#HLMBB Power Rankings – Week 14

Rank	Team	Last Week	Change
1.	Cleveland State	1	–
2.	Purdue Fort Wayne	2	–
3.	Milwaukee	3	–
4.	Robert Morris	4	–
5.	Youngstown State	4	–
6.	Oakland	5	–
7.	Wright State	7	–
8.	Northern Kentucky	9	+1
9.	Detroit Mercy	8	-1
10.	IU Indy	9	–
11.	Green Bay	11	–

The win streak may be over, but Cleveland State remains at the top of the heap this week. The Vikings have never had a lot of luck at Truist Arena against Northern Kentucky, and the Norse handing them a loss to snap their 13-game surge only reinforced that idea. Things didn’t get any easier for CSU on Saturday, facing a Milwaukee team that has lorded over the Vikings in recent memory. But this time around, the Vikings left little doubt who’s the better team now, starting the game and end the game with runs that allowed them to snag a win over the Panthers.

From here on out, Purdue Fort Wayne will need to play flawless basketball to stay within striking distance with Cleveland State. But the Mastodons will need some help, which they got a little bit of, thanks to Northern Kentucky. For its part, Purdue Fort Wayne swept the week with little trouble, eviscerating Wright State on Wednesday and swatting away the beleaguered by pesky Green Bay Phoenix on Saturday. As far as Player of the Year conversations go, this year’s edition includes two Mastodons, Jalen Jackson and Rasheed Bello. As of now, Jackson has the edge. But voters will be hard-pressed to find two players that have made a better case for first-team all-league honors than these two.

This was not the week that Milwaukee needed to get back in the face for the top of the conference standings. Both games this week saw the Panthers make slow starts. In the first game, against IU Indy, Milwaukee steered out of the skid and came away with the win. The second game, however, was against Cleveland State, a team that will give you just a little bit of hope before they dash your dreams. And that’s what happened. The Panthers came as close as seven points to the Vikings before Cleveland State put it in another gear and put the game away. If Milwaukee doesn’t hold serve at home against NKU and Wright State, any hope for a regular season title will also be dashed.

Like Cleveland State, Robert Morris also saw its win streak come to an end, with Wright State being the spoiler in this case. And it looked as if Northern Kentucky would have the Colonials’ number as well. But fueled by Alvaro Folguieras and his career-high 35 points, Robert Morris got back in the win column with a come-from-behind victory at Truist Arena. The Colonials can make up some ground in the standings with Cleveland State and Purdue Fort Wayne up next. But it won’t be easy.

Youngstown State got exactly what it needed out of the Michigan trip, winning against both Oakland and Detroit Mercy. EJ Farmer, who has been easing his way back in the rotation after returning from injury, is back in the starting lineup and made a huge statement this week, scoring 25 and 17, respectively. The Penguins, though, remain a team in which any of their players and shine in any game, as was evidenced by Juwan Mawey, who led the team with 21 points against Detroit Mercy, 18 of which came on a scorching 6-of-10 from beyond the arc.

Given where every other team in the conference is situated, Oakland, with only one game this week, wasn’t going to move up or down in this week’s Power Rankings. That said, the loss at home against Youngstown State wasn’t exactly a morale booster. The main point of frustration for the Golden Grizzlies continues to be the power outage from three-point range, something that was thought to have been addressed already. Against the Penguins, Oakland shot a dismal 28 percent from three. Coughing up the ball 18 times, leading to 20 YSU points, didn’t help matters, either.

It’s yet another week in which Wright State wins one and loses one. The Raiders were all out of sorts against Purdue Fort Wayne, which ended up with the Mastodons putting a 23-point hurting on them. On the flip side back in the confines of the Nutter Center, it was Wright State in the position to do the hurting, dispatching IU Indy in relatively easy fashion. Brandon Noel remains the centerpiece of the Raider lineup, notching double-doubles in each contest. But Wright State still needs a consistent scoring from the rest of the rotation, something that has waxed and waned all season.

For two games and 30 minutes into a third, Northern Kentucky looked every bit like the NKU that has been a forced to be reckoned with in the Horizon League since 2016-17. And during the upset of Cleveland State and most of the Robert Morris contest, all of us, most likely, asked in unison, “Where has this Norse team been all season?” But NKU’s bid to outdo another team above it in the standings came to an end, with the Colonials clawing back to snatch the victory away from the Norse. NKU heads to Wisconsin, the latter game of which is against a Milwaukee squad that dropped the Norse by 20 at Truist Arena, so there’s some incentive for payback.

This just wasn’t Detroit Mercy’s week. Robert Morris, a team that the Titans beat in overtime, exacted its revenge in Moon Township. Then, back at Calihan Hall, Detroit Mercy had no answer for the barrage of three-pointers Youngstown State rained down early on, and the Titans couldn’t climb their way out of the deficit. This week, it’s the second leg of the Metro Series, and Detroit Mercy is eager to back up Oakland head coach Greg Kampe’s assertion that the rivalry is, indeed, back.

Throughout the season, IU Indy has had a lot of trouble closing out games. Had the Jaguars figured out how to do that, they would have scored an upset at home against Milwaukee, rather than have the Panthers nip them in OT. But such has been life for IU Indy during Paul Corsaro’s first year at the helm. Things didn’t get any better for the Jags on the road, and Wright State kept the game out of reach. IU Indy gets another shot at Oakland in The Jungle this week, and perhaps the Jaguars can close the deal this time around.

There have been rumblings that Anthony Roy is very close to returning for Green Bay. If so, this would be the week that the Phoenix could use him against Northern Kentucky and Wright State. Then again, Green Bay has needed him desperately during this 20-game losing streak. In the loss in their only game this week against Purdue Fort Wayne, Roy would have provided a 1-2 punch for the Phoenix, the second punch coming from freshman Jeremiah Johnson. However, while the offense would be greatly improved, it isn’t known if Roy’s return would help Green Bay’s other issues, namely getting out-rebounded and being consistently muscled out of the paint.