Cleveland State, the Vikings may take a few steps back this year. Just one starter returns from a year ago, and it was a team that only finished 7th in the conference, so they do not appear to have a whole lot of momentum or experience heading in to this upcoming season.
-Green Bay welcomes new Coach Doug Gottlieb. It is an interesting hire and he has his work cut out for him: we certainly wish him the best!! The Phoenix finished in 3rd place a year ago, but this year they just do not seem to have much experience at all on the roster and they could go through their share of growing pains.
-Very little excites me about Robert Morris. They won just 10 total games a year ago and their roster is being overhauled. They do not appear to have much in the way of standout players at the D-1 level.
-IU Indianapolis won more games last year than they had the previous two years. The problem was that they still only won 6 total games. No starters are back, and new Coach Paul Corsaro has a lot of work to do to get this program back on track.
-It’s hard to be worse than IU Indy…but Detroit Mercy probably is. Mark Montgomery takes over as head coach and he is tasked with trying to rebuild what is now one of the worst prograsms in all of D-1.