#HLMBB Power Rankings – Week 2

With so many straight days of basketball games, the results and performances tend to blur together. The good news, though, is that there was a lot more to go on, data-wise, to make some more-informed Power Rankings picks. Oddly enough, though, the results for Week 2 were strikingly similar to the first week (with a notable exception), so maybe deep-diving into each game was a fruitless exercise on my part.

Anyway, here’s the Horizon League men’s basketball Power Rankings after Week 2:

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

Youngstown State came very close to getting another key road win against St. Bonaventure, but alas, the Penguins came up short. YSU did post a win over non-D1 Penn State-Shenango to kick off the week, and against the Bonnies, Youngstown State fans finally got their first glimpse at Vlad Salaridze. However, missing from Saturday’s affair was Tyler Robinett, meaning that the Penguins have yet to display their full arsenal this season. When they do, though, opponents will be hard-pressed to find answers.

It was an easy week for Robert Morris, more or less, hosting a pair of non-D1 teams at the UPMC Events Center and easily rolling both. The Colonials were, as they have been for much of their early campaign, led by Nikos Chititkoudis, DeSean Goode and Ryan Prather, Jr. But this past week’s contests also allowed for Cam Wilds, who missed the first game, to further acclimate to the lineup. It also allowed Toole the opportunity to give freshmen Josh Hill and Darius Livingston some additional playing time, which will only help strengthen RMU’s already-stacked lineup later on.

While Milwaukee eventually ran out of gas against No. 11 Texas Tech and got pasted against Indiana, the Panthers posses more wins against Division I foes than anyone else in the conference. Their latest win came at the start of the week, beating Little Rock handily. Milwaukee’s still got one more tough road test coming up at Wichita State, and the key for the Panthers will be, of course, Amar Augillard, who struggled against the Red Raiders, and Danilo Jovanovich, who decidedly did not, leading the team with 18 points in the loss.

So, you knew that a non-Horizon League team playing multiple HL opponents in the non-conference slate would appear. And it’s not really a secret that it’s Toledo. I will also neither confirm nor deny this may be some wishcasting on my part, something I’ve done for nearly a year. In any event, the Rockets bested two conference teams – Detroit Mercy and Wright State – this week, and host a third, Youngstown State, at Savage Arena on Wednesday. I promised that this bit will so end…as soon as Toledo’s done playing the six Horizon League teams that are on their schedule.

Wright State, outside of Michael Cooper and Dominic Pagonis, struggled against the Rockets, particularly in the paint. But the Raiders found another gear in West Virginia, dropping 92 on Radford and making their first game in the Greenbrier Classic look pretty easy. Wright State also gave Kent State a run for its money, leading for a good chunk of the game against the Golden Flashes until they snapped back and forced overtime. The Raiders, in the extra frame, couldn’t find an answer for Kent State and ended up with the split in the MTE.

As expected, the kids in attendance at IU Indy’s day game against IU Columbus left happy, as the Jags handled business with ease. More importantly, though, IU Indy took that momentum from earlier in the week and carried that forward to Ypsilanti, as the Jaguars notched a critical road win against Eastern Michigan. While the offensive output wasn’t quite as prolific as we’ve seen since the start of the season, IU Indy still put 90 points on the board against the Eagles and look to keep things rolling this week when the Jags face another road test against Charleston Southern.

For Cleveland State, the week wasn’t much to write home about. In fact, it was downright awful. Northwestern started things off for the Vikings by tearing them apart. And CSU started the Greenbrier Classic with a loss against Kent State, a contest in which the Vikings had plenty of opportunities to get the advantage and pull things out before foul trouble for Dayan Nessah and Josiah Harris turned out to be fatal. To make matters worse, CSU’s performance against Radford, which got run out of the gym by Wright State, was flat-out atrocious for most of that game. However, the Vikings pulled their fat out that fire and pulled out the comeback win over the Highlanders. There’s more good news in that, by a quirk in the schedule this season, Cleveland State gets another whack at the Flashes on Saturday in Kent, as well as a stop at home on Wednesday to play Valpo.

Purdue Fort Wayne had a shot at Western Michigan, only to see its hope fade away down the stretch. The only solace this week for the Mastodons was that they crushed non-D1 Boyce, which gave coach Jon Coffman his 200^th win. It’s going to be a hard week for PFW, though, as they travel to Utah, then to a surging St. Louis.

Like the Mastodons, Northern Kentucky had a chance at a good road win against ETSU, but it was not meant to be for the Norse, who were unable to overcome an early deficit to come back. A home game against the University of the Cumberlands was, as expected, a relatively easy victory. NKU has a chance this week to notch a road win with its only contest taking place on Thursday, when the Norse travel to Mount Pleasant to face Central Michigan.

Oakland finally got a win, beating Defiance handily on Saturday. But its tough non-conference schedule loomed last week, getting blasted by a Houston team that took over the No. 1 spot in the country from Purdue…the team that the Grizz faced the week before. And things won’t get any easier for Oakland this week, as a trip to Orlando is in the offing to place UCF, a squad that will be a Horizon League reunion of sorts, with the Grizz facing off against former conference foes Jamichael Stillwell and Themus Fulks. On Friday, Oakland will have its own run-in with Eastern Michigan in hopes of replicating IU Indy’s win.

The week started fine for Green Bay, beating non-D1 Ripon. Then it got worse, losing to St. Thomas and Dontrell Hewlett to a season-ending leg injury. So, the outlook for Saturday’s game at Minnesota was pretty bleak. But the Phoenix took the Gophers to OT before their offense shorted out near the end of the contest. Green Bay will need to take what they learned from going toe-to-toe with Minnesota to the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the Phoenix need to get at least one win out of the Paradise Jam.

Detroit Mercy’s win over Clearly was the first of the season for the Titans. But they couldn’t seem to find an answer for Toledo, which is why they find themselves at the bottom of the Power Rankings this week. Tough games follow, with trips to East Lansing to play Michigan State, then to Chicago to battle DePaul, on the horizon. Starting off the week, though, will be a Tuesday match-up at home against Eastern Michigan, which is Detroit Mercy’s best chance to get back in the win column.