Green Bay looks to return to the top of the Horizon League
After years of dominating the Horizon League, Green Bay has now gone without a conference championship for three straight seasons. The Green Bay program has seen loads of success over the years, and while the goal is always the NCAA tournament, Green Bay has not been to the Big Dance since 2018. The loss of leading scorer Caitlyn Hibner will hurt, and Kevin Borseth will need to find a solution for an offense that struggled with consistency the past few seasons.
That being said, the Phoenix has several players who have shown some really great potential. Green Bay has never been a one-woman show, and collectively, if they can get a step-up in contributions from each position, they could prove to be a difficult team to beat this winter.
Newcomers
Callie Genke – Genke comes to Green Bay from nearby Freedom High School where she led her team to a 25-2 finish in her senior season. The 6-foot guard averaged 16.4 points per game, converting on nearly 50% of her three point attempts.
Bailey Butler – Kevin Borseth snagged another in-state recruit from small-town powerhouse Black Hawk High School in South Wayne, Wisconsin in Bailey Butler. Black Hawk qualified for the state tournament in all four seasons that Butler was there. She averaged 28.3 points per game in her senior season.
Maddy Schreiber – Schreiber comes to Green Bay from Kimberly, Wisconsin where in her senior season she led her team to a 25-2 record and one win short of the state tournament. The 6-foot guard averaged 19.5 points per game that year, and comes to Kimberly.
Jenna Guyer – Guyer joins the Phoenix from Centennial High School in Minnesota. She is one of just two Green Bay players from outside the state of Wisconsin. The 6-foot 2-inch forward will add some size to the Phoenix squad and could contribute to the lineup with her versatility.
Lineup
Meghan Pingel – Pingel returns for her super senior year thanks to the extra season of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Borseth will need Pingel to lead Green Bay on both ends of the floor. The point guard led the Phoenix in both assists and steals last season, and will look to once again provide stability and leadership for this Phoenix squad.
Hailey Oskey – Oskey enters the season as Green Bay’s second-highest returning scorer, after a 2020-2021 season where she averaged 7.9 points per game. She started in all 16 games in which she played in and will play a vital role for Phoenix once again.
Sydney Levy– The Milwaukee transfer will be in her second year with Green Bay in 2021-2022. Levy can light it up from anywhere on the floor, and is the top returning scorer for the Phoenix after averaging 9.3 points per game last season.
Cassie Schiltz – Schiltz appeared in every game for the Phoenix last year and averaged 6.8 points per game. Green Bay will need Schiltz to take the next step offensively to help replace the offensive output that was lost from a season ago.
Julia Hartwig – Hartwig provided a spark off the bench for Green Bay last season. She provides a good inside presence for the Phoenix and gives Borseth another option down low. Hartwig will have the opportunity to earn more minutes and play a larger role this year.
Brooklyn Blackburn – Blackburn is another player on the Phoenix roster that has shown bright spots for her future. She averaged 3.2 points per game last year after redshirting in 2019-2020, and will look to build upon last year’s contributions.
Caelan Givens– Givens will have an opportunity to prove herself this year after an injury kept her out of the 2020-2021 season. The 5-foot 10-inch guard from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin could be a valuable addition to the lineup.
Ellie Foster – Serving as the primary back-up to Pingel last year, Borseth may look for Foster to have a larger role with the Phoenix this season to help lessen the load on Pingel. Foster’s instinct and athleticism give her the ability to be extremely valuable on both ends of the floor for Green Bay. Look for Foster to take strides in the 2021-2022 season.
Kendall Renard – After getting limited playing time last season, Renard looks to crack the rotation for the Phoenix in 2021-2022. Borseth has spoken very highly of the hometown product, and Renard’s 6-foot 3-inch frame could be a nice addition to the lineup on both ends of the floor for Green Bay.
Jasmine Kondrakiewicz – Last season, Kondrakiewicz became the first true freshman to start a regular season game for Green Bay since the 2013-2014 season. She showed some very bright spots in her first year with the Phoenix, and looks to build upon a solid freshman year where she averaged 7.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
Outlook
Between the losses of Caitlyn Hibner and Lyndsey Robson, Borseth will need to replace over 38% of his team’s scoring output from a season ago. In order to improve upon last year’s third place finish and disappointing exit in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League tournament, the Phoenix will need to find an identity and a consistency on offense to supplement their normally-solid defense.
Miss anything from Preview Week? Check it all out below:
On January 22nd, Cleveland State stood at 2-7 following a nine-point defeat to Green Bay. And while the Vikings’ schedule to that point was a tough one (IUPUI, Milwaukee, and Wright State were the other losses), there wasn’t a ton of indication of what would happen next: a 7-1 finish to the regular season and a pair of wins at the Horizon League Tournament (including one against that same Green Bay team that witnessed the beginning of the turnaround) to qualify for Indianapolis and finally, after bowing out in the tourney semifinals, three wins over other quality mid-major teams to win the championship of the Women’s Basketball Invitational. CSU enters 2021-22 with one massive hole to fill – all-everything Mariah White is now at Missouri State – but also with almost everyone else returning, plenty of momentum in the program, and a healthy number of proven arrivals.
Newcomers
Amele Ngwafang – Sure to become a favorite among the CSU faithful thanks to her outgoing personality and outstanding effort level, Ngwafang is a transfer arrival from Radford. With the Highlanders in 2019-20, she averaged eight rebounds per game – nearly half of them on the offensive end – and won trips to the line at an elite level. She tracks as a bit of a Nadia Dumas clone, and you can’t go wrong with two Nadia Dumases on your roster.
Deja Williams – Williams, a California export from Long Beach by way of Cal State Northridge, is a shooter. And what do shooters do? They shoot, of course. In her season with CSUN, Williams hoisted 10.1 field goals per game, 6.3 of those coming from behind the arc. All of that led to ten points per game, and a spot on the Big West’s All-Freshman Team. She’s also a capable defender and ballhander, which will certainly prove valuable in the Vikings’ fast-paced system.
Gabriella Smith – The well-traveled Smith, a Chicago-area native, initially matriculated at Ball State in 2018-19 but struggled as a Cardinal. She then elected the juco route, and re-discovered her game in a big way at Iowa Western Community College last season. En route to NJCAA Second Team All-American honors, she shot a blistering 49.1 percent from the floor and 39.1 percent from three. On a team that already has loads of established snipers like Izzy Geraci and Destiny Leo, Smith should provide another option.
Brittni Moore – We’re not quite done with the bomb squad roll call thanks to Moore, a UT Martin transfer who connected on – wait for it – 44.5 percent of her threes as a freshman in 2018-19. While she dropped off some the following year, the Memphis product certainly has the chops to consistently contribute to what should be a central component of CSU’s offense this season. It’s worth mentioning that Moore was a part of a highly-successful program with the Skyhawks, one that went 45-19 and made it to the OVC championship game twice with Moore present, qualifying for the doomed 2020 WNIT.
Faith Burch – The team’s only true freshman, Burch is a long and athletic player from Warren Harding High School who was a state meet qualifier in the hurdles, if you needed evidence of “long and athletic.” She was a walking double-double for the Raiders, thanks in large part to range that extends beyond the arc, and compliments her driving ability and inside repertoire well. It’s easy to see her becoming something of a Barbara Zieniewska type over the long haul as a low-key dangerous player who does everything well.
Lineup
Isabelle Gradwell – Chris Kielsmeier locked in his starting five pretty tightly as the 2020-21 season progressed and with four of those players returning, there’s little reason to think things will be any different in 2021-22, at least initially. Gradwell enters her fourth year as a reliable outside-in player who was the Vikes’ second-best rebounder last season. One thing she does as well as almost anyone in the nation: get to the line. 36.1 percent of her two-point scoring attempts last season resulted in a free throw, 30th best nationally among those who played 15 minutes per game, and she knocked down 78.7 percent once there.
Taylah Levy – Levy, a native of Victor Harbor, South Australia, is an ace at two very important things in modern basketball. First, she’s fantastic defensively, often catching opposing point guards being a little too careless for some easy run-out scores (her six steals in the WBI semifinals against Stetson were instrumental in the eventual ten-point victory). Second, Levy is a clutch three-point shooter who, after some early struggles, found her shot late last season. Her go-ahead three ball in an 18-point comeback win at Youngstown State on February 19th was easily one of CSU’s season highlights.
Nadia Dumas – One of the team’s storylines a year ago was the emergence of 6-4 Aminata Ly, who rarely started but would often wind up on the floor more than Dumas; one notable case was the aforementioned comeback at Youngstown State, which largely transpired after Dumas got in foul trouble early. Nevertheless, the Toledo native remains a heartbeat player with an unmatched work rate underneath, which was worth 5.6 rebounds per game to go with her 9.4 points, almost all of the latter coming on putback attempts.
Barbara Zieniewska – Zieniewska arrived from the juco ranks last season and ended up being possibly the Vikes’ most versatile player, one who improved as the season went along. She can knock down a bunch of threes, as she did in CSU’s Horizon League Tournament win at Green Bay, or she can shift gears and pull down double-digit boards, as was the case two weeks later in the WBI semifinals. She’s a quality secondary option who can blow up two or three times a year to lead the way.
Destiny Leo – Leo, the conference’s Sixth Player of the Year as a freshman, is unlikely to be a repeat winner since she will be counted on this season to step into a larger role. She’s one of the best shooters in both the league and the nation, as evidenced by her 47 made threes at a 38.2 percent clip in 2020-21 (leading to a 51.7 effective field goal percentage), not to mention the 85.0 percent she posted from the free throw line. Leo is a bit more multidimensional than a typical spot shooter though, as she can create offense driving off the wing as well.
Outlook
It’s hard not to like where the Vikings are headed, and also where they are right now. It will probably take a few games for Kielsmeier to sort out his rotations with the depth on his roster, but that falls pretty clearly under “good problems to have,” and a low-stress non-conference schedule will provide plenty of opportunities to tinker. CSU can attack things in a number of different ways. They’re an aggressive and productive defensive team that seeks to produce quick points, there are at least five or six valid and consistent three-point options available, and the addition of Ngwafang to go with Dumas and Ly gives the Vikes as much horsepower as anyone in the dirtier parts of the game.
Is all of that enough to get through loaded, senior-laden teams in win-now mode like IUPUI and Milwaukee to win a Horizon League title? That much seems unlikely, but at minimum, another winning campaign with postseason play should be the expectation.
Miss anything from Preview Week? Check it all out below:
Williams tabbed to win fourth Player of the Year honor
To the surprise of absolutely nobody who has watched Horizon League women’s basketball over the past few seasons, three-time HL Player of the Year Macee Williams has been picked by the HoriZone Roundtable staff to win the award for the fourth time. Milwaukee’s Megan Walstad, Oakland’s Kahlaijah Dean, Northern Kentucky’s Lindsey Duvall, and Youngstown State’s Chelsea Olson round out HoriZone Roundtable’s preseason all-conference first team.
The fifteen players selected across three teams, for the most part, are a veteran-heavy group with many picks being about as obvious as Williams; seven were on the 2020-21 postseason all-conference teams, while three others (Cleveland State’s Destiny Leo, Robert Morris’ Sol Castro, and UIC’s Jaida McCloud) graduated from last year’s all-freshman team. The remaining five players include conference newcomer Madison Wise, who transferred from Iowa State to IUPUI, as well as others projected to have expanded roles on rebuilding or reloading teams like Wright State’s Shamarre Hale and Green Bay’s Sydney Levy.
Conference favorite IUPUI led the way with three players selected (Williams, Wise, Rachel McLimore), while Oakland (Dean, Alona Blackwell), Northern Kentucky (Duvall, Ivy Turner), and Green Bay (Levy, Jasmine Kondrakiewicz) were each represented by a pair of players. Detroit Mercy and Purdue Fort Wayne, both of which are projected to finish towards the bottom of the standings this season, were the only two teams without a player chosen.
First Team
Second Team
Third Team
* Macee Williams F/C, IUPUI (Gr.)
Destiny Leo G, Cleveland State (So.)
Jasmine Kondrakiewicz F, Green Bay (Fr.)
Megan Walstad F, Milwaukee (So.)
Rachel McLimore G/F, IUPUI (Sr.)
Sydney Levy G, Green Bay (Jr.)
Kahlaijah Dean G, Oakland (Sr.)
Jaida McCloud G/F, UIC (So.)
Sol Castro F, Robert Morris (So.)
Lindsey Duvall G, Northern Kentucky (Sr.)
Madison Wise G/F, IUPUI (Gr.)
Alona Blackwell G, Oakland (Jr.)
Chelsea Olson G, Youngstown State (Sr.)
Ivy Turner G, Northern Kentucky (Jr.)
Shamarre Hale F, Wright State (Jr.)
* HoriZone Roundtable Player of the Year
Macee Williams is the three-time Horizon League Player of the Year, making one of the conference’s best players ever a pretty safe and obvious call to sit at the top of the list yet again (though, in something of a surprise, she wasn’t a unanimous pick). Williams is still improving too; her stats from 2020-21 were an entire role player better than her stats from her first PoY campaign in 2018-19. It’s possible that she takes a minor hit in that department this year with IUPUI developing a classic “there’s only one basketball” problem, but she’s still the engine that drives a powerhouse Jags team.
On some level, Megan Walstad is here as a representative of her program and its tough but well-rounded defense-first ethos, and the efficient team game that philosophy requires. Walstad, however, is the headliner as a legitimate big at 6-2, but one who can also do things like shoot 30 percent from three, 50 percent from the floor, and 90 percent from the line (the latter being a big part of the Panthers’ NCAA-record team effort in that category). Oh yeah, and she was also the conference’s third-best rebounder last year behind only Williams and departed teammate Brandi Bisping. Milwaukee has reloaded well and is primed for a title run, so Walstad should flourish.
Kahlaijah Dean is as talented as anyone in the league, even to the point of possibly playing her way into Player of the Year contention, should Oakland make a surprise run (and the Golden Grizzlies have the talent to do just that). Her 17.2 points per game were good for fifth in the league, second to Williams among returning players and she offered 4.4 dimes as well. One area where she’s truly elite, however, is the ability to draw fouls – she was a top 50 player nationally in both free throws attempted and free throws made, so she’ll get the opposing stars in foul trouble and cash in the easy points as well.
Lindsey Duvall, a former Louisville player, arrived in Highland Heights last season and immediately became one of the conference’s best players. She buoyed a Northern Kentucky team through a COVID-riddled season with 17 points and 8 boards per game, and she’s the major reason why the Norse have their eyes on the top of the league. Her strength is… well, pretty much everything. After all, she was once a five-star prospect, the 17th best player in her class (per espnW) and Kentucky’s Miss Basketball, and she’s now rediscovering her full arsenal after two years of limited action with the Cardinals. That’s pretty scary if you’re not NKU.
Chelsea Olson might not be Player of the Year, but she does have a case to be the most valuable player. On a retooled Penguins roster that has a load of intriguing, high-upside newcomers, Olson remains the constant and will be relied on as a leader. She led YSU in minutes last season,has been good for 10-12 points throughout her career, and can knock down a big three, but where Olson truly excels is in the less glamorous parts of the game. She led the conference in assists last season (and in 2018-19 as well) and is one of the better defenders out there as well.
Reigning Horizon League Sixth Player of the Year Destiny Leo is likely going to be counted on to be far more than that for Cleveland State this year, given the Mariah White-sized hole at the top of the stat sheet. The good news for the Vikings is that our voters consider her to be more than up to the task. The Eastlake North High School grad is one of the conference’s best shooters, as she knocked down 2.1 three pointers per game at a 38.2 percent clip and also connected on 85 percent of her free throws. However, at 5-10 she’s also big and versatile enough to offer a commanding wing presence and drive the ball.
Rachel McLimore has sort of been Ms. Outside to Williams’ Ms. Inside for IUPUI and is certainly a more-than-worthy compliment. And while the one-time transfer from DePaul is a superb shooter (38.5 percent from three, 44.3 percent from the floor overall), she offers so much more than that. She was a member of the Horizon League’s All-Defensive Team last year accounting for 1.6 win shares for the Jags just on that end of the floor, and her ball control metrics are outstanding as well. As with Williams, it remains to be seen what IUPUI becoming even more talented will do to McLimore’s stats, but what she offers is useful anywhere.
On a UIC team that didn’t have a fantastic 2020-21, Jaida McCloud stood out as a major bright spot for the Flames with a 13.9/6.6 line. She’s a physical freak that has the skill and quickness to play as a wing, but also tremendous length and finishing ability that allows her to excel underneath. It was that latter set of attributes that became important for a Flames team where McCloud’s height (6-1) made her the co-tallest player on the roster. With newcomers Leah Yarbrough and Isabel Gonzalez possibly taking that pressure away, look for McCloud to flex her versatility a bit more.
In a classic case of some teams having all of the luck, Madison Wise dropped into IUPUI’s lap when she elected to play a final year of college basketball and do so close to home and her family, thanks in part to IUPUI offering the master’s in organizational leadership that undergrad school Iowa State didn’t. Wise averaged 6.4 points and 4.0 rebounds during her career in the Big 12 and made two trips to the NCAA Tournament, notably scoring 13 points in a first-round win over Michigan State back in March. Wise has been where the Jags want to go, and she’ll undoubtedly emerge as one of the team’s leaders and top contributors.
It’s pretty easy to write Ivy Turner off in some ways. She’s 5-4, often the smallest player on the floor, and sometimes reads as a shooting specialist, just one that happens to play most of the time. And yet, she just keeps producing and improving. She was a member of the All-Freshman Team in 2019-20, then jumped to the All-Conference Third Team last season after pumping up her three-point rate from 33.8 percent to 36.2 percent, and her scoring average from 8.8 to 11.2. Our staff thinks she has a similar leap in her this season, which could make all the difference for an NKU team looking to take the next step.
Jasmine Kondrakiewicz is one of the players who stands to benefit the most from the mild degree of turnover at Green Bay, where the departures of Caitlyn Hibner and Lyndsey Robson left Kondrakiewicz, Sydney Levy (we’ll get to her in a second), and Hailey Oskey as the three leading scorers among returning players. What makes Kondrakiewicz a little bit different is that she earned her numbers more efficiently than the other two and seemingly has more upside for what is sure to be an expanded role. Her game is similar to McCloud’s in that she has the ability to be a productive post player while also offering surprising range.
A former Milwaukee Panther who defected to archrival Green Bay, Sydney Levy re-emerged last season as a key secondary option for the Phoenix and will be among the core group counted on to transfer the program’s famed cultural continuity to an outstanding group of freshmen. She’s an effective sniper who shot nearly 40 percent from three last season and manages to ball hawk a surprising number of rebounds (4.1 per game). Levy’s defensive metrics are also very solid, and she typically stays away from fouling. Basically, she’s a Phoenix, and another strong season seems in order.
Although Robert Morris struggled during its Horizon League introduction, Sol Castro certainly didn’t. The big Argentinian, who has earned some national team duty, was one of the conference’s breakout stars in 2020-21. She became the first Colonials freshman to lead the team in scoring in 20 years, and she also led RMU in rebounds. Castro seems to have an extra gear when the competition ramps up, as evidenced by her series against Wright State last season where she poured in 43 points over the two games on 16-of-30 from the floor. With a heavily-turned-over roster in Moon Township, Castro making that extra gear her baseline is likely a must if RMU is to make a move towards the middle of the standings.
While Dean gets most of the attention on Oakland’s roster, Alona Blackwell is arguably the player who will determine whether the Grizzlies are able to turn into a team that has something to say in March at the conference tournament. Blackwell’s calling card is her shot, which tends to be streaky at times, but when she’s on, she can knock them down with anyone. However, more and more, she relies on her outstanding body control and driving ability – and she knows how to make defenders freeze trying to process the possibility of either attack. Blackwell saw her importance to Jeff Tungate grow last season and there’s no reason to think that trend won’t continue.
Shamarre Hale might be seen as something of an off-the-map selection, but it’s one that can be supported. There are the broad circumstances, of course: Wright State lost its entire coaching staff, as well as Tyler Frierson and Emani Jefferson, to Memphis, while Angel Baker headed to Ole Miss. Meanwhile, Kari Hoffman’s late hire and the slow recruiting that resulted likely means expanded roles for returners, with Hale poised to benefit significantly. Her efficiency rating last year was elite, better than Baker’s, thanks to her shooting 59 percent from the floor and averaging 5.4 and 5.4 in just 16 minutes. A small sample? Sure. But then again, she was even better in 2019-20 (8.0 on 62 percent shooting and 7.7 boards in 16.5 minutes).
Miss anything from Preview Week? Check it all out below:
IUPUI is the consensus favorite to win their second Horizon League championship in the last three seasons, according to a poll of the HoriZone Roundtable writers and podcast staff. The Jaguars, who won the title in 2019-20 but didn’t get to participate in the NCAA Tournament thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, beat out 2020-21 regular season co-champion Milwaukee for the top spot in our poll.
From there, things got pretty interesting, as what turned out to be a clearly-tiered vote began to take shape. Green Bay, Cleveland State, Oakland, and Northern Kentucky were the next four teams, although no two voters placed them in the same order. An extremely close point tally resulted – in fact, CSU, OU, NKU wound up in a three-way tie before a median-vote tiebreaker elevated the Vikings over the other two.
Youngstown State was a universal seventh-place selection, as the voters generally believe that the Penguins are a good team but hesitated to fully place YSU into the traffic jam just above them thanks to a heavy amount of roster turnover, including the transfers of leading scorers Mary Dunn and Nneka Obiazor.
As with the 3rd through 6th spots, 8th though 11th also produced a tightly-packed vote between teams that have mostly-promising futures. Proven coaches Kari Hoffman and Maria Marchesano are at the beginning of their rebuilds at Wright State and Purdue Fort Wayne, respectively. UIC once again has an extremely young team, but a deep one, while Robert Morris will once again lean heavily on Sol Castro while trying to re-generate the level of success the program experienced as an NEC member.
Detroit Mercy, which rather infamously lost its entire roster during the offseason thanks to the AnnMarie Gilbert situation, was picked to finish last.
Place
Team
1.
IUPUI
2.
Milwaukee
3.
Green Bay
4.
Cleveland State
5 (tie).
Oakland
5 (tie).
Northern Kentucky
7.
Youngstown State
8.
Wright State
9.
UIC
10.
Robert Morris
11.
Purdue Fort Wayne
12.
Detroit Mercy
It’s hard to be as good as IUPUI yet still have valid reasons to carry a large chip around, but the Jaguars are in that precise situation. Two years ago, as mentioned, they were the Horizon League champions but were unable to compete in March Madness. The Jags then finished 11-3 in the Horizon League last season, the conference’s best winning percentage, but wound up fifth in the standings thanks to a unique formula that adapted things for pandemic realities and punished game cancellations. Nevertheless, the team made it to the tournament final but were felled by red-hot Wright State.
For 2021-22, IUPUI is in full “run it back” mode with most of their stars returning for one last chance at trophies and tournaments, including three-time Player of the Year Macee Williams, all-conference selection Rachel McLimore, and underrated Destiny Perkins, a former Akron Zip. Austin Parkinson also hauled in two high-end transfers in Madison Wise (Iowa State) and Rachel Kent (Saint Louis), further cementing the team’s place as conference favorites.
One of our writers picked Milwaukee first, which is sure to raise some eyebrows, but the more you look at it, the less crazy it sounds. The Panthers have the 18th-most suffocating defense in the nation (55.7 points per game last year), set an NCAA record for team free throw percentage, and tied for the conference regular season title with Wright State, a team that ran into a rebuilding situation during the offseason. They did lose the tournament semifinal to IUPUI, but also swept the Jags during the regular season and held them to 56 points on 36 percent shooting during the tournament loss. After all of that, of course, they beat the brakes off of Drake in the WNIT, something that typically has springboard potential for the following season. They return Megan Walstad and every significant contributor beyond Brandi Bisping and Bre Cera, and also brought in a very solid freshman class. So…why not?
You can’t really blame people for being ready to move on from 20 years of Green Bay dominance in search of a new shiny object. However, while the Phoenix did suffer through a down 2020-21 (by their standards, everyone should be so lucky to consider 15-7 and third place in the conference a down year) and aren’t a front-end favorite right now, there’s really no indication that the Kevin Borseth’s crew is going anywhere. They took a couple big hits with the graduation of Caitlyn Hibner and the grad transfer of Lyndsey Robson to UAB but still have reliable Sydney Levy (a one-time Milwaukee Panther) on board, as well as players like Jasmine Kondrakiewicz who are ready to excel in expanded roles. And, by the way, Green Bay is still feeding the machine like it always has: freshmen Callie Genke, Bailey Butler, and Maddy Schreiber were the second, third, and fourth ranked players in Wisconsin.
Cleveland State might be the toughest read in the conference, with our staff picking them everywhere from third through sixth. By most measures, the Vikings have a ton of momentum. They got hot over the second half of last season, going 12-2 overall from January 23rd on including, of course, three wins and a championship at the Women’s Basketball Invitational, as well as two wins over Green Bay, a team that owned a 68-6 all-time record against CSU before those results. They play a free-flowing style, return almost everyone and brought in a strong portal class, along with athletic freshman Faith Burch.
The problem that’s giving everyone pause? The one player the Vikes did lose was Missouri State grad transfer Mariah White, who led the Horizon League in scoring and steals on the way to being first team all-conference as well as league’s Defensive Player of the Year. Newcomer Amele Ngwafang will join Nadia Dumas and Aminata Ly to give CSU one of the league’s best interiors, while Destiny Leo looks to take the reins as the go-to player.
Oakland might have the best backcourt in the conference, led by Kahlaijah Dean, a top scorer and distributor who, if the chips fall a certain way, is a darkhorse Player of the Year candidate. Dean has a perfect compliment in Alona Blackwell, a long player with double-double potential who can shoot as well, but is more of a slasher. Joining those two for this season is Aaliyah McQueen, a Flint, MI native and a former Illinois recruit who was once a three-star prospect and the 22nd-ranked wing in the class of 2020 according to Prospects Nation. The Grizzlies were already scoring and playing with a ton of pace, and they’re essentially stacking strength on strength, while Breanna Perry returns to offer balance from the post. OU has six other newcomers beyond McQueen, including Kennedie Montue, a shooter out of Robert Morris’ backyard and Miriam Ibezim, who averaged 19.5 rebounds per game over her career at Gates Chili High School in Rochester, NY.
Northern Kentucky is certainly flying under most radars right now. The Norse were absolutely crushed with COVID issues last season, and were out of action for nearly the entire month of January, ultimately finishing 7-5 in the Horizon League and losing to Wright State in the tournament quarterfinals. Still, Camryn Whitaker has a deep, high-upside team that may very well end up being in contention. It’s worth noting that NKU gave a top-ten Louisville team a very solid run in a New Year’s Day tilt immediately before their COVID pause, then emerged from it to sweep Milwaukee on the road. Former Cardinal Lindsey Duvall, arguably the conference’s most well-rounded player, is back as are sharpshooter Ivy Turner and Grayson Rose, one of the more capable bigs in the conference. Freshman point guard Kailee Davis was one of the top ten players in Michigan last year, while Trinity Thompson and Paige Hodgson were also highly rated and will supply plenty of power underneath.
The most unusual trend in our vote was Youngstown State. The Penguins are dealing with a healthy amount of uncertainty, but instead of that producing a wide range of opinions as one might expect, nearly everyone placed them seventh – ahead of the rebuilding teams, but behind all of the ones with better-documented reasons for optimism. Gone from last year’s 10-8 (9-7 HL) squad are arguably its two best players, Mary Dunn and Nneka Obiazor, who transferred to Pitt and UNLV respectively, after accounting for almost half of YSU’s points.
Preseason all-conference first team pick Chelsea Olson remains of course, and she’ll be joined by a bevy of intriguing newcomers like 6-4 Duquesne transfer Lindsey Linard, two-time DII national rebounding champ Lilly Ritz, floor leader Megan Callahan, who was poached from HL rival Robert Morris, highly-rated freshman combo guard Athena Hocevar, Farleigh Dickinson transfer Lindsey Mack, and Paige Shy, formerly of Marshall. There’s a distinct possibility that it all comes together beautifully and YSU climbs towards the top of the league but for now, “hedge” is the word.
No Horizon League team south of Detroit had a more interesting offseason than defending champion Wright State. After the Raiders topped IUPUI for the conference title and upset Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament, three-time coach of the year Katrina Merriweather left for Memphis and took her entire staff with her, along with Emani Jefferson and Tyler Frierson. Angel Baker, who generated national buzz through the postseason run, also departed, for Ole Miss. WSU eventually hired Cedarville’s Kari Hoffman as the new head coach, but not until the program went two months without anyone managing it during the key early offseason, putting the Raiders behind the eight ball. There is good news though: Hoffman is a proven winner who knows Southwest Ohio as well as anyone, and she scored an early success by pulling guard Jada Roberson back from the transfer portal. She, along with post player Shamarre Hale, will be counted on to absorb bigger roles while phase one of the rebuild plays out.
UIC is a solid futures play if you’re into that sort of thing, because the Flames remain one of the Horizon League’s youngest teams. Last season, they were led by a deep and talented freshman class headlined by breakout star Jaida McCloud, a member of the Horizon League’s All-Freshman Team last year, while Kristian Young was among the top 15 in points, rebounds, and assists…but then again, neither of them, nor the rest of a rookie group that included twins Keona and Kennady Schenck (though the latter was held out for the year) as well as Lindsey Rogers, could stop the bleeding during a 3-16 (1-13 HL) season. Still, UIC hasn’t had to absorb a ton of hits beyond that record. Lightly-used Jealissa Presswood was the team’s only senior, and Daijah Smith’s departure is old news at this point. Tasha Pointer now has another large group of newcomers on board, including East Carolina grad transfer guard Justice Gee for veteran leadership, while freshmen Leah Yarbrough and Ky Dempsey-Toney and juco arrival Isabel Gonzalez offer some much-needed size.
After enjoying life as one of the NEC’s top teams for quite a bit, Robert Morris landed in the Horizon League with a thud last season. The competition level was part of that, sure, but so was losing a stud like Nneka Ezeigbo in the middle, a departure that’s probably still impacting the roster. The Colonials then retooled around Argentina’s Sol Castro and while Castro was very good, RMU just couldn’t manage any sustained offense, ranking 301st in the nation with just 56.6 points per game. A big part of that: they didn’t get to the line (326th in free throw rate), and they also kept putting the other team there (329th in opponent free throw rate). Stats like that do offer some hope for internal improvement, as does the remaining presence of Nina Augustin, Natalie Villaflor and Esther Castedo from the NEC glory days. RMU’s always-diverse roster includes freshmen from Ohio, Delaware, Tennessee, California, Canada, England, and Spain. The Californian (guard Simone Morris) is a player to watch, as is the Ohioan (post player Danielle Vuletich).
Purdue Fort Wayne posted a dreadful 1-22 overall record in 2020-21, but did end the season trending in the right direction. After suffering six 20+ point defeats in their first ten games, the Dons gave Cleveland State all they wanted on February 13th, grabbed their win against Robert Morris a week later, and nearly upset Youngstown State in the Horizon League tournament.
None of that was enough to spare head coach Niecee Nelson, and Maria Marchesano will take over this season after leading Mount St. Mary’s to the NCAA Tournament last year. PFW isn’t ready yet, and leading scorer Sierra Bell is now at George Washington, but they do have foundational pieces in guards Riley Ott and Shayla Sellers, central figures in one of the league’s more underrated backcourts. Sylare Starks left Detroit Mercy to return to her hometown, and she averaged 10.1 points per game while being named to the Horizon League All-Freshman Team at UDM in 2019-20. The rookie class is impressive as well, headlined by Ott’s sister Ryin, along with power forward Jazzlyn Linbo and guard Amellia Bromenschenkel.
It’s not necessary to re-hash the AnnMarie Gilbert saga at this point, other than to say that Detroit Mercy losing every single player on last year’s roster from a team that was struggling last year before shutting things down, along with every coach except for now-interim head coach LaTanya Collins, sealed the Titans’ fate as our last-place team. Still, it wasn’t the stone-cold lock that it might have been in July when everyone was wondering how they would even assemble a roster relatively late in the offseason. Collins has pulled off the improbable, pulling together a well-qualified coaching staff and a roster of DI-level players, including seven transfers. That group is highlighted by former Morgan State Bear Sydney Searcy, who started her career at Florida, Janna Lewis, a promising player at NKU who could never shake the injury bug, and Tori Powell, a key contributor at UNC Greensboro. It might not be enough to collect a ton of wins this season, but getting the program back on its feet so quickly is a heroic accomplishment.
Miss anything from Preview Week? Check it all out below:
This year, there might be more firepower than ever
For the second year in a row, I’m picking players who could make up an All-Newcomer team if the Horizon League still had one. My picks last year were a mixed bag. Jalen Moore was the obvious standout; he led the nation in assists on his way to being a First Team All-League pick and unanimous selection to the HoriZone Roundtable All-League team. Teyvion Kirk earned a spot on our All-League team as well, while D’Moi Hodge put up a good enough season that we’ve got All-League expectations for him in year two. Despite prior Division I success, Taurean Thompson and Carlos Hines didn’t pan out in the league. On the flipside, Marques Warrick proved me wrong and earned All-League honors as a freshman, Bul Kuol stayed healthy and had a massive breakout season as a fifth year senior, and DeAndre Gholston went from being the third leading scorer on a stacked Junior College team to an All-League caliber player for Milwaukee.
On paper this year’s top contenders look even stronger than last year’s, which nearly produced an entire lineup of All-League picks. The league’s highest rated high school commitment of all time is joined by two 2021 All-NEC picks and three Power Conference transfers who have averaged double-digit scoring in the past. Without even considering Junior College recruits and under-the-radar freshmen poised to be this year’s Amari Davis or Marques Warrick, there are more potential All-League newcomers than there are spots in the lineup. After two years of writing articles about the lack of newcomers on All-League teams our voters finally came through and put a pair of the players listed below on our All-League team, and I still have to wonder if we’ve missed some obvious candidates.
Here’s a look at who would be the early season favorites for an All-Newcomer team if it still existed:
Patrick Baldwin Jr., F, Milwaukee – Patrick Baldwin Jr. comes to the Horizon League as a consensus Top 10 recruit nationally even after suffering a season-ending injury in his senior year of high school. He is by far the highest rated high school recruit to commit to a Horizon League school, and is currently projected to be a Top 20 selection in the 2022 NBA Draft. If he lives up to the hype he could be a Gordon Hayward-caliber player in the league, albeit without the same caliber supporting cast. He single-handedly changes the projected trajectory of last year’s 8-seed Milwaukee into a league title contender, and he should be considered a strong candidate for Horizon League Player of the Year without ever playing a game of college basketball. It shouldn’t be a surprise that we selected him to be a Preseason First Team All-Horizon League pick. Even though there technically wasn’t a vote on this imaginary award, we’ll call Baldwin Jr. our projected Newcomer of the Year.
Jamal Cain, F, Oakland – Cain comes to the Horizon League as a transfer from Marquette, a school that has already produced a transfer who became a Horizon League star in Green Bay’s Sandy Cohen. Cain has the potential to be a similarly high-impact player despite having just the offseason to learn OU’s system. In his final full season at Marquette, the sophomore Cohen averaged 5.9 points and 3.2 rebounds per game; Cain averaged 9.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game with the Golden Eagles last year. The 6-foot-8 forward has hit 37.7 percent of his 3-point shots over four years at Marquette while taking nearly half of his attempts from beyond the arc. All signs point to Cain being an instant high-impact player, and if Cohen’s experience is any indication a potential Horizon League star.
Damian Chong Qui, G, Purdue Fort Wayne – Chong Qui joins Baldwin Jr. as a HoriZone Roundtable Preseason All-Horizon League pick before ever playing a game for a league school, and he’s there for good reason. The 5-foot-8 guard was First Team All-NEC at Mount Saint Mary’s last year and led the team with 15.1 points and 5.3 assists per game. He helped the Mountaineers to an NEC Tournament title and led the team with 14 points in an opening round NCAA Tournament loss to Texas Southern. Recent players to earn All-Conference honors the year before coming to the Horizon League like Jarred Godfrey and A.J. Bramah have gone on to be stars here. Despite the transfer making for slightly different circumstances, don’t expect Chong Qui to be an exception.
Rasheem Dunn, G, Robert Morris – . Dunn’s path to Robert Morris has been an interesting one. He started his career with RMU’s then-Northeast Conference rival St. Francis Brooklyn, where he was named to the 2017 NEC All-Rookie Team and 2018 Second Team All-NEC. He then transferred to the Horizon League to play at Cleveland State, but left without playing a game following Dennis Felton’s firing. He spent the last two seasons at St. John’s, where he averaged 10.8 points and 3.7 assists while starting 32 of the 51 games he played in. A potential thorn in the side of Dunn’s All-League candidacy is a third former NEC star to take home hardware before coming to the Horizon League. Michael Green III announced his transfer to RMU this offseason. Green averaged 16 points, 3.7 assists and 3.7 rebounds to earn Third Team All-NEC honors in his sophomore year at Bryant. He could be an excellent candidate for this list, except for the fact that RMU might struggle to finish in the top half of the league. Dunn and Green may end up in a similar situation as Te’Jon Lucas and DeAndre Gholston did at Milwaukee last year, where both were very good individually but the team success didn’t support two All-League players.
D.J. Harvey, F, Detroit Mercy – Harvey joins Detroit Mercy after spending last season at Vanderbilt. He averaged 6.3 points and 2.8 rebounds per game at the SEC school, which would make him a good candidate in its own right. What’s more intriguing for Titan fans are the 10.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game he averaged as a sophomore at Notre Dame before transferring to Vandy. On paper, Harvey should fit in well in the role Bul Kuol had last year as a second scoring option behind Antoine Davis. If he can get back to the type of player he looked like he was on his way to being as a sophomore, he could be in for a special season. But even if he doesn’t, he should enter this year at Detroit Mercy on the All-League watchlist.
Miss anything from Preview Week? Check it all out below:
Before we get going, I’m not going to commit to this being a yearly thing going forward. Picking Horizon League Preseason Awards is going to quickly turn into a mess, and the only reason I’m doing it this year is that a number of the choices are either already voted on or extremely obvious. Others are really strange to try to pick, and I’m not going to try to run off our writers by asking them to vote in this nonsense.
So with that disclaimer out of the way, here are the HoriZone Roundtable Preseason Men’s Basketball awards picks:
Player of the Year: Antoine Davis, G, Detroit Mercy
The first award is the only one that our staff deliberately votes on. Davis was selected as our overwhelming pick for Player of the Year in the preseason poll voted on by our writers and podcast staff. The 6-foot-1 senior guard finished his junior year second in the nation behind March Madness darling Max Abmas of Oral Roberts with 24.0 points per game. In addition to his scoring, Davis led the Titans in assists (4.8 per game) and steals (1.5 per game) last season. He bounced back beautifully after his 3-point shooting slumped into inefficient territory as a sophomore by knocking down 37.2 percent of his 3-pointers while attempting over 10 per game.
The main thing holding Davis back last year was overall team success. The Titans went just 10-6 in Horizon League play, starting 0-4 before figuring things out late in the season. The Wright State team that Loudon Love – Horizon League Player of the Year as picked both HoriZone Roundtable and the league itself – played for didn’t lose its fourth league game until the final weekend of the regular season.
Coach of the Year: Pat Baldwin Sr., Milwaukee
We’ve already arrived at the part of this article where I’ll have to make a compelling argument, and the reason that doing preseason awards is so weird. Normally, Coach of the Year would either be the coach of the league champion or the one who overachieved the most. Last year, both of those boxes were arguably checked when Dennis Gates led Cleveland State to a share of the Horizon League Regular Season Championship. The year before, both boxes were checked when Gates’ CSU team drastically overachieved and got him a share of the award alongside Scott Nagy of Horizon League Regular Season Champion Wright State.
In this situation, we obviously don’t have access to end-of-season results. With every other team projected for the top half of the league being picked right around where they finished last year, there isn’t an obvious pick among them. In order to pull off the three-peat, Gates might need to go nearly undefeated in Horizon League play, or at least to win the league by a wide margin. As much as our voters liked the Vikings, I don’t think many of us would project that level of dominance for them.
With that in mind, Milwaukee would be the only team we project for a finish in the top half of the league to make a significant jump from last season’s results. Regardless of the extenuating circumstances that his son is a projected one-and-done recruit who chose to play for Milwaukee, Baldwin has the best Coach of the Year argument if things play out the way we project them to.
Freshman of the Year: Patrick Baldwin Jr., Milwaukee
While Freshman of the Year isn’t technically an award that’s voted on by our staff, Baldwin Jr. may as well have been a staff pick. The composite seventh ranked recruit on 247 Sports was a unanimous pick to our Preseason All-League First Team, while no other freshman appeared on a single ballot. Baldwin Jr. finished second overall in the vote behind Davis, and if he lives up to the hype he could easily claim Player of the Year honors at the end of the season.
Baldwin Jr. was selected as a McDonald’s All-American even after his senior season was cut short by injury. Over the offseason, he was selected to participate for Team USA in the FIBA U-19 World Cup. Team USA went 7-0 to secure the gold medal, with Baldwin Jr. averaging 7.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.
Defensive Player of the Year: Tre Gomillion, Cleveland State
At the end of the year, defensive recognition tends to be the hardest to figure out. I’ll generally try not to lean too heavily on statistics — particularly counting stats like steals and blocks — when I’m making my selections. It results in a lot of re-watches and a lot of extra work.
Fortunately, this isn’t an end-of-year vote and I can make the obvious pick. Last year’s Defensive Player of the Year is returning to the Horizon League, and with no new information since he last won the award I’ll be selecting him to repeat. Gomillion wasn’t the HoriZone Roundtable pick for 2021 Defensive Player of the Year, but he was one of several players — including our pick Torrey Patton and another Viking — who were in consideration right until the final votes were cast. Gomillion’s defense likely played a role in our voters selecting him to our Preseason Third Team All-Horizon League.
Sixth Player of the Year: Deonte Billups, Purdue Fort Wayne
Following Demetric Horton’s decision to transfer to North Carolina A&T, it looked like Deonte Billups had a great shot to earn an unquestioned starting spot for Purdue Fort Wayne. Billups was a memeber of the 2020 Summit League All-Newcomer team and last year averaged 8.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. After the Mastodons added Mount Saint Mary’s transfer Damian Chong Qui, it seems like the most likely outcome is that Billups will slide to the bench as the 2021 All-NEC first teamer joins PFW’s starting lineup. The 6-foot-4 guard should still have ample opportunity to continue to produce for the Mastodons, so don’t be surprised if he’s taking home some hardware at the end of the season.
Miss anything from Preview Week? Check it all out below:
Davis picked POTY, Baldwin Jr. our first Preseason All-League freshman
Antoine Davis is the HoriZone Roundtable pick to win Horizon League Player of the Year in a poll of our writers and podcast staff. The senior finished 2021 second in the nation in scoring with 24.0 points per game. He’s joined on the first team by returning All-League players Torrey Patton, Jalen Moore and Grant Basile as well as highly touted freshman Patrick Baldwin Jr.
The rest of the returning 2021 All-League picks — Wright State’s Tanner Holden, Northern Kentucky’s Trevon Faulkner and Marques Warrick, and Purdue Fort Wayne’s Jarred Godfrey — are joined by Milwaukee guard DeAndre Gholston on our second team. Holden is the lone player who wasn’t a First Team selection to be unanimously selected to one of the top two teams on every ballot.
After seeing only Patton selected All-League at the end of 2021, our projected 2022 Horizon League Champion Cleveland State is projected to have three players make the team this year as both Tre Gomillion and D’Moi Hodge were selected for the third team. Also earning Third Team Preseason honors are Youngstown State’s Shemar Rathan-Mayes, UIC’s Michael Diggins and Purdue Fort Wayne’s Damian Chong-Qui. Chong Qui is the first player to be selected to the HoriZone Roundtable Preseason All-League team in his first year after transferring in from another NCAA program.
HoriZone Roundtable Preseason All-League Teams:
First Team
Second Team
Third Team
*Antoine Davis, G, Detroit Mercy (SR)
Tanner Holden, G/F, Wright St. (JR)
Tre Gomillion, G, Cleveland St.
Patrick Baldwin Jr., F, Milwaukee (FR)
Trevon Faulkner, G, NKU (SR)
D’Moi Hodge, G, Cleveland St.
Torrey Patton, F, Cleveland St. (SR)
Jarred Godfrey, G, PFW (SR)
Shemar Rathan-Mayes, G, YSU
Grant Basile, F, Wright St. (JR)
DeAndre Gholston, G, Milwaukee (SR)
Michael Diggins, F, UIC
Jalen Moore, G, Oakland (SR)
Marques Warrick, G, NKU (SO)
Damian Chong Qui, G, PFW
*HoriZone Roundtable Preseason Player of the Year
Antoine Davis was the only player other than our pick Loudon Love to earn a vote for Player of the Year on our Postseason All-League Team in 2021, so it’s no surprise that he’s the overwhelming pick to win the award in 2022. Barring injury, Davis should be able to score the 279 points needed to become Detroit Mercy’s all-time scoring leader fairly early in the season. In addition to being far and away the Horizon League’s top returning scorer, he’s second among returnees in assists (4.8 per game) and sixth in steals (1.45 per game).
Patrick Baldwin Jr. became the highest-rated high school recruit ever to commit to a Horizon League school when he chose to play for his father at Milwaukee over Duke and several other prestigious suitors. The 6-foot-9 freshman wing ranked seventh nationally in the final 247 Composite Ranking thanks in large part due to his size and skillset. The freshman — who is widely projected to be a Top 20 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft — is far and away the biggest reason for Milwaukee’s jump from last year’s eighth place finish to a third place projection in the HoriZone Roundtable Preseason Poll.
Torrey Patton earned First Team All-Horizon League honors in 2021 after starring for Horizon League Regular Season co-Champion Cleveland State. With CSU picked to repeat as regular season champion, it’s not a surprise to see the 6-foot-5 senior tabbed for First Team honors once again. Patton led the Vikings in points (14.7 per game) and rebounds (8.0 per game) last season.
Grant Basile‘s jump to our Preseason First Team might come as a bit of a surprise given that he’s effectively taking the spot over Tanner Holden. Holden was arguably Wright State’s best player for a good stretch of last year on his way to being selected to our Second Team All-League, while Basile was a third teamer. The most likely explanation for Basile’s jump is that our voters anticipate Wright State to continue to run largely through the post despite having one less dominant post player. Basile clearly has the talent to make the first team, but the choice between him and Holden might come down to strategy in WSU’s post-Love era.
Jalen Moore — like Antoine Davis and Torrey Patton — earned First Team All-Horizon League honors at the end of 2021, so it’s not surprising that he has been selected to repeat that feat this year. The 5-foot-11 guard led the nation with 8.4 assists, nearly a full assist per game more than anyone in Division I. He added a team-leading 17.9 points and 1.7 steals per game. With traditional half-court post player Daniel Oladapo transferring out of the program and the more perimeter-oriented Jamal Cain transferring in, don’t be surprised if Moore repeats as the national assist leader this year. A potential increase in tempo could even have him flirting with double digit assists per game.
Tanner Holden didn’t get the natural bump up to our First Team All-League this preseason, but it was close enough that I don’t think any voters would be surprised if he found himself there at the end of the year. Up until a late-season slump, Holden was the Raiders’ scoring leader. Despite that slump, he finished the year second on the team in scoring (15.8 per game) and rebounding (7.3 per game). If Scott Nagy opts for a more perimeter-oriented approach this season it could be Holden who finds himself on the league’s First Team, and depending on how the standings shake out, in the running for Player of the Year.
Trevon Faulkner was selected Second Team All-League a season ago despite somewhat struggles with efficiency because he brought a little bit (and frequently a lot) of everything to the table for the Norse. He led one of the better teams in the Horizon League in scoring (16.7 per game) and steals (1.5 per game) while finishing second on the team in rebounding (5.7 per game) and assists (2.5 per game).
Jarred Godfrey earned Second Team All-League honors in 2021 after leading Purdue Fort Wayne in scoring (16.2 per game), rebounds (5.4 per game), assists (3.8 per game) and steals (1.6 per game). Godfrey might not have to carry as much of the workload this year, as the Mastodons added 2021 First Team All-NEC guard Damian Chong Qui through the transfer portal. While Godfrey obviously performed well as the team’s primary ballhandler, focusing on creating his own shot could make him an even more dangerous player this season.
DeAndre Gholston had a strong case to make the All-League team last season after leading Milwaukee in scoring (16.8 points per game), but ended up being left off of both the HoriZone Rountable’s teams and the Horizon League’s official teams. The most likely explanations for that are that Gholston played for the league’s eighth place finisher Milwaukee and split votes with Te’Jon Lucas, who snuck onto the Horizon League’s official All-League Third Team. Patrick Baldwin Jr. is expected to bring the Panthers a big boost in the standings, and in the process could open things up for Gholston by taking up so much of the defense’s focus. With increased team success, Gholston’s production last year would’ve made him a clearcut All-League pick.
Marques Warrick rolled to the 2021 Horizon League Freshman of the Year award and a spot on both the HoriZone Roundtable and Horizon League Third Team All-League. Warrick averaged 15.8 points per game while hitting shots with excellent efficiency. A major reason we’re expecting bigger things from Warrick in 2022 is that where the previous runaway Freshman of the Year Amari Davis seemed to hit the freshman wall, Warrick kept getting better. If that continues and he’s able to make himself the primary offensive option on a team that features another Second Team All-League pick at guard, it’s easy to see him finishing the year picked as one of the league’s Top 10 players.
Tre Gomillion‘s stats from last year don’t pop off of the page like some of the other players on this list, but the 2021 Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year was a key part of Cleveland State’s jump to Horizon League Champion. In addition to his outstanding defense, Gomillion was among the team’s leaders in points (10.3 per game), rebounds (5.0 per game) and assists (2.4 per game).
D’Moi Hodge proved his 25.2 point per game scoring average at the State College of Florida was no fluke when he hit a Cleveland State record 10 3-pointers in a 46-point outing in a win over Purdue Fort Wayne last season. Now our voters expect him to take another step to become an All-League performer in 2022. The 6-foot-4 wing averaged 10.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and a team-leading 1.7 steals per game last year.
Shemar Rathan-Mayes should have ample opportunity to step into a bigger role for Youngstown State as a sophomore. The 2021 Horizon League All-Freshman Team pick averaged 10.4 points and 3.5 assists per game last season. He’ll have a chance to dramatically increase those numbers following the departure of previous All-Horizon League picks Darius Quisenberry and Naz Bohannon. While there was some indecisiveness about who our voters thought would take over as YSU’s go-to-guy, Rathan-Mayes wound up the clear favorite.
Michael Diggins opted to return for another season at UIC after finishing second on the team last year in scoring (10.8 per game) and rebounding (5.9 per game). With all-everything guard Teyvion Kirk gone, Diggins should be positioned to step into the go-to role for the Flames. In addition to his scoring and rebounding, the 6-foot-8 forward is second among returning players in terms of assists (2.1 per game) and steals (0.6) and led last year’s squad in blocks (0.8 per game).
Damian Chong Qui snuck his way onto our All-League team a season after earning First Team All-NEC honors and leading Mount Saint Mary’s to the NCAA Tournament last year. The 5-foot-8 guard led the Mountaineers with 15.1 points per game, and led the entire NEC with 5.5 assists per game while also maintaining the best assist-to-turnover ratio of the league’s Top 15 distributors. He also tallied a surprising 4.2 rebounds per game for the Mountaineers.
Miss anything from Preview Week? Check it all out below:
Cleveland State has been selected to repeat as Horizon League champion in a poll of HoriZone Roundtable writers and podcast staff. The Vikings bring back virtually all of last season’s rotation that shared the Horizon League Regular Season Title and won the league tournament, and the team added multiple players likely to be worked into prominent spots in the rotation.
Fellow regular season co-champion Wright State was picked second despite the graduation of two-time Horizon League Player of the Year Loudon Love. The addition of five-star recruit Patrick Baldwin Jr. vaulted last year’s eighth place finisher Milwaukee to third in the HoriZone Roundtable projections, narrowly beating out Detroit Mercy and its own Player of the Year candidate Antoine Davis. With all five starters returning and a host of promising newcomers, Northern Kentucky was picked for fifth. Oakland and 2021 All-Horizon League First Team guard Jalen Moore round out the top half.
Purdue Fort Wayne is another team projected to make a jump in 2022, thanks in part to the addition of former Mount Saint Mary’s standout Damian Chong Qui. Youngstown State lost stars Naz Bohannon and Darius Quisenberry to the transfer portal but added a number of experienced college players, which proved enough to convince voters the Penguins aren’t destined for the league’s cellar. Last year’s last-place finisher Robert Morris added multiple strong transfers and is projected to finish tenth in the school’s second year in the Horizon League. Green Bay suffered massive roster turnover following Will Ryan’s first season as coach, and is projected for eleventh. IUPUI wraps up the rankings following the departure of stars Marcus Burk, Jaylen Minnett and Elyjah Goss.
Place
Team
1
Cleveland State
2
Wright State
3
Milwaukee
4
Detroit Mercy
5
Northern Kentucky
6
Oakland
7
Purdue Fort Wayne
8
Youngstown State
9
UIC
10
Robert Morris
11
Green Bay
12
IUPUI
Cleveland State is our pick to win the Horizon League after the Vikings lost just one rotation player from last year’s Horizon League regular season and postseason champion. First Team All-League wing Torrey Patton leads a deep and talented group that could be even better this year than last. The question this season may be about how CSU will fit experienced newcomers like Broc Finstuen (Pacific), Nathaniel Jack (Florida State) and Anderson Mirambeaux (Trinity Valley Community College) into its already deep rotation.
Wright State lost the two-time defending Horizon League Player of the Year, but following a breakout year from Grant Basile the Raiders may pick up right where they left off. After erupting into an All-League player last year, Basile and teammate Tanner Holden could both be in the running for Horizon League Player of the Year with Love in the professional ranks. Former Milwaukee forward CJ Wilbourn will be one of several players vying to fill Love’s spot in the lineup.
Milwaukee makes a giant leap in the projected standings thanks to the addition of Top 10 recruit Patrick Baldwin Jr. The league’s highest ranked high school recruit ever has the potential to be the Horizon League Player of the Year in his first (and likely only) year on campus. Baldwin and returning All-League candidate DeAndre Gholston give the Panthers an excellent 1-2 punch of perimeter scorers with great size. Replacing transfer Te’Jon Lucas will pose the biggest problem for Milwaukee making a significant jump with Baldwin, as the two-time All-League performer ate major minutes at point guard over the last two seasons.
Detroit Mercy has Antoine Davis back for at least one more season, and the team will likely go as far as he can take them. For the second year in a row, he should have some nice supporting pieces. Noah Waterman showed significant potential in his first full season of NCAA basketball, and could be poised to make a big jump in 2022. The Titans need to figure out how to replace All-League wing Bul Kuol, but transfer D.J. Harvey — a spot-starter at Vanderbilt last season — looks like he has the potential to do just that.
Northern Kentucky has something in common with each of the top two teams in the HoriZone Roundtable poll. Like Cleveland State, the Norse return five players with extensive starting experience from last year’s team. Like Wright State, NKU has an ex-Horizon League rival transferring in and looking to take a spot in the starting lineup. Despite all the returning starters, former Detroit Mercy forward Chris Brandon seems likely to have a chance to break into NKU’s starting lineup alongside All-League performers Marques Warrick and Trevon Faulkner, point guard Bryson Langdon and big man Adrian Nelson.
Oakland brings back the 2021 NCAA assist leader Jalen Moore, who may be in a position to post even higher totals this year. Former Marquette wing Jamal Cain — who averaged 9.6 points per game last year — transferred into the program while Daniel Oladapo left for Pittsburgh. As a result, the Golden Grizzlies’ most talented lineup might be one without a single traditional post player. If forward Chris Conway isn’t ready for a large role this season, last year’s 50th ranked team in terms of Pace of Play may need to do even more running.
Purdue Fort Wayne returns four starters from last year’s Horizon League Tournament 10-seed that took eventual tournament champion Cleveland State to triple overtime. More than just returning talent, the optimism for All-League guard Jarred Godfrey and the Mastodons stems from the addition of Mount Saint Mary’s guard Damian Chong Qui. Chong Qui was a First Team All-NEC selection in 2021 after leading the conference tournament champions in scoring and assists. Chong Qui’s addition will allow Godfrey to play off-ball and focus more on creating his own shot.
Youngstown State is our highest projected of several teams that were hit hard by the transfer portal, losing 2021 HoriZone Roundtable First Team All-League forward Naz Bohannon to Clemson and 2020 All-League guard Darius Quisenberry to Fordham. To replace the team’s two departing stars, it added several NCAA Transfers, some from Division I and others from lower divisions. Expect Division I transfers Dwayne Cohill (Dayton) and Chris Shelton (Hampton) as well as lower level transfers like Tevin Olison (Cumberlands – NAIA) and Collen Gurley (Mount Union) to fight for minutes right away. While losing two stars is tough to overcome, our voters expect the combination of experienced transfers and promising young talent from last year to keep the Penguins from falling too far in the standings.
UIC struggled in Luke Yaklich’s first year at the helm, battling COVID-19 related issues with a roster full of new players on its way to an eleventh place finish in the Horizon League. Leading scorer Teyvion Kirk and starter Rob Howard are gone, but most of the rotation returns. Look for Michael Diggins, Mo Commander and a number of incoming transfers to work to replace the departing starters’ production this season.
Robert Morris had a rough first season in the Horizon League, finishing in last place and losing leading scorer and rebounder AJ Bramah to the transfer portal before the end of the regular season. After multiple offseason departures, it seemed possible that the Colonials would retain that bottom spot in projections for this year. But following the additions of Rasheem Dunn from St. John’s and All-NEC guard Michael Green III from Bryant it looks like RMU might have one unit that’s actually much stronger than last year. Size will still present problems for the Colonials, but a last place finish seems less likely.
Green Bay avoided a complete overhaul of the roster in 2020 after Linc Darner’s uptempo system was replaced by Will Ryan’s more defensive-minded and methodical one, but after a seventh place finish in Ryan’s first year that overhaul is here. Eight players — including All-League guard Amari Davis — are leaving and the Phoenix have entered a complete rebuild. Expect Manny Ansong — who followed Ryan to Green Bay from Wheeling University — to be one of the go-to players for the Phoenix this year.
IUPUI‘s key to victories for the last two years has been to lean heavily on Marcus Burk, Jaylen Minnett and Elyjah Goss. With Goss and Burk pursuing professional opportunities and Minnett transferring to Missouri State, first year head coach Matt Crenshaw will have to put together an entirely new strategy for the Jaguars this season. Former Detroit Mercy guard B.J. Maxwell is one of several newcomers who could feature prominently into IUPUI’s plans this season.
Miss anything from Preview Week? Check it all out below:
Alec Kwait and Kyle Rossi record live from Cleveland State’s VIKEtober basketball showcase, where they spoke with men’s basketball coach Dennis Gates, women’s basketball coach Chris Kielsmeier, and players Torrey Patton, Destiny Leo, Tre Gomillion and Amele Ngwafang.
Bob and Matt are joined by the play-by-play voices for the television and radio broadcasts of teams around the Horizon League. They discuss their individual teams, as well as some topics that affect the entire conference. Guest include:
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
