Welcome back to the #HLWBB Starting Five, your sporadic offseason rundown of news and fun from around Horizon League women’s basketball.
1. Style
On Friday, Robert Morris shared their new navy jerseys, featuring a script “Colonials,” in place of what’s typically been a block “RMU” in recent seasons. They’re ridiculously nice.
We’ll see where the rest of their set for this season ends up, but to me, RMU does such a strong retro vibe, it would be nice if they fully lean into it. They did so nearly perfectly in 2022-23, with matching blue and white tops featuring striped trim, then got away from it two years ago with jerseys that had these kinda weird looking contrasting shoulders that Under Armour sometimes does.
In 2024-25, they carried those same white jerseys forward, while introducing a red jersey that was more in line with the 2022-23 look. They seemed to wear those red jerseys more and more as the season progressed, including at home, so we’ll see if those remain. A three-jersey red/white/blue set including those reds, the newly-launched blues, and whites matching one or the other would be straight heat.
2. Leaving On A Jet Plane
The list of unknown #HLWBB non-conference schedules is down to three(-ish), thanks to the recent releases from both IU Indianapolis and Detroit Mercy, a report from Robert Morris Sports Now, along with additional game announcements from Purdue Fort Wayne.
Let’s begin with the Mastodons and their “we’ll get more engagement if we do this one at a time” plan. Here’s what’s out so far:
| Date | Opponent | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Mon., November 3 | West Virginia | Morgantown, WV |
| Fri., November 7 | Xavier | Cincinnati, OH |
| Wed., November 12 | Purdue West Lafayette | Fort Wayne, IN |
| Sat., November 15 | Southern Illinois | Fort Wayne, IN |
| Wed., November 19 | Eastern Michigan | Fort Wayne, IN |
| Mon., November 24 | Nebraska Emerald Coast Classic | Niceville, FL |
| Tue., November 25 | Virginia/Northwestern State Emerald Coast Classic | Niceville, FL |
| Sun., November 30 | Bowling Green | Bowling Green, OH |
First off, and regardless of what’s left to be revealed, that’s an absolutely loaded docket, with the potential for five power conference games, including three in a row to start the season. Naturally, the intra-system battle with Purdue West Lafayette – in Fort Wayne – stands out as a highlight. Though the Mastodons are 0-7 all-time against their Big Ten sister campus, last season’s 87-77 Boilermakers win in Mackey Arena saw PFW start slow, then outscore their hosts after the first quarter. Obviously, Maria Marchesano’s roster has turned over quite a bit this offseason, but it will be interesting to see what the new squad is able to do with home court advantage.
One thing that’s really cool about the Dons’ announcements? They typically mention whether a given game is a home-and-home arrangement, a rarity in such matters. Because of that, we know that PFW will take on both Bowling Green and Xavier at home in 2026-27. The Eastern Michigan and Southern Illinois games complete contracts that began a year ago.
The Robert Morris, Detroit Mercy, and IU Indy schedules share the common thread of playing tons of games against in-state and in-area schools, which I absolutely love. The Colonials, in Chandler McCabe’s first season, fired off contests against Pitt, St. Francis, Duquesne, Point Park and Mercyhurst. This year, according to RMSN, each of those five schools will meet with RMU once again, along with a local newcomer (and an old club hockey rival of mine), the California (PA) Vulcans. Akron and former HL member UIC are also on the slate.
UDM’s schedule includes Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Rochester Christian, and a home game against Michigan. The Wolverines head to Calihan Hall on November 26th, just three days after the Titans visit Wisconsin in their other power conference clash.
The Jaguars, meanwhile, will play Indiana State, Evansville, Ball State, Division III’s Anderson, and sister school IU Columbus, with out-of-state paycheck games against the Badgers and Northwestern.
If you’re keeping score at home (I’m not sure why you would do such a thing, but I write blog posts for fun, I’m in no position to judge), Wisconsin will play at least three Horizon League teams: Oakland, Detroit Mercy, and IU Indy, a count that I believe leads all power conference institutions so far. Given that Green Bay and Milwaukee are two of the last three schedule release holdouts, along with Wright State, that number could certainly still grow.
3. Linger
Given how many long-time Horizon League stars jumped straight into coaching after graduation – Cassie Schiltz, Jasmine Kondrakiewicz, Amellia Bromenschenkel, Lauren Ross and Audra Emmerson among them – we’ve seen a smaller-than-usual number of former conference players jumping into professional basketball this summer.
In fact, of the ten players on the first two all-conference teams for 2024-25, four are still playing college basketball. Three others have gone pro in something other than sports, while coaches Bromenschenkel and Ross are on that list as well.
The exception to all of that? Youngstown State graduate Jewel Watkins, who recently signed with The Address UCC Glanmire, an Irish Super League club.
If YSU’s program takes off in the next couple years, Jewel Watkins will be sort of an unsung hero of the situation. She was only a Penguin for her final year of eligibility in 2024-25, but nevertheless was a pillar for a young (and injured) team that tried to lay down a foundational season. Her 14.7 points per game led the Guins, while her 16.1 tallies in conference games ranked fourth in the HL.
For their part, Glanmire was a middling club that qualified for the league’s eight-team playoff last season, though they were quickly bounced in the quarterfinals by the Flomax Liffey Celtics.
Then again, Glanmire isn’t sponsored by a prostate medication, so at worst, you can probably call that a draw.
4. Internet Killed The Video Star
The Horizon League does a really nice job with its Golden Hour podcast, which typically centers around interviews with key personnel from the conference itself, or its member institutions.
Of course, there’s one guest that gets stakeholders to tune in above all others, commissioner Julie Roe Lach. Roe Lach hopped on the show last week and dropped a couple of interesting nuggets: the HL’s contracts with ESPN and the Corteva Coliseum (the site of its tournament final fours) are both up after 2026. Okay, so that really isn’t new information per se, the ends of the deals were known as soon as they were announced, because that’s how such things work. We’ll call it “forgotten information,” how’s that?
Either way, the future of the conference’s media rights and tournament are hot topics in Indianapolis right now. Here’s Roe Lach on the former.
“We have some important and, I think, innovative negotiations underway. ESPN has been such a long-time, fantastic media rights partner for us. Our current contract ends at the end of this upcoming year, so in June of ’26. Naturally, that window’s open, and we’re having some really substantive, thoughtful conversations. We’re exploring a lot of different issues relative to our agreement, in terms of looking at our basketball championship dates, but more importantly, the number of games on ESPN+, linear windows. Just things that really matter, because at the end of the day, we’re trying to drive exposure for our student-athletes and our campuses. So with that as really the guiding principle, conversations are going well.”
It sounds for all the world like ESPN will stick around as the Horizon League’s broadcaster, though that arrangement may have some new wrinkles for 2026-27.
Another thing that won’t change is the tournament’s host city. Both Roe Lach and associate commissioner Shawn Sullivan (who conducted the interview) made it clear that the tournament will remain in Indianapolis after 2026, the seventh consecutive year it’s been held in Corteva Coliseum on the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It’s just a question of venue, as Roe Lach explained.
“We’ve got some new venues online in the city that have expressed interest, so we’re in some pretty serious talks, and significant talks, with multiple venues, including our great partner at the [Corteva] Coliseum. I’m interested in where that will unfold, and once again, [as with our broadcast rights], we’ve got an advisory group of our membership – different cast of characters, but the same positional representation – so our campuses are really involved in these important conversations.”
By the way, one of those new venues coming online in Indianapolis? IU Indy’s James T. Morris Arena, scheduled to open in late 2026. Just something to keep an eye on.
However, the real suspense here, at least in my opinion, isn’t the facility. It’s whether the Horizon League’s new media deal can get the women’s championships away from the early afternoon of a Monday and a Tuesday, because that’s absolutely brutal.
5. Pink Houses
Late July and early August saw a wave of 2026 commitments, including Nina Rodriguez, who will head to Detroit Mercy out of Mentor (OH) High School. Purdue Fort Wayne grabbed a pair of new players, Alivia Bolinger and Karis Thomas. Thomas was, rather famously, offered a scholarship by Duquesne when she was in fourth grade.
However, I thought it would be fun to close this thing out with some Northern Illinois news, specifically the August 5th commitment of Komari Booker. Booker is also in the class of 2026, making it purely a Horizon League story and not at all a Mid-American Conference story, so why not, right?
At 6-0, Booker is billed as “long, strong, bouncy, and very active,” a matchup problem with double-double potential. She helped Indianapolis’ Pike High School to the Indiana Class 4A Semi-State Finals (essentially, the state semifinals) last season, losing to eventual state champ Lawrence North by a single point. Prep Girls Hoops picked her as an all-state high honorable mention selection, giving some indication that she may be about to rise from her current 32nd on their list of Indiana’s best 2026 graduates.
The Indiana Basketball Coaches Association picked Booker for their large school, all-state underclass team. They sure have a lot of awards in Indiana.
“I am happy to announce that I have committed to playing for NIU!!!” Booker said in an Instagram post. “Words cannot express how grateful I am for this opportunity! I want to thank Pike High School, my teammates, coaches, and all my friends and family for the support you have given me over these years – thank you!!”
“I would like to especially thank my mom and dad for all of their support and sacrifices! Special thanks to Coach Brooks and the amazing [Huskies] staff for trusting me to be a part of your basketball program.”
Booker is NIU’s first 2026 commit, making her (extremely unofficially, and at the risk of sounding redundant) the program’s first player to compete exclusively in the HL. Projecting rosters much beyond next week is a fool’s errand anymore, but Jacey Brooks’ current frontcourt is stacked with veteran transfers, so the depth chart could potentially open up a bit by the time Booker has to worry about it.
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