Horizon League official’s have named Green Bay’s starting point guard the HL Freshman of the Week for the second consecutive week.
Last week the Racine (Wisc.) native averaged 17.5 points, 2.0 assists, and 1.5 rebounds in two games against IUPUI and UIC.
McGee’s most notable performance of the week came on Saturday against UIC when he posted a career high 23 points on 9-of-19 shooting – while playing all 40 minutes.
This week’s @Nike#HLMBB Player of the Week award goes to Kevin Johnson of @UIC_MBB, while @gbphoenixmbb Kamari McGee collects his second-straight @Nike#HLMBB Freshman of the Week award.
It was a two week game for Will Ryan and the sputtering Green Bay Phoenix (3-13, 2-5 Horizon League). The Phoenix were shorthanded due to having five players in health and safety protocols (Ansong, Listau, Jenkins, Claflin, Majok).
On Thursday, Green Bay played host to IUPUI in a game that featured two of the lower rated teams in the NET rankings. The two programs had a combined one win over division one teams entering the Horizon League match-up.
Ultimately the shorthanded Phoenix would end their seven game losing streak with a 69-54 victory over the visiting Jaguars. It was a rare strong shooting performance for the Phoenix who knocked down 10 of 25 attempts from three-point range (40-percent). It was one of Green Bay’s better defensive performances of the season as well, holding IUPUI to just 37.3% from the field. Which would seem more impressive if IUPUI wasn’t ranked dead last in adjusted offensive efficiency (358th).
Despite having just seven players available, Green Bay’s offense was paced by Donovan Ivory who finished with 19 points in his first game back from injury. Randy Tucker would also finish with a career-high 17 points and 8 rebounds of his own. Last weeks Horizon League freshman of the week Kamari McGee added 12 points as well.
The Phoenix didn’t fair as well on Saturday when they lost to the visiting UIC Flames 80-63 at the Resch. UIC was led by a 19 point performance from Demaria Franklin, and 16 points from Kevin Johnson.
It was apparent that the short handed Phoenix were a bit fatigued in a game that was never really all that close.
One positive for Green Bay fans to takeaway from the loss to UIC, was that the 2021 class appears to be really impressive showing. Kamari McGee led Green Bay with a career-high 23 points, while playing all 40 minutes. Cade Meyer chipped in 15 points and 9 rebounds, both of which were career highs.
Both freshman are starting and averaging over 20 minutes a game for Will Ryan. It’s easy to forget just how young this Green Bay team is, but there is no shortage of young talent in the program. The losses right now hurt, but future certainly looks bright.
It’s another two-game week for Green Bay who returns to the court Thursday against Detroit Mercy at 7 p.m. They follow that up with a Saturday home game against first place Oakland at 6 p.m on ESPN+.
We were so, so, so close to finally getting a full conference schedule in for the first time all season (remember, even before Omicron ran rampant, IUPUI and Wright State forfeited during the two early HLWBB weekends). Alas, it was not meant to be, as Green Bay tapped out at the last second, canceling games with Cleveland State and Purdue Fort Wayne (in fact, the Vikings were already in Green Bay before learning of the Phoenix’s pause, though they pivoted nicely to a tour of Lambeau Field). We’ll try for that one again this week.
There wasn’t a ton of movement this time around, but when the top spot changes hands it feels like a lot more than it is.
Team
Rank
LW
Change
IUPUI
1
2
+1
Youngstown State
2
1
-1
Northern Kentucky
3
3
–
Cleveland State
4
4
–
Oakland
5
6
+1
Green Bay
6
5
-1
Milwaukee
7
8
+1
Robert Morris
8
7
-1
Purdue Fort Wayne
9
9
–
Wright State
10
10
–
UIC
11
11
–
Detroit Mercy
12
12
–
Are there any words for what Anna Mortag has done for IUPUI over the last couple weeks? Back on January 6th her buzzer beater downed Green Bay 51-49, and on Sunday, she might have topped it. The sophomore from Milwaukee drilled two threes in the final 79 seconds, the latter with six seconds remaining, to force overtime in the Jags’ top-of-the-league showdown at Youngstown State, eventually leading to an unlikely win. How unlikely? ESPN’s win probability hit 99.9 percent in favor of YSU with 1:28 to go after Chelsea Olson split a pair of free throws to give the Penguins a 56-47 lead. However, a bevy of YSU turnovers in the final minute eventually led to back to back triples by Rachel Kent and Mortag to bring the extra period, which the visitors dominated. It should be said that IUPUI hasn’t been untouchable – obviously they’ve needed every bit of what Mortag’s had, and they played a three-point game with Milwaukee at home last weekend – but they Jags are starting to stack wins again.
So where now if you’re Youngstown State, after you pushed all your chips in on the game against IUPUI, only to biff it in spectacular fashion? The answer, probably, is to take the good away from it. A contest that was extremely tight throughout tilted in the Guins’ direction through most of the fourth quarter, and obviously if a team loses a game it’s supposed to win 99.9 percent of the time, it’s not hard to flip that around to remember what had things in that position in the first place. Lilly Ritz (23 points, 13 rebounds), in my mind and contrary to how the weekly league honors went, won the big post showdown with Macee Williams (16 points, 10 rebounds) and Malia Magestro went 5-for-11 from three. YSU remains in sole possession of first place at 9-1 (remember, IUPUI has those forfeit losses from early in the season) and will try to bounce back during a home-and-home with Robert Morris.
Though some may take issue with this statement based on early-season results that included losses to Milwaukee and Cleveland State, Northern Kentucky has earned the right to be included in the conference contender discussion alongside IUPUI and Youngstown State. The Norse have now won seven straight games, with the latest two coming through a road sweep of Detroit Mercy and Oakland. Against the Golden Grizzlies, a team that had been heating up themselves with three straight wins going into the contest, Ivy Turner took the leading role with 17 points and five rebounds. Four other NKU players scored in double digits, while Grayson Rose continued to terrorize the glass with 17 rebounds (following up a 16-board outing against the Titans). With that win against Oakland (and previous victories against Green Bay and IUPUI), NKU has now defeated three of the top six teams in these power rankings on their respective home courts.
I went into a little bit of detail on the rough road Cleveland State has had over the last six weeks in my recap of the Vikings’ win at Milwaukee on Sunday but just to hit the bullet points, CSU hadn’t won a game against a Division I opponent since knocking off NKU at BB&T Arena on December 3rd, thanks in large part to a pair of COVID pauses and a series of similar issues with opponents (and, debatably, the effect all of that had on the team’s ill-fated trip to RMU and YSU). After a rough first quarter against the Panthers, the Vikings appeared to return to the form that had them at the top of these rankings early in the season and they did a lot of it with a pretty balanced effort, as Destiny Leo was shut out in the first half. It’s probably premature to declare CSU’s struggles over, but things are definitely looking a lot better following the team’s first win at the Klotsche Center since 2012.
I’m not sure that any team in the Horizon League, contextually speaking, has been quite as impressive as Oakland over the last two weeks. The Golden Grizzlies are currently without superstar Kahlaijah Dean, who has a non-COVID injury, but the rest of the roster has stepped up in a way beyond what appeared possible earlier in the season. In December at an MTE in Las Vegas, OU dropped both of their games – first to Bowling Green when Dean scored 28 of the team’s 60 points, then by 21 to Marshall when Dean was in foul trouble for most of the contest. Less than one month later, that supporting cast has Oakland playing their best basketball of the season with three wins in four games, with the loss coming to a red-hot Northern Kentucky team on Saturday. It’s been a group effort throughout, with four different players setting or tying career scoring highs against the Norse, led by Kayla Luchenbach going for 18 with eight rebounds.
Green Bay fell off the list of teams that have avoided COVID outbreaks large enough to cancel games last week (which is now down to Youngstown State and Milwaukee), as the Phoenix were forced to wash out a homestand against Cleveland State and Purdue Fort Wayne. If there’s one team that couldn’t really afford for that to happen, it’s UWGB; thanks mostly to opponent pauses, Kevin Borseth and company have played exactly three games since December 12th, a span that will reach 40 days by this weekend’s home-and-home with archrival Milwaukee.
Milwaukee continues to be arguably the toughest read in the league, but their weekend split continued to pile answerless questions for the Panthers. UWM topped Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday, though it was hardly the aesthetic you’d want to see out of a contender playing a team near the bottom of the standings at home. Then, against Cleveland State on Sunday, the home team shot 61.5 percent in the first quarter…and 28 percent the rest of the way while the Vikings heated up and eventually won pretty decisively. After that game, Kyle Rechlicz mentioned that the Panthers need to get more shots from Megan Walstad and it’s hard to disagree with the idea of one of the conference’s best players getting more than 21 field goal attempts during the course of the weekend, particularly when the team’s deep guard rotation has continued to struggle.
It would be foolish to expect too much out of Robert Morris against IUPUI, though coming off recent results like a win over Cleveland State on December 30th and a competitive game at Youngstown State on January 8th, part of me did think that the Colonials would offer some pushback against the Jags. That didn’t materialize, with a 19-point loss as the result. Arguably even more concerning than that, however, was RMU playing a slogfest against UIC two days later. Robert Morris surged in the third quarter against the Flames and eventually won by six, though 50 points against a team that has only defeated Detroit Mercy in the conference doesn’t inspire a load of confidence, even for a team as defensively stout as RMU. Sol Castro and Esther Castedo were just 3-for-18 combined against UIC, and no Colonials player hit double digits.
Purdue Fort Wayne’s Wisconsin trip was cut in half by Green Bay’s COVID issues, but the Mastodons showed fairly well in a loss to Milwaukee on Friday, a game where the visitors only trailed by two at the break and made a couple decent pushes later on against the game’s general trendline. The Dons – particularly Jazzlyn Linbo and Aubrey Stupp – did a nice job on Megan Walstad defensively, holding the Panthers star off the scoreboard in the first half and without a field goal until the last minute of the third quarter. On the other end of things, Shayla Sellers blew up for a career-high 24 points while Ryin Ott added 11 as she continues to get re-acclimated to things after her injury.
Though it took a trip to Detroit Mercy to do it, Wright State finally collected their first Division I win of the season on Saturday (and the second overall, including a victory over Lake Erie last month), pulling away in the second half to drop the Titans by a 72-56 count. Even if the victory doesn’t do a ton for the Raiders from a standings perspective, for the purposes of what we’re doing here, it does create some separation between WSU and the bottom two teams (UIC, as you may recall, needed overtime to beat UDM). The Raiders are still extremely depth-challenged, but they’re getting value from several different players, as Jada Roberson, Destyne Jackson, and Edecia Beck each scored 15 or 16 points against Detroit Mercy, while Jada Wright added 11 with 11 rebounds.
It probably says a lot about Jaida McCloud that she continues to be a huge part of the league-wide conversation despite UIC’s massive struggles this year, but when she can fill a stat sheet with 14 points, ten rebounds, five assists, and five blocks (her stat line against RMU), that will tend to happen. She didn’t play well in the Flames’ previous game, a blowout loss at Youngstown State on Friday, but overall McCloud might be in a select category with the likes of Olson and Walstad in terms of players who do just about everything well. There’s part of me that still believes that UIC is better than their record with the likes of McCloud, Kristian Young, and now the emerging Ky Dempsey-Toney on their side, but the wins haven’t followed to this point.
Another week, another Detroit Mercy game where the Titans appeared to have a solid shot at their first win, only to fade in the second half. After eating the expected blowout against Northern Kentucky on Thursday, UDM started well against Wright State two days later and led 17-11 after the first quarter, thanks to six points from freshman Akyia Baker and five from Brandi Washington. Though WSU went on an 11-2 run to open the second quarter, UDM got off the mat and led by two at halftime. Then…ka-boom. Jada Roberson’s three 11 seconds after the break gave the Raiders a lead they would never relinquish, and three minutes of game time later, the Titans trailed by double digits. LaTanya Collins’ squad (like everyone else in the league) will play a home-and-home with their travel partner this week, archrival Oakland.
On Sunday afternoon, Cleveland State downed Milwaukee 66-57 to improve to 10-3 overall and 5-2 in the Horizon League. The result, CSU’s first victory at UWM’s Klotsche Center since January 19, 2012, dropped the Panthers dropped to 7-10 overall and 6-4 in the conference.
It’s hard to truly do justice to the magnitude of the victory from the Cleveland State side of things, but here’s an attempt.
Despite a 9-3 overall record entering the game, the Vikings last won against a Division I opponent on December 3rd, a clutch 63-52 result on the home court of a very good Northern Kentucky team. CSU collected a forfeit over COVID-stricken Wright State two days later, then ran into their own virus issues, forcing the cancellation of a non-conference game at Akron. Next, the Vikings routed NAIA school Ohio Christian on December 18th (OCU was a last-minute replacement for yet another team hit with COVID, Hofstra).
Things seemed to be headed in the general direction of normal when CSU dropped their final out-of-conference game to a tough Loyola Chicago team ahead of the holiday break, but by New Year’s weekend and a pair of disappointing road losses to Robert Morris and Youngstown State, warning signs had re-emerged when the Vikings were reduced to eight players against the Penguins. Sure enough, CSU went on a second COVID pause a couple days later, taking out scheduled home games against Detroit Mercy and Oakland. One final opponent-fueled cancellation – which the Vikings didn’t learn about until landing in Green Bay ahead of a planned game on Friday – set up the Sunday matchup with the Phoenix’s archrival.
Against that backdrop it was not the least bit surprising that Milwaukee, one of two remaining Horizon League teams that has yet to endure a COVID pause this season, jumped all over the Vikings from the tip, leading 20-10 after ten minutes after the visitors arrived cold from the Wisconsin air, shooting 28.6 percent from the floor during the first quarter. Miquela Santoro led the early charge for the Panthers with nine first quarter points, on her way to 14 for the game. Back-to-back three pointers by Santoro and Sydney Staver gave UWM their first lead just before the media timeout and were part of a 14-0 run spanning just over seven minutes of game time.
“I thought Miquela Santoro was incredibly aggressive in the first half, and she really put us in a really great position there, she was 4-for-8 from the floor,” Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said.
If anyone knew what would happen next, they could have made a lot of money on it: Cleveland State scored 14 of the game’s next 18 points to tie things at 24-24 midway through the second quarter. Whether the Vikings found another gear, shook off the rust, or fill in your own cliché, suddenly things were truly clicking for the first time since the team’s 9-0 start to the season.
Arguably, the Vikings quietly began to right the ship late in the first quarter when a Brittni Moore three-point play re-energized the Vikings roster, one of several jolts the UT Martin transfer offered throughout the afternoon on effort plays. Moore ultimately finished just shy of a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds in a tidy 22:49 off the bench.
Grit, as it sometimes does, opened up things for the CSU shooters. After a 1-for-7 start from three-point range, Deja Williams and Gabby Smith both connected from deep during the second quarter run (beginning a 7-for-18 finish to the contest from deep), the latter serving as the tying blow.
“It would’ve been nice if they had one of those games where they weren’t [shooting the ball well from three-point range], because obviously we were relying on that factor. We made some very serious mistakes to give them some of those open threes,” Rechlicz said.
“Gabby Smith, she takes five threes a game, so we were expecting her to take those, but she’s shooting 21 percent and goes 3-for-8. Deja goes 2-for-5. Players that haven’t been hitting start hitting shots.”
While Panthers superstar Megan Walstad scored four of the game’s next five points to help her squad to a 30-25 halftime lead, the trendline of the game had pivoted and CSU proved it by outscoring Milwaukee 23-11 during a decisive third quarter.
Smith opened the frame with another triple before Destiny Leo finally got involved. The Lake County product, who had been held off the scoreboard for the first 21 minutes of the game, fired home seven points during the quarter, the first four on free throws.
The second pair of tosses came after a flagrant foul by Santoro in transition and a scary moment as Leo remained down for a bit, followed by a technical foul to presumed redshirt Faith Burch for leaving the bench to help Leo up, but that was the closest approximation of drama that the second half had to offer once CSU wrapped up runs of 9-0 and 13-2 late in the third to generate a comfortable amount of separation the rest of the way.
“I thought we did an excellent job on number 2, Destiny Leo, in the first half, and in the second half she scores 12 points because we weren’t communicating on our switches, we weren’t…it’s almost like we weren’t hitting our shots, so we threw ourselves a little pity party and stopped defending,” Rechlicz lamented.
“Cleveland State’s a very good team, I give a lot of credit to their coach, he brought in some really good transfers. He’s putting people in the right positions, Destiny Leo has really stepped up for them, they’re a great team.”
Four Vikings finished in double figures, including Moore, Smith (15), Leo (12) and Nadia Dumas (10), while Leo’s eight rebounds were second on the team to Moore. Walstad paced the home side with 18 points and ten rebounds.
Up next the Vikings, like all Horizon League teams, will play their travel partner twice this week. In CSU’s case, that opponent is a struggling Purdue Fort Wayne team and an opportunity to string together another winning streak as part of a continuing effort to prove Rechlicz right. The Mastodons are scheduled to visit the Wolstein Center on Thursday, followed by a return engagement in Fort Wayne on Saturday.
Another close loss for RMU that featured, yet again, falling asleep the last 5 minutes of the game, to a VERY depleted Wright State team, I think some folks around the Colonials really started to ponder if they were every going to find that elusive league win.
Losing 75-73 on Thursday, seeing Kam Farris drop a nice little 20 piece and was joined in double figures by 3 other Colonials, I sat watching, still wanting, NEEDING more. RMU shot just a hair under 51% Thursday, while also forcing Wright State into 11 turnovers, but still, the last 5 minutes bit the Colonials yet again.
Robert Morris faced a chance to tie the ball game with :18 left, but, as has happened far too often this season, they had that dreaded turnover that has bit them numerous times. Taking a loss to a depleted team is bad enough, but when you also went on an 11-2 run in the second half to erase a 7-point deficit and lose the way they did, that is just poor fundamentals.
Covering RMU for the HoriZone Roundtable, I have been waiting for that first league win to cover, I have also been waiting for Kahliel Spear to 100% take over a game. Well folks, it FINALLY happened on Saturday versus Northern Kentucky. This team, after losing Rasheem Dunn, is a desperate need of someone to step up and be the bell cow for this squad. Before the season began, Spear was one player who I looked to for that role and I know some of the coaches did too. Now, he did not necessarily play poorly on Thursday, he just came out of the gates pretty slow.
That all changed on Saturday; he was a man on a freaking mission. Spear came out of the gates on absolute fire as did RMU. Robert Morris hit their first 3 shots from the field and held the Norse to just one bucket in the first 5 minutes of action. The first 10 minutes may have been the best RMU has looked defensively this season and the first half was most definitely their best to date. Robert Morris closed the first 20 minutes of action shooting 59%, holding NKU to just 41%. Spear had 13 points, three boards and one assist; my man clutched up! RMU went into the locker room nursing a 35-28 advantage.
Now, any Colonial fan at halftime was pretty worried about the final 20 minutes because as we have seen, they have yet to FINISH a game. Would tonight be the night they put a complete game together? You can’t expect them to shoot almost 60% the whole night, but they would sure need to keep at it on the defensive end; they did just that.
Northern Kentucky was only able to muster up 11 buckets on 34 attempts while only hitting 1-of-14 from beyond the three point line; There is that defense Andy Toole has been looking for! Now, back to the man of the hour, Spear. Going through stretches this season hot and cold, finally, he took over like every Robert Morris fan has been dying for. While only scoring eight points in the second half to end the contest with 21, he came up with eight boards and one incredible dunk that, if SVP does NOT put on Sportscenter, we are going to have a problem.
RMU, finally, collected their first Horizon League win, closing out NKU 74-64 behind Spear, Green III and Kam Farris all scoring in double figures; Spear with a double double.
In a post game text exchange with Robert Morris assistant Jimmy Langhurst, I could sense the relief of the win. I was hoping that Northern Kentucky was his scout, but it was not but I told him I would still sing his praises.
Now, its time to build off of this and let it snowball into some type of run. RMU heads on the road to face Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday and then it’s off to Ohio to face Cleveland State on Sunday.
Look for bigger things from Farris and Spear as this season goes on, if they are to make any noise in the coming months, those two are going to have to carry the bulk of the load.
Oakland prevailed after two tough match-ups with Cleveland State and Purdue Fort Wayne, and Bob and Matt discuss how the Golden Grizzlies stayed on top of the Horizon League. They also talk about, among other things, Wright State’s rotation (which temporarily shrunk considerably this week), Robert Morris’ first conference win, and IUPUI’s continued woes, as well as when Pat Baldwin, Jr. may return to the lineup for Milwaukee.
I’m just going to start this off with a little bit of honesty.
I *HATE* writing recaps for games. I figure there’s already a bunch of them out there, if you’re reading this you likely watched the game or followed along with it on social media, and you’re well aware of your thoughts on the game. A recap isn’t going to provide you anything new or interesting.
So I turned to Twitter and asked what you want to read about? What can I offer an opinion on that you will likely hate, think I’m an idiot, get you talking about for a couple days and then send the link to me when it turns out wrong?
Twitter user @Freewind69 came through with a great suggestion. So, this one’s for you, Logan Freewind!
Strengths and Weaknesses of every team in the Horizon League and how teams can improve to be able to Challenge Oakland in the post season.
We are anywhere from four to seven games into the Horizon League conference schedule and starting to see our usual tiers within the conference standings take shape. However, with their win in Cleveland coupled with Detroit Mercy’s loss to Purdue Fort Wayne, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies remain as the only unbeaten team in the league and a promising outlook on the season. Oakland played a strong non-conference schedule including the win at Oklahoma State and is currently ranked 69th in NCAA Net Rankings and 99th in KenPom, their first time breaking the top 100 ever in season. For reference, Cleveland State is the next Horizon League team on KenPom coming in at 157 and 151 in the NET rankings.
With what appears to be a gap between Oakland and the rest of the conference, what does each team in the league need to do to prepare to potentially face the Golden Grizzlies in the conference tournament? Let’s take a look:
IUPUI- Umm… gain three scorers? IUPUI is not a good team this year. They work hard for first year coach Matt Crenshaw but they simply lack talent. If they somehow find themselves playing OU in the conference tournament, they shouldn’t prepare anything different. That they made it this far is already a miracle.
RMU- Robert Morris needs to focus on finding a replacement for Rasheem Dunn after his sudden midseason departure. Despite his leaving, they have been quite competitive in their last two losses against Youngstown State and Wright State. RMU got trucked by OU in December without Dunn as Jamal Cain had 22 points and 14 boards. Double Teaming him and letting one of the other OU players win the game is their best bet, but still not good odds.
Green Bay- First thing GB needs to do is stay healthy. After that, they sort of fall into the IUPUI territory on this side of things. They lack the fire power to stay with someone like Cain and I don’t like freshman Lucas Stieber’s chances staying in front of Jalen Moore. That doesn’t even account for trying to matchup their freshmen like McGee and Kellogg against Trey Townsend and Micah Parrish. That’s a lot of people for an undersized and overmatched GB team to stay with in a potential tournament game. Best chance for them is to get really hot from 3 where they’re 26.5% as a team.
Milwaukee– This is a team that doesn’t look good right now, and may have some inner team drama brewing between players and staff. The only thing that could prepare them to avoid another Oakland beatdown would be a 5 Star recruit and NBA lottery pick to put the the team on their shoulders and carry them to the finish line. Where they could find one of those, I have no idea.
UIC- This is a tough team to figure out still. They were down 20 to Oakland in their meeting in Chicago to start off the conference slate, but came all the way back before Oakland slipped away with victory. UIC needs time to get all their players together at the same time, an issue they seem to be facing year in and year out. They have a lot of good pieces and are a team that matches up the best against OU. Michael Diggins has the athleticism to stay with Cain, something most teams don’t possess. If UIC can find cohesiveness amongst themselves, they would be capable of an upset.
NKU- A team OU is yet to face, they could be a tough matchup for Oakland. Chris Brandon is the type of player that could potentially stay with Cain which is a big factor in defeating them. A player like Nelson could be the answer to staying with Townsend and overall, they just seem to match up well physically. That said, NKU has not been a great team this season. The key for NKU will be controlling the pace and not letting the Golden Grizzlies grind it out the way they prefer, but keep them moving. Lots of press, not for turnovers but to speed up the possessions and try to make Oakland outscore them.
YSU- Really struggled against Oakland in their matchup at the Orena on New Years Day. They will need to find a way to compete with Oakland’s length and very few have the roster to do that. YSU will need better production out of Rathan-Mays and Myles Hunter and to shoot the 3 better.
PFW– Another team Oakland has not seen yet in conference play. They are a team that worries Kampe as they shoot the three really well. Much with any game they play, that will be the key for the Mastadons against OU. They are shooting the trey around 34% this season, and if they can have a game where they are closer to 40% they will be in it. They also have a guard that can match up against Jalen Moore with Damian Chong Qui. These two undersized but quick guards will surely give us some great on ball point guard battles every time they meet up. Who is winning that battle will likely determine the game.
Detroit Mercy- We would have some more insight into this if UDM and OU had met for their matchup during rivalry week but the scheduling gods were not favorable. Detroit Mercy has two important pieces in comparing them with Oakland. The first is their star, Antoine Davis. With him on the floor, you can never count out Detroit Mercy, although he only has 1 win against Oakand in his college career. The other factor for them in a matchup against OU would be the play of Noah Waterman. He could potentially stay with Townsend, where most teams do not have a player that can match up with him. Waterman’s size and guard skillset are a favorable matchup. However, that would leave Willy Isiani and Madut Akec to try and handle Cain which would likely not go well.
Wright State- They need to stay the course. They have a coach in Scott Nagy that has proven he can win. And he can win against Greg Kampe too, something not everyone can say. He has done a good job navigating WSU through the post Loudon Love era and the squad seems to be taking shape at the right time despite some early season bumps. Grant Basile is the kind of player that will try to be physical with Cain and take him out of his game. He’s also not afraid to be out on the perimeter with Cain who likes to hunt shots. While the Raiders haven’t been winning games in pretty fashion of late, they have been doing just enough to win. And when you have Tanner Holden on your team, you’re never too far out of a game. WSU has the right combination of size and athleticism to matchup well with OU and that’s a better starting place than most of the league.
Cleveland State– Make free throws. Make more 3’s. Either of those things and this article would be talking about what other teams need to do to knock Cleveland State out in a potential tournament matchup. They were right there with Oakland until the end. For as good as Spider Johnson was for CSU, it was the missed free throws (where he was 3-8) that will stay with him for now. A little more time on the floor for Tre Gomillion who found himself in foul trouble and a little less time for Jayson Woodrich and Broc Finstuen (combined 1-12 from the floor with 2 points in 22 minutes) and Cleveland State would be in good shape.
There is a LOT of season left for the Horizon League. From what we have seen already, we can only hope for a Cleveland State vs. Oakland final as it was clear these are the two best teams in the league and will deliver an entertaining game.
Sorry about last week, the Twitter Spaces custom rules from that Chicago State-IUPUI Tip(sy)-off did a number on me. But we’re back just in time!
Despite the week off, there hasn’t been a ton of movement in the rankings. Maybe after 2+ years of power rankings, the chaos is just starting to make sense? Whatever the reason, there seem to be clear dividing lines forming at the top and bottom of the Horizon League, so all of this week’s movement takes place in the middle.
Check out the rankings:
Team
Rank
Previous
Change
Oakland
1
1
–
Cleveland State
2
2
–
Wright State
3
3
–
Detroit Mercy
4
5
+1
Purdue Fort Wayne
5
8
+3
Youngstown State
6
4
-2
Milwaukee
7
7
–
UIC
8
6
-2
Northern Kentucky
9
9
–
Green Bay
10
10
–
Robert Morris
11
11
–
IUPUI
12
12
–
Since our last Power Rankings, Oakland is 3-0 against Division I opponents. The Golden Grizzlies easily cruised past Robert Morris, Youngstown State, and Milwaukee while adding a blowout win over non-Division I opponent Ohio Christian in a game that replaced Detroit Mercy on the schedule. It’s starting to sound repetitive, but Oakland has built up enough goodwill that someone near the top (maybe Cleveland State tonight?) will need to take down the Golden Grizzlies before they move from the top spot. Jalen Moore’s shot didn’t fall at the rate he probably would’ve liked, but his 15 points and 14 assists helped carry OU to the win over Milwaukee.
Cleveland State became the Horizon League’s representative in Joe Lunardi’s bracket projection by going undefeated since our last update and not having any games cancelled, resulting in a 6-0 Horizon League record that’s technically half a game ahead of 5-0 Oakland. As has been the case frequently over the last two years, Cleveland State relied on different players to be the go-to-guy on different nights, but D’Moi Hodge’s 31-point outing on 11-for-18 shooting in Sunday’s 86-80 overtime win against Youngstown State was the obvious standout.
Since our last update Wright State completely validated me picking them third in the previous Power Rankings with a win over North Carolina State, then rattled off three Horizon League wins. The Raiders are currently 5-1 in league play heading into tonight’s game against Robert Morris. Tanner Holden led the way for WSU this week with 23 points and 6.5 rebounds per game in wins over UIC and IUPUI.
Detroit Mercy has played just one game since our last rankings, but it went a long way to justify moving the Titans up. The Titans remain undefeated in league play, but at just 3-0 following multiple cancellations it’s hard to put them higher than this. UDM secured a nationally televised blowout win over Milwaukee on Friday, where the 85-60 final score didn’t do nearly enough to show how lopsided the game was. In the process, Antoine Davis scored 39 points to become the school’s all-time scoring leader.
Purdue Fort Wayne makes a big jump in this week’s rankings after a 2-0 week highlighted by a 71-61 road win over Youngstown State. The Mastodons are now 3-3 in league play with one loss to Wright State and two to Cleveland State. Jarred Godfrey nearly matched his season averages with 17 points and 5 rebounds per game for PFW since our last update.
Youngstown State was one of the two schools that fell in this week’s rankings after a 1-2 week where the lone win was a 64-60 victory over last place Robert Morris. Not long after the Penguins boasted a solid 8-4 record against admittedly questionable opposition, the team sits just slightly over .500. On a good note for YSU, six games into league play the team has already gotten games against Oakland and Cleveland State out of the way. Michael Akuchie continued to lead the way for the Penguins, averaging 14.7 points and 9 rebounds per game in the three contests.
Milwaukee was on the receiving end of a pair of blowout losses to Oakland and Detroit Mercy, but keeps its spot in the rankings thanks to a pair of road wins over Northern Kentucky and Green Bay since the last Power Rankings. The Panthers have been largely without highly-touted recruit Patrick Baldwin Jr during this stretch. Josh Thomas stepped up to carry the load in Baldwin’s absence, averaging 16.3 points per game in the new year.
With a pair of games cancelled, UIC has gone just 1-1 since our last update with a 90-72 loss to Wright State and a nail-biter 67-65 win over struggling IUPUI. While UIC is dropping in the rankings, it should be pointed out that the team was without star Damaria Franklin in the close call against the Jaguars. Kevin Johnson averaged 18 points and 4.5 rebounds for the Flames in the team’s two games of 2022.
Northern Kentucky had all three of its contests in the last week cancelled or postponed, so it’s been awhile since we’ve seen the Norse in action. When NKU did last play, the team split a series against Milwaukee and Green Bay. For Northern Kentucky, Marques Warrick continues to be the story. When he put up a solid 20-point performance, the team took down the Phoenix 79-74. When he shot 4-for-15, the offense stalled in the second half of a 61-55 loss to the Panthers.
Green Bay showed promise last week, losing road games to Northern Kentucky and Wright State by a combined 8 points. But this week’s 63-49 loss to Milwaukee keeps the Phoenix from making any movement in the Power Rankings. Kamari McGee scored 22 points in the loss on his way to Horizon League Freshman of the Week.
While Robert Morris is technically in last place in the league at 0-6, the team’s Division I win and a trio of close calls in the last week keep the Colonials out of last in the rankings. Leading scorer Rasheem Dunn left the team before Wednesday’s game against Cleveland State, but RMU posted an encouraging result when it turned around and took CSU to the final buzzer in a 78-77 loss. As he did when A.J. Bramah left the team last year, Kahliel Spear stepped up in RMU’s leading scorer’s absence. He averaged 18.5 points and 5 rebounds per game for the Colonials.
IUPUI nearly pulled off its first Horizon League win of the season on Monday, but eventually fell to UIC. Unfortunately for the Jaguars, the team’s entire body of work made that more of a negative for UIC than it was a positive for IUPUI. Much like with Oakland at the top of the rankings, there’s a significant enough gap between IUPUI and the field that IUPUI is going to need to beat someone to get out of last place. Bakari LaStrap averaged 13.5 points and 4 assists on the week, with a career-high
Fresh off the heels of a set of wins at home, Wright State (6-7, 3-1 HL) welcomed the UIC Flames (4-7, 0-2 HL) and the IUPUI Jaguars (1-10, 0-2 HL) to the Nutter Center. Being able to attend these games in the stands as only the second and third games I was actually able to attend this year was a treat, and the atmosphere buzzed with excitement as the Raiders had been earning their keep in the Horizon after a not-so-stellar non-conference slate.
UIC would come in looking for their first Horizon win after taking on the likes of Detroit Mercy and Oakland, two of the league’s top contenders, and IUPUI would come in looking to stop a D1 losing streak going back to last year. IUPUI is ranked second-worst in the country through the NET rankings as of writing this, and had their first game of their road trip cancelled by NKU. Wright State, conversely, is looking to continue a four game winning streak and further cement themselves in the Horizon’s top echelon.
VS. UIC, January 6th
Wright State started the game with UIC off behind as the Flames made it through the first four minutes nearly perfect from the floor, while the Raiders themselves couldn’t convert their extra opportunities underneath. UIC would get no closer to victory after the media timeout as the Raiders would storm back from their 9-2 deficit to tie it up at 11 only three minutes later. From then on, it was Wright State’s game to walk away with. Sloppy UIC play, travels and fouls galore, and Wright State’s size all helped the Raiders get the edge in rebounds and points in the paint as they went on another 12 point run to take the lead 42-35 by halftime.
The Raiders continued the second half laying into the UIC defense, scoring 29 points on the squad in just 9 minutes while holding UIC to 15 to take a 71-50 lead. While UIC was shooting amazingly from three, making four of its last five during the halfway mark of the half, they were still unable to stop the Raiders offense from driving underneath, with Calvin and Holden finding open lanes to push easy layups through. UIC would pull within 11 to try and salvage the game with just under three minutes remaining, but would falter and allow the Raiders to score 8 unanswered points to seal the game 90-72.
Wright State’s main duo of Holden and Basile had more than twenty points in the game as UIC floundered to answer their offensive power. While Holden would get six points from the foul line, and still lead the country in attempts and made free throws, he also made 10-17 on the night to finish with a season high 26 points and two rebounds shy of a double-double. Basile was perfect underneath, only his missed three pointers stained his 100% field goal percentage on the night. Basile and Holden made up for more than half of the score, but Trey Calvin was the key to the offense during the game, putting up 19 points of his own while drawing attention to himself to allow Basile and Holden to get into position.
Defense was the main difference between UIC and Wright State. While the Raiders were able to keep the Flames out of the paint fully, preventing the easy shots that Wright State relies on, UIC could not keep up with the offense. Even their attempts to go zone were met with mixed results, as they often allowed the Raiders to get the ball to an ignored player for an easy shot. UIC, for its part, was able to keep up with the Raiders off of 45% three point shooting, something that Wright State could not contain while keeping a handle on inside the arc. UIC’s three pointers in the second half were especially alarming; they simply could not miss and Wright State allowed them to have those shots fall.
UIC drains a 3 like it’s nothing, then does next to nothing as Calvin goes right through the center and gets a layup +1. This is what’s costing UIC this game
Just like with UIC, the Raiders started off slow. While the Jags did themselves absolutely no favors by going scoreless in the first four minutes, Wright State wasn’t showing any of its offensive might, scoring 3 points in the span of 8 minutes while letting IUPUI drain three after three to score 14, putting the score at the under 8 minute mark 14-11 in IUPUI’s favor. Coming out of the timeout, the Raiders were able to tie the game up and battle for a little while, both teams getting foul after foul as IUPUI and Wright State’s defenses made it a physical fight to get to the rim. The Jags then had a bad stretch of turnovers and poor shooting to allow Wright State to end the half 33-23.
Wright State extended their lead to 15 out of the half before yet another Raider cold spell led to the Raiders scoring two points in five minutes and allowed IUPUI to move the score to 42-37. Then IUPUI went cold as a ghost, and the Raiders took back their lead and extended it to 20 for the first time in the game, leading the Jags 59-40 at the under 8 mark as the only shots the Jags could make were free throws. Despite personally being upset that the Raiders allowed the Jags to score 50 points, something that IUPUI had done in only 4 games, the Raiders cruised through the rest of the game and dominated IUPUI 72-58.
Despite a rough start and lulls along the way, the Raiders ended the game with four of their starters, all except for Braun, in double digits. Tanner Holden once again led the way with 20 points as the Raider starters averaged just under 50% from the field, but the Wright State bench was almost entirely silent. Keaton Norris made the first three of only six points off the bench halfway through the second half, and then was followed up by a James Manns three in garbage time.
IUPUI did its part to keep the Raiders busy as they were physically dominant underneath, forcing the paint-heavy offense to earn its contested shots as two or three defenders would attack the ball handler on sight. Physical defenses have spooked the Raiders in the past, such as the game against James Madison in Florida, and IUPUI made it’s best efforts to contain the offense underneath, often drawing fouls in the process. IUPUI, however, had even more trouble with the defense the Raiders put on, with only Azariah Seay being able to crack through the defense consistently to get layups and rebounds.
What’s next for the Raiders
The game previously scheduled for January 10th against rival Northern Kentucky was postponed due to COVID. The Horizon League came out with an announcement that games between travel partners would be rescheduled if possible, otherwise NKU would receive a no-contest for the cancellation. Fortunately, NKU and Wright State were able to find a replacement date and are now going to play on January 25th in Highland Heights, which will kick off the hardest stretch of conference league play as they take on Cleveland State, Oakland, PFW, and Detroit Mercy at home afterwards. The Raiders are first going on a four game road trip to take on Robert Morris on January 13th and Youngstown on January 15th.
I knew three minutes into Friday night’s game, the scoring record was going to be broken.
17 points in the first seven minutes of the contest.
Six straight made field goals.
Antoine Davis was shooting the lights out. This is not going to be a game recap though. Because everyone who follows Detroit Mercy basketball knows how the game went. They know the Titans blew out Milwaukee on ESPN2 and it was a total team game. That Noah Waterman looked healthy for the first time this season. I watched it with 500 other people. Maybe. I get there’s a pandemic. But don’t tell me you can’t socially distance in a 9,000-seat arena that does not often get 1,000 people in it.
In the last month, I have taken two people who have never attended a Detroit Mercy basketball game to their first game at Calihan Hall. They each loved it. They thought the sightlines were great. The history of the place was cool. They each fully understand why I love the place so much. But if other people don’t fall in love with the place will anyone be there to see Davis’ record get broken?
I don’t think I have missed 12 home games in the last 10 years. I was even lucky enough to get in last year when it was only media and a few guests allowed. I don’t know anyone who was in school at the same time as me who remotely cares about this team. I get a few friends a year that want to go to the Oakland game or like a one-off Friday night game. It comes up in conversation how’s the team going to be this year or how are they doing, but that’s about it.
My girlfriend leaned over to me at halftime and exclaimed, “Everyone in attendance at this game is over 50.” That describes the fan base to a T. We all know how things work when you don’t add to fans. If something doesn’t happen, the Titan fan will become extinct.
I am 10 years out of my freshmen year of college when we went to the NCAA tournament. I think Detroit Mercy has a decent shot this year, although Cleveland State, Oakland, and Wright State are all decent teams and will have something to say about that.
I was not surprised when I sat down last Friday and there were not 1,000 people. There are lots of factors as to why that is. The pandemic makes it tough for a handful of different reasons. But it’s not just the pandemic. In fact, I would wager attendance is better now than in 2019.
Antoine Davis is by far the best player that has played for Detroit Mercy in the last 10 years. Often, he pulls a rabbit out of his hat and sinks shots that don’t normally go in. He’s been good for 20 points per game his entire college career. It does not help that two of those years there’s been a pandemic going on, but people are missing out on seeing one of the better mid-major basketball players of the last 10 years. He is worth the price of admission, Id argue Detroit Mercy, Oakland, and EMU basketball are the best value in sports in Metro Detroit.
A lot of Titan fans want to put an asterisk on his career if he does not get the Titans to the NCAA tournament. I don’t think that’s fair. He is one guy. He routinely gets double and triple-teamed and still finds ways to score. His freshmen year he had no supporting cast and was just a freshman. His sophomore year the team was ineligible for the postseason based on a decision players who the current coaching staff did not bring in made. Last year’s team was good, not great.
This year’s team looks better. Are they better than CSU and Oakland? I don’t think so. Can they win a conference tournament? Maybe. Regardless if he makes the postseason or not this spring, even if he takes a 5th year, He is still the leading scorer in Detroit Titan history, until another superstar comes along and takes the crown.
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