From Ali-Frazier to The Lord of the Rings, plenty of legendary battles are trilogies. The recent clashes between Cleveland State and Green Bay at the top of the Horizon League standings are also on that list, as our preseason poll of writers and podcast staff has voted the Vikings and Phoenix the clear-cut top two in the conference for the third straight season. In 2022-23, Green Bay won the HL’s regular season championship and CSU took the tournament crown, before the roles were reversed last year. How things eventually play out by March is anyone’s guess, though our staff vote places the Vikings at the head of the conference.
Purdue Fort Wayne was a unanimous pick for third place, as the breakthrough Mastodons have the talent and experience to challenge the top two. There was little consensus after that though; fourth-place Wright State was picked as low as sixth, fifth-place Detroit Mercy was also sixth on a couple ballots and fourth on another, and sixth-place Milwaukee ranged from fourth through seventh in the voting.
Three of the final five teams in the poll, Northern Kentucky, Youngstown State and Robert Morris, have new coaches for 2024-25, and stand a pretty good chance of outperforming preseason expectations.
| Place | Team (First Place Votes) |
| 1. | Cleveland State (4) |
| 2. | Green Bay (2) |
| 3. | Purdue Fort Wayne |
| 4. | Wright State |
| 5. | Detroit Mercy |
| 6. | Milwaukee |
| 7. | Northern Kentucky |
| 8. | Youngstown State |
| 9. | IU Indianapolis |
| 10. | Robert Morris |
| 11. | Oakland |
When Cleveland State lost the Horizon League championship game to Green Bay back in March, Chris Kielsmeier suggested that his team’s win over the Phoenix for the 2023 title contributed to that result. So, by that logic, it’s the Vikings’ turn in the “you have to lose before you win” carousel, and in a race that should once again be closer than the hydrogen and oxygen in water, that just might be enough of a difference. So might the return of 2022-23 HL Player of the Year Destiny Leo, who missed most of last year with a torn ACL. Leo joins 2023-24 HL Player of the Year Colbi Maples and Mickayla Perdue in an absolutely loaded backcourt, while Jordana Reisma and Seattle transfer Mya Moore should be one of the conference’s best post rotations.
Change happens about as quickly as continental drift at Green Bay and, appropriately enough, the defending conference tournament champions responded to Kevin Borseth’s retirement by hiring program legend Kayla (Tetschlag) Karius to replace him. In turn, Karius retained longtime assistant Sarah Bronk, brought back another former Phoenix great in Allie (LeClaire) Alexander, and also hired former CSU head coach Kate Peterson Abiad, who won a pair of HL titles with the Vikings. So Green Bay’s still going to be Green Bay, and a roster that hung on to Natalie McNeal, Cassie Schiltz, Jasmine Kondrakiewicz, Bailey Butler and Maddy Schreiber will keep the Phoenix at or very close to the top of the standings. Eastern Illinois transfer Ellie Buzzelle shot 36.5 percent from deep last season and will help stretch the floor a bit.
Purdue Fort Wayne rounds out a trio of veteran-caked teams at the top of the projected standings, as the likes of Amellia Bromenschenkel, Audra Emmerson, and Jazzy Linbo are back for one more run together after a breakthrough 2023-24 season (technically Shayla Sellers is too, though as an assistant coach). Those familiar names are now joined by a few other notables, including Lauren Ross, a Michigan State transfer who averaged 22.1 points per game at Western Michigan two years ago, and Sydney Freeman, who was second in the Atlantic-10 in assists while at Dayton last season. Maria Marchesano has called this her most talented roster at PFW, and it’s hard to argue with that statement – the Dons certainly have enough to topple the consensus top two.
When Kari Hoffman took over at Wright State in 2021, she was able to establish a good amount of roster stability with her talented 2022 recruiting class, which included Macie Taylor, Lauren Scott and Makiya Miller, and those players (along with honorary classmate Claire Henson, who started at Long Island) are now essentially the backbone of a team that lost its top four scorers from 2023-24. It won’t entirely be on them to keep the Raiders trending upwards though. Lexi Bugajski (Appalachian State) and Abbie Riddle (Bowling Green) were both among the conference’s best portal additions this summer, while high-end recruit Rylee Sagester will finally see action after redshirting last year. WSU seems like a much more balanced squad than in the recent past, as the days when the Raiders would cede the paint and chuck threes all game are likely over.
Much like the Raiders, rating Detroit Mercy this highly requires some degree of faith in the coaching staff. The long-downtrodden Titans became one of the Horizon League’s best stories last season, thanks to a winning overall record and a sixth-place finish, though Kate Achter returns just four players from that roster, and only two of those four (Myonna Hooper and Makayla Jackson) played significant minutes. There’s plenty of intrigue beyond that though, including transfer addition Aaliyah McQueen, who returns to the HL after spending the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons at rival Oakland. Katie Burton and Chanteese Craig have arrived from Buffalo, one of the MAC’s stronger programs, while 6-3 Addisen Mastriano and Cass Tech graduate Maya Anderson are half of UDM’s freshman class.
Milwaukee has built one of the strongest top-to-bottom rosters in the conference over the last couple seasons, including Kamy Peppler, who seems poised to show more significant growth in her third season and take her place among the HL’s top point guards. Anna Lutz and Jorey Buwalda are both reliable and physical options up front, while the Panthers added a proven all-league-caliber talent, Kacee Baumhower, as a transfer from Wright State. However, Milwaukee will also need to find contributions from a number of talented young players who have had to wait their turn. Sophia Rampulla is one of them, as the former elite high school player in basketball-rich Wisconsin sat out as a freshman last year.
After the ignominious ending to the Camryn Volz era, Northern Kentucky bounced back about as well as possible by hiring ultra-successful Jeff Hans away from Thomas More, a school just eight miles down the road. While at TMU, all Hans did was compile a 339-42 record over 13 years, to go with a pair of NCAA Division III national championships and one title in the NAIA. Not bad. He’s hardly inheriting a bare cupboard with the Norse, despite superstar Carter McCray’s transfer to Wisconsin and Khamari Mitchell-Steen’s departure for FGCU. Kailee Davis, Allison Basye and Macey Blevins are all back, and NKU will be boosted by the return of another high-end talent, Mya Meredith, who missed last season due to injury.
Coaching changes typically mean significant roster changes as well in the portal era, but curiously, that hasn’t really been the case for Youngstown State and Melissa Jackson, as the Penguins will enter 2024-25 with a group pretty similar to what they would have had under the previous regime. That’s not to say that they have continuity though; most of the group that has led YSU’s successes of the last several seasons has now graduated, with only Malia Magestro, Abby Liber and Haley Thierry remaining as veterans who have played extensively. Jackson did make a couple strategic transfer additions in Faith Burch, Jewel Watkins and Dacia Lewandowski – players she knew from previous coaching stops – though a huge freshman class headlined by post players Sarah Baker and Sophia Gregory will need to contribute early as well.
There’s no doubt that freshly-rebranded IU Indianapolis has one of the Horizon League’s largest talents in Katie Davidson, who averaged 16.4 points per game last season. What the Jaguars have past her, however, is definitely a bit of a mystery, given that most of the team’s other top players have departed (including Abby Wolterman and Jaci Jones, who transferred to NKU). On the bright side, Kate Bruce brought in one of the conference’s best collections of newcomers, including combo guard Nevaeh Foster, who was a first-team all-state selection in Indiana prior to spending her freshman year at Western Kentucky. The Jags will almost definitely improve on last season’s 7-23 mark, but their exact ceiling is anyone’s guess right now.
By and large, the national consensus is that Robert Morris made a fantastic coaching hire back in the spring, as the Colonials grabbed rising star Chandler McCabe to lead the program after assistant coaching stints at Central Florida, George Mason and Bethune-Cookman. McCabe immediately scored a significant win by recruiting athletic Naomi Barnwell back to RMU after the 6-1 wing had entered the transfer portal, and she was also able to retain other top players like Danielle Vuletich, Simone Morris and Alejandra Mastral. That core, a new energy, and additions like UNC Greensboro transfer Isys Grady, will do plenty to keep the Colonials competitive, but it’s probably too early to ask for a major standings jump.
One significant story of Oakland’s offseason was the revelation of performance requirements in Jeff Tungate’s one-year contract extension covering the coming season, as reported by the Detroit News’ Tony Paul. Most notably, the Golden Grizzlies must finish over .500 overall and in the top four of the Horizon League standings for Tungate to keep his job. Those sorts of demands aren’t typically brought up in programs that are doing well, and right now, it seems unlikely that it’s anything other than a rather callous way to show the 12th-year coach the door. If OU pulls off the unexpected, it will be largely thanks to an incoming group headlined by former Idaho State sniper Maddy Rendall.
