The top of the heap has been a revolving door so far. And with the start of conference play, it was almost certain that the entire Power Rankings, top to bottom, would change significantly.
But we’ve come to expect this. After all, Horizon’s Gonna Horizon.
So here are the Horizon League men’s basketball Power Rankings after Week 4:
| Rank | Team | Last Week |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Youngstown State | 3 |
| 2. | Oakland | 4 |
| 3. | Milwaukee | 8 |
| 4. | Detroit Mercy | 11 |
| 5. | Robert Morris | 2 |
| 6. | Wright State | 6 |
| 7. | Purdue Fort Wayne | 7 |
| 8. | Northern Kentucky | 1 |
| 9. | Green Bay | 5 |
| 10. | Cleveland State | 10 |
| 11. | IU Indy | 9 |
After briefly dropping from the top spot, Youngstown State, by virtue of sweeping its first two conference games, returns to the top of the Power Rankings heap this week. The opener against Wright State was bit of a challenge, but the Penguins came through and eked out the victory. A strong second half made their second game against IU Indy far easier. It also didn’t hurt that Rich Rolf was a white-hot 75% from the floor en route to 20 points. YSU will take Finals Week off before returning to action on Sunday against non-D1 Thiel.
So, Oakland onlyplayed one conference game this week, but the Golden Grizzlies also played the bane of the collective Horizon League’s existence, Toledo. The good news for Oakland, though, is that the Grizz dispatched the Rockets in a squeaker, but not before keeping Purdue Fort Wayne at arm’s length earlier in the week to take their lone league win. As has been the case for most of the early season, Brody Robinson has been consistently producing points, either directly or indirectly, notching eight and nine assists in each contest, respectively, while dropping 27 points against the Mastodons and 19 against Toledo.
If not for a last-second tap-in by Seth Hubbard, this week’s ranking could have been significantly different for Milwaukee. But the buzzer beater (more or less; there was 0.2 second left) powered the Panthers over a Robert Morris team aiming for the Wisconsin sweep in a year where it looks as if the trip up north is going to be tougher than in prior campaigns. Milwaukee will also be taking the week off for finals, returning to action on Sunday and playing host to Indiana State.
This spot may be temporary for Detroit Mercy,but for this week, at least, the Titans are in their highest position in the Power Rankings this season. That tends to happen when you drop 92 points in a double-digit win over IU Indy, the traveling to Cleveland State and beating the Vikings back in their own home. In the latter contest, TJ Nadeau had a career showing, finishing with 26 points. And Orlando Lovejoy, which focused more on facilitating shots for others against the Jags, chipped in 17. Detroit Mercy stays in conference with another road trip to Purdue Fort Wayne on Sunday.
As good as Seth Hubbard’s winning shot was for Milwaukee, it ruined Robert Morris’ chances of sweeping a grueling Wisconsin road trip to open conference action. However, it could have been worse, as the Colonials had to claw back from 11 points down in the last two-and-a-half minutes against Green Bay, sealing the deal with a pair of Nikos Chitikoudis free throws and some clutch defense at the end. Robert Morris will come back home on Saturday to face Toledo, as so many Horizon League teams have already.
Like the Colonials, Wright State is in the unenviable spot of coming within a whisker of a key road upset only to be foiled in the end at the hands of Youngstown State. However, the Raiders turned around and used a huge second half to pound Green Bay at home, using their defense to take the ball away from the Phoenix almost at will. Freshman Michael Cooper used the Green Bay game as a bounceback tilt, dropping 23 in a winning effort. Wright State hits the road next, traveling to Huntington, WV to face Marshall.
Purdue Fort Wayne ishigher in the Power Rankings than Northern Kentucky this week because, frankly, the Mastodons beat the Norse on Saturday. A late-game rally against Oakland was squashed at the end, spoiling Purdue Fort Wayne’s chance for a win at a venue where the Mastodons have gotten used to upsetting their hosts. Regardless, Corey Hadnot has been on fire, scoring 33 against the Golden Grizzlies, then adding 25 in the victory over Northern Kentucky.
Northern Kentucky came very close to retaining its top spot in the Power Rankings, and it’s only rotten luck that the Norse are sitting in this spot this week, thanks mostly to the performances of their league cohorts. The defense, though, was on full display this week, and while NKU used it to keep Cleveland State in trouble in a winning effort, it wasn’t enough on the road against Purdue Fort Wayne. The Norse jumped out of conference play this week, heading the Louisville to play an old Division II rival Bellarmine.
This was clearly a week that Green Bay would rather forget. The Phoenix had a shot to extend their winning streak against Robert Morris but frittered away a double-digit lead in the closing minutes. Then things somehow got worse, going into the Nutter Center and playing a Wright State team that overpowered them in the second half, thanks to some stifling defense that made holding onto the ball nearly impossible for Green Bay. Indianapolis is the next stop for the Phoenix, where they have a chance to get back into the win column against IU Indy and potentially put this dismal week behind them.
The good news for Cleveland State is that Tre Beard came back to action against Northern Kentucky. The bad news for the Vikings was that Josiah Harris didn’t come back until the next game against Detroit Mercy, and Dayan Nessah was also out against the Norse. And even with all three in the lineup, the Titans took every advantage of the fatal combination of CSU’s defensive struggles and the Vikings’ sporadic offense. Cleveland State gets a week off both for finals and get back in sync before facing Oakland City (not the HL’s Oakland, a non-D1 school) on Sunday at Woodling Gym.
If there was any team that had a worse week offensively than Cleveland State, it was IU Indy. This was especially true at home against Youngstown State, where the Penguins held the Jaguars to 55 points for the game, something that most college basketball fans expect from IU Indy in just one half. Before that, the Jags went to Calihan Hall and found themselves on the losing end of a Detroit Mercy scoring surge that hadn’t happened much in the Titans’ previous contests. IU Indy has another shot at a conference win, though, as Green Bay comes to town on Thursday.
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