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HoriZone Roundtable Interview: Macee Williams

Kyle Rossi
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HoriZone Roundtable Interview: Macee Williams

I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with IUPUI living legend Macee Williams on Friday, and she ran down all things Jags for us, including the team’s offseason additions after a COVID-affected 2020-21, IUPUI’s quest to finally play in (and not just win a bid to) the NCAA Tournament, and the team’s veterans’ decision to run it back for one last season. She also got into her experiences with NIL and even humored my question about her lofty place in the history of the Horizon League.

HoriZone Roundtable: Joining me today is someone who really doesn’t need an introduction anywhere in Horizon League women’s basketball, so let’s just get to it. She’s a three-time conference player of the year, she’s quite possibly the conference GOAT, she’s IUPUI’s Macee Williams. Macee, thanks for doing this. How are you today?

Macee Williams: Thank you. Thanks for having me and I am doing well. Thank you.

HZ: So you’re basically coming straight out of practice, right?

MW: Yes, I am.

HZ: How’s preseason been going for you guys?

MW: Practice has been fun. We have quite a few freshmen, a couple new transfers, so it’s just for them, it’s a new process. So just coming in to practice each day with good energy, just being the best leader I can on the court and off the court and just helping the newbies out, and stuff like that. It’s been going pretty well.

HZ: Now I called you the Horizon League’s possible GOAT a minute ago. Obviously you’re doing some unprecedented things in the conference. I don’t think it’s a huge spoiler to say that you’re going to be our consensus preseason player of the year yet again. I know you have the rest of your life to think about this stuff and it’s not really in the athlete’s mindset to do things like that, but are you at all aware of like the lofty place you occupy in the history of the Horizon League?

MW: I mean…Coach [Austin Parkinson], we talk about it here and there. It’s a big deal, but I don’t really like to focus on all that stuff because I feel like just personally myself, I’m more of a team player and I’d rather get the bigger goal at the end than the player of the year, but just having all the hype from the whole team and Coach P, I don’t like getting that to my head, but I kind of know what I’m capable of.

HZ: Right. Fair enough. I didn’t expect you to say, “Yep, I’m the best player ever!” Let’s go back to last year for a second, obviously a weird year for everyone. It seemed like you guys were affected by the pandemic more than most, you actually had the best winning percentage in the league, but instead of being the regular season champs, you were the fifth seed, that weird formula that they had going on that punished the cancellations and everything. Is that something that motivates you going forward or you just want to be like everyone else and forget last year ever happened?

MW: Like for everyone last year was just a crazy time, but it is a little bit of motivation for us. Just we know what we’re capable of and as a team, and the coaches we harp on doing all the correct stuff. Like I said, we know what we’re capable of and we can get there once again. It’s just coming in today, in practice every day. It starts there, just making sure we do the right stuff and stuff like that.

HZ: Cool. You mentioned some of the newcomers a minute ago. You have that great team and you’re all just like, “Okay, let’s bring everyone back and for fun, we’ll add a Big 12 rotation player, Madison Wise. You have another nice looking transfer, Rachel Kent from Saint Louis. How’s the process been of working them into what’s already a pretty well-established machine you guys have going there?

MW: They’ve been doing really well, they already have experience in the college basketball world, so it’s just kind of nice. They know what it takes to be a championship team, so for them, I’m sure their brain is going so fast trying to remember all of the plays and all the defensive stuff and just coming from a different school. But they have been doing really well. I mean, they’re great. They’re a great group of girls and they’re really nice and sweet and both of them are just super good. So it’s nice to have two new aspects to our team. They know what they’re capable of and it’s nice to have two new girls like that. One is, she’s a lights-out shooter and the other one just does about anything, so it’s nice.

HZ: Any the freshmen you want to hype up? I mean, we don’t really get to hear about these guys until they actually step on the floor in a college game. And when we see some of the scouting reports and things like that, but don’t really know a ton about them. So who’s looking good for your freshman there?

MW: They’re all looking really well. I know it’s it’s a huge transition coming from high school to college, but I they’ve been doing really well in practice too. They’re going to mess up. It’s just knowing that if you mess up, you have to keep playing forward. We have Jacquel [Bronaugh], she’s a five and she’s really strong down in the post. Once she figures out her own body, she’s going to be really good. We’ve got Logan [Lewis], she’s a really good driver, a shooter and then Tyra [Ford], she’s a good shooter too. It’s just nice to know we have those three and then we also have Nakaih [Hunter], she will be a four and she’s pretty nice too. All of them are all solid players and it’s just nice to know they’re going to be good assets to the team once they get that experience. And once they figure out IUPUI, what we do.

HZ: Jacquel is from Dayton there, you got her away from the Wright State, eh?

MW: …yeah.

HZ: Another addition you guys had came on the coaching staff with Holly Hoopingarner, love that name so much, by the way. She came back from Florida. Is it at least a little weird to have someone you were playing with literally just two years ago now as one of your coaches?

MW: We kind of talked about it. It was a little weird in the beginning. It’s like I played with her, but she has such a good relationship with everyone on the team. And she was so good her senior year, just being the leadership. She was basically a coach when she was a senior. So it’s just nice to know, she knows what we go through, what we went through to get to that championship level. And she knows Coach P’s rules. She helps all of us in the defense and she’s a point guard herself. So she helps Dez, Trinity, JC and all the other point guards on the team. It was a little weird in the beginning, but it’s good for us.

HZ: Right. I think she was a smart player, right? She has that relatability while still adding something there on the staff.

MW: Yes.

HZ: Shifting gears for a second, you guys took some absolutely huge swings in your non-conference schedule, so did Milwaukee. I think it’s really kind of nice for the league when the top teams are the ones taking those shots, but really how excited are you to show what you have against the likes of Naz Hillmon and Caitlin Clark? Not to mention those great teams that they play on?

MW: Yeah, I’m excited. The whole team’s excited. IUPUI is a mid-major, so it’s kind of nice to know we can keep up with all of the bigger schools. I mean, we’re excited.

HZ: I’m definitely going to be clearing my schedule. I know Milwaukee has Florida State and Wisconsin I think. I think one of you guys are going to chip off one of those games. I feel good about that.

MW: Yeah, I mean, we’re all excited.

HZ: Now one thing that a lot of people wanted me to ask is, you signed on with Barstool Athletes once the NIL stuff opened up over the summer. I think most of us are seeing tons and tons of college athletes doing that. And we’re all kind of like, “What does that even mean?” So give us an idea what all is involved with Barstool?

MW: I know with Barstool, I think all you really get is just free gear. But I signed up with, what is it? Liquid IV. And pretty much you just get the free liquid IV powder stuff to put in your drinks, but you just promote their brand and they give you like a discount name, like they give you your own discount. So you can send it out to other people and you can get I think it’s like 10 percent from if they use your discount code. So it’s kind of just nice being able to use your name, but you also help out the brand.

HZ: Right. Is that exposure maybe led to additional NIL stuff? Is there anything in the works you’re able to tell us about right now? I know our staff love supporting everyone’s NIL projects and things like that.

MW: Yeah. It kind of just opened up a new area. I’m learning stuff every day. With the NIL stuff itself, yeah it kind of opened up. I think my first one was the [BODYARMOR], and that was my first one. It kind of just opened up a new whole thing, but I still get like the messages on Instagram, like fake accounts. So just to be aware for other athletes, just be aware of the fake accounts, make sure you don’t sign up for something that’s not real and they take your money and your credit card information. It’s a whole process.

HZ: Instagram is just riddled with stuff like that, it’s crazy.

MW: Yeah.

HZ: Now we’ve been talking about IUPUI as one of the top teams in the league for the entire time that you guys have been in the league really. And certainly for your whole career. One thing you haven’t done yet though, is play the NCAA Tournament. Obviously you guys won the [league] title in 2020, and it was canceled of course with the pandemic and everything. How much does it mean you to finally have that chance to play in what I’m actually now allowed to call March Madness on the women’s side?

MW: Yeah! It means a lot. The year we won the championship, it was such a heartbreaker. And then last year, we were so close, so each year it’s just a little motivation and this is my last year, so I definitely want to lay out everything on the line that we’ve got and amp up the newcomers, the people behind us, behind me and the other grades just kind of like, “Hey, this is all we got left.” I know we can get there. We didn’t lose that many aspects to the team, just having a COVID year and just having the same people, but we brought in some new people. We know that we can get there again, it’s just having the effort and coming in each day at a time, ready to go and working on the stuff we need.

HZ: I’m sure you’ve had some offers to play pro if you wanted to go that route, but you and the rest of your teammates chose to run it back instead. Was the tournament part of the motivation for that? Or was it something else?

MW: Yeah, it was kind of the tournament itself. And I want to get to the NCAA Tournament so bad, so I feel like I made up my mind a long time ago. And just because I want to play professional, just because of COVID, I didn’t get to work on a bunch of stuff that I wanted to, to make my WNBA ranking better. So having the fifth year really helped me out.

HZ: Right. Well, if nothing else, I love that we’ll get one more chance to enjoy what should be an absolutely loaded squad down there in Indy this year. Good luck to you guys this season. Definitely looking forward to seeing you in person, obviously against CSU, but I’m already trying to work at least one other trip in there to be honest, I was kind of looking at your schedule. I think I might be able to make up to Oakland but we’ll see. But thanks so much for doing this Macee, we really appreciate it!

MW: Yes, of course! Thank you for having me.

Feeling ’22s, Part II

Kyle Rossi
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Feeling ’22s, Part II

Second in a series looking at Horizon League women’s basketball’s committed players for 2022 (Part I)

Brianna Wooldridge (IUPUI)

Height: 6-1, Position: F, High School: Fremd HS (IL), Commit Date: August 31, 2021

With Teresa Maggio and Jessica Carrothers (both covered in Part I) already in the fold, nobody in the Horizon League is out-recruiting IUPUI right now. Now, Austin Parkinson appears to have another gem on his hands in Wooldridge, the sixth-ranked 2022 in Illinois.

It’s hard to not look at her and see the Jags’ staff keeping an eye on their future roster. Stop me if this sounds at least a little bit like someone else affiliated with the program: “Wooldridge is a powerful forward who is tough to contain in the lane. She is strong with great athleticism and creates mismatches with her ability to handle the ball on the perimeter and attack the paint. Brianna is a dominant rebounder on both ends and has proven she can knock down free throws consistently.”

Wooldridge’s stock was probably hurt a bit by her missing the summer AAU season due to injury, and she’s also bounced back and forth between Fremd High School (where she spent her freshman year and plays now) and Lincoln-Way West (where she played as a sophomore, ironically losing to Fremd in the state title game that year). However, a family situation pushed her back to the original school, and no matter where you’re playing, if you’re a big with the skill to also produce further from the hoop and put up a double-double as often as not, people are going to pay attention.

Cleveland State had an offer out to Wooldridge, and her list also included Western Michigan, Toledo, Kansas State, Marshall, San Jose State, Arkansas State, and Southern Illinois.

Brooke Daniels (Oakland)

Height: 5-6, Position: PG, High School: L’Anse Creuse North HS (MI), Commit Date: September 6, 2021

A second-team all-state selection as a junior, Daniels was the driving force behind L’Anse Creuse North (a school that wears the same black and gold as Oakland, because why buy new accessories if you don’t have to), one of the biggest stories in Michigan high school basketball last year. The Crusaders ran to a regional title before falling to Detroit Renaissance in the state quarterfinals – LCN’s first loss of the season. Daniels had a game-high 24 points in defeat and averaged about 17 for the season, but offense isn’t the first thing most notice about her.

https://twitter.com/brooke_daniels2/status/1434936916835815425

Consider Prep Girls Hoops, which ranks her as the number 17 prospect in the state: “Daniels showed that she’s not just a force on offense. She was an absolute terror on the defensive end. Daniels was a lockdown defender that played an in your face style of D. On the other end, she was feeling her jumper and connected consistently all night.”

Other scouting reports have called her “a big-time point guard with an explosive edge,” “a playmaking lead guard,” “a terrific athlete and playmaker,” and “one of the highest upside guards in the state.” She’s a heart-on-her-sleeve type of player who will definitely become a fan favorite at OU.

https://twitter.com/LCNGBB_CRU/status/1423798022668967939

Daniels had an extremely impressive offer list, including Penn State, Xavier, Monmouth, North Dakota, and Wayne State. Army West Point was interested as well.

Instead though, she will enter a crowded Grizzlies backcourt, where Kahlaijah Dean will still have her “pandemic option” in 2022 and most of the other significantly-contributing guards (along with newcomer Aaliyah McQueen) will also be projected to return. However, Daniels’ skillset should earn some minutes with a team that’s struggled mightily on the defensive end over the last few years.

Lauryn Stover (Purdue Fort Wayne)

Height: 5-11, Position: SF, High School: Gilmour Academy (OH), Commit Date: August 3, 2021

Maria Marchesano has generated a lot of momentum for the Dons since returning to her hometown, and part of that is Stover, who became the program’s first 2022 commit back in early August. She’ll hit PFW at a pretty interesting time for the team, as they’re projected to return almost everyone next year and will be looking to take another step.

What really impresses me about Stover is how effortlessly she reads the floor and knows exactly where to exploit a defense. Those are half steps that aren’t necessarily required now but will make all the difference at the next level, and that sort of processing ability is also useful on the defensive end of course. She’s also very versatile, with clips showing her playing both a traditional post role and further out as a dribble drive specialist (with some extremely nice handles helping out with that). On the other side of the ball, those same traits give her a strong ability to anticipate and shut down plays.

Given all of that, not to mention a really nice reel (see below), it’s a little surprising that she hasn’t generated more buzz in the scouting community. Prep Girls Hoops only has her as Ohio’s number 60 2022 prospect, even misspelling her name as “Stolver” on their list. Ouch. Nevertheless, she’s a standout on her Gilmour Academy team, as my fellow Solon Middle School grad was all-district second team last season while leading the Lancers in scoring, while placing second in rebounding and blocked shots, and third in steals.

Natalie Johnson (Robert Morris)

Height: 5-9, Position: CG, High School: North Point HS (MD), Commit Date: August 1, 2021

In the context of where Robert Morris presently stands, Johnson really seems like an ideal add, as she’ll be able to push the pace a bit and facilitate, bringing some definition to a Colonials team that sort of needs it right now.

Maryland’s high school seasons were pandemic-disrupted more than most, but the last time Johnson played a full one, she was an absolute monster, averaging 17 points and – this is the part that really gets me – 7.6 rebounds, including one late-season stretch where she hit double digits six times in seven games, including outings of 15 and 16. Now, doing that in Division I is a bit different than doing it against Jill from honors chemistry, but her grassroots track record says that it’s not a fluke.

Either way, it’s still something that helps paint a picture of someone who excels in all phases of the game, doesn’t let size dictate her effort level, and gets where the ball is going and not where it’s been.

Speaking of, let’s watch her play defense for a bit, among other things.

I know the coaches and scouts out there appreciate that they included both the good and bad plays and so do I, to be honest. The bad plays are typically turnovers borne from aggressiveness, and the good news is that can be corrected. But overall, there’s a lot to love about the way she sees the court and plays freely.

Johnson’s other offers included Tulsa and Hawaii.

Horizon League announces ESPN TV schedule

John Parker
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Horizon League announces ESPN TV schedule

Baldwin Jr. poised to be heavily featured on national TV

The Horizon League announced its ESPN TV schedule on Wednesday. The league will have five regular season games televised on the ESPN family of networks, with three of them being selected between a pair of options closer to the games. 2021 Regular Season co-Champions Wright State and Cleveland State feature to be heavily featured, as does Milwaukee and five-star recruit Patrick Baldwin Jr. The Horizon League semifinals and championship game will also be nationally televised on the ESPN family of networks on March 7 and 8.

Following the addition of Baldwin Jr., a McDonald’s All-American and the Horizon League’s highest rated high school recruit of all-time, Milwaukee has the chance to feature prominently in this season’s ESPN games. The Panthers’ game against Robert Morris on December 4 will be the league’s first game televised on the ESPN networks, and the Panthers could be selected for all three dates that are currently up in the air. One of those games — January 7 at Detroit Mercy — would have Baldwin Jr. and the Panthers matching up against fellow coach’s son and Horizon League Player of the Year frontrunner Antoine Davis. Here’s a look at how the ESPN regular season games breakdown:

DateTimeGame(s)Network
December 4 Noon EST Robert Morris @ Milwaukee ESPNU
January 77 PM ESTMilwaukee @ Detroit Mercy/Cleveland State @ Robert Morris ESPN2
January 289 PM ESTCleveland State @ Wright StateESPNU
February 117 PM ESTWright State @ Milwaukee/Oakland @ Robert MorrisESPNU
February 189 PM ESTWright State @ Oakland/Cleveland State @ MilwaukeeESPN2

Another interesting possibility following the announcement of the ESPN games is that Robert Morris could be the school featured the most. In addition to the game against Milwaukee, the Colonials could be chosen for two other nationally televised games. RMU finished in last place in its first season in the Horizon League, and seems likely to be the only school projected to finish in the bottom half of the league who will even be an option to be on national TV.

On the flipside, Northern Kentucky — which returns the core of its roster that earned a 4-seed in the 2021 Horizon League Tournament — isn’t an option to be selected for a single nationally televised game. With All-League guards Trevon Faulkner and Marques Warrick as well as All-League candidate Adrian Nelson returning, this looks like it has a strong possibility of being a regrettable decision. The Norse have finished near the top of the league standings every season since 2017.

Aside from the league’s ESPN debut, the other game that doesn’t have an option to flex between two matchups is when defending Horizon League Regular Season co-Champions Cleveland State and Wright State square off on January 28. Last season, the Vikings beat the Raiders on a last second alley-oop en route to removing all doubt that they were legitimate and taking a two-game lead into the halfway point of the Horizon League season. The Vikings followed the regular season title with a Horizon League Tournament trophy and the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Both CSU and Wright State project to contend for the league title this year.

Scheduling for this season’s games was undoubtedly more complicated than in past seasons, as instead of having the majority of the league playing on Fridays the games are far more spread out. This year, most games will be on a Thursday/Saturday schedule, leading to multiple stretches where there will be Horizon League action every day from Thursday through Sunday. There will even be a stretch where Horizon League games will be played every day from Wednesday January 5 through Monday January 10.

A major downside of the league’s ESPN schedule is that it features fewer nationally televised games than previous seasons. Even last season with COVID-19 throwing massive amounts of uncertainty into things and delaying the release of the ESPN schedule until December, the league had six nationally televised regular season games.

Another unfortunate result of the games being more spread out is that the league’s marquee rivalries aren’t on Fridays, and as a result aren’t options to be televised. Wright State and Northern Kentucky, as well as Oakland and Detroit Mercy all seem likely to project as top half finishers in the Horizon League but their rivalry matchups aren’t options to be selected for national broadcasts.

Going Down the Conference Realignment Rabbit Hole

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John fills in for Matt once again to continue the discussion of moves outside of the Horizon League that have the potential for the conference to invite some new faces. They talk about Southern Indiana’s exploration of moving up to D1, as well as where Bellarmine now fits in the ASUN with that league’s aggressive expansion strategy, among others. Also, with the Blue Ribbon preseason predictions out, they discuss how the publication shapes up the Horizon League.

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Conference Realignment: USI exploring a move to Divison I…and the Horizon League?

John Parker
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Conference Realignment: USI exploring a move to Divison I…and the Horizon League?

The Screaming Eagles’ long anticipated move might finally be in the works

The University of Southern Indiana is exploring a move to Division I, and suddenly the Horizon League might have too many excellent expansion candidates to bring them all in. The reports of potential Division I expansion come after years of USI officials saying that the school wasn’t looking to move up. News of the potential move was first reported by Kyle Sokeland of the Evansville Courier & Press on Monday:

The Horizon League has been linked to the school that gained notoriety under Bruce Pearl before he left for Milwaukee, and it’s easy to see the appeal from both sides. The Screaming Eagles have a very strong Division II program across the board, with men’s basketball winning the 1995 National Championship under Pearl and remaining strong in the time since. A 66 million dollar stadium project that was completed in 2019 means that like former Great Lakes Valley Conference rival Northern Kentucky, the school would be coming into the league with state-of-the-art facilities.

While it could be argued that adding a second Division I team to the Evansville, Indiana market might over-saturate it; it could create an interesting situation for whichever conference winds up with USI. Most of the schools in the Horizon League play second (and sometimes even third) fiddle to another program in the same city. Given the Evansville Purple Aces’ struggles in the Missouri Valley Conference, USI has the potential to grow into the biggest show in town despite being in a smaller conference. When the Screaming Eagles and Purple Aces played an exhibition game in 2019, the Division II school forced overtime before losing 68-71.

Southern Indiana would find an excellent geographic fit in the Horizon League. In addition to reuniting with its former GLVC rival and becoming the third Indiana school in the league, most of the schools are within a roughly seven hour drive of Evansville. Given the recent implosion of the OVC, the Horizon League also presents the best competitive opportunity for a team in the area moving up from Division II. The Horizon League finished 2021 ranked roughly on-par with the OVC before the latter lost four of the top five teams in the basketball standings.

As with Murray State, the Horizon League wouldn’t be the only suitor for Southern Indiana if the Screaming Eagles did make the decision to move to Division I. Fortunately for the league, there wouldn’t be a conference that was head-and-shoulders superior should it extend an offer as there is with Murray State and the Missouri Valley.

Normally the recent shakeup in the Ohio Valley Conference would put it below the Horizon League in the conference realignment pecking order, but USI is the one potential expansion candidate that might see it as a more appealing destination. In 2017, the OVC relocated its basketball conference tournament to the Ford Center in Evansville. USI would have homecourt advantage in the OVC tournament, though that may not be a factor for the first four years while USI made its Division I transition. With that said, the OVC is now down to eight members and Murray State seemingly eager to leave. It’s possible that the OVC would allow USI to participate in the conference tournament while it transitioned to full-time Division I status, with the conference using a hometown team to draw interest and make up for the recent heavy blows realignment has dealt it.

A potential wildcard destination for Southern Indiana would be the ASun conference, but it’s a wildcard that has a strong chance to land USI should it extend an invitation. Like the Horizon League, the ASun would allow the school to rejoin a former GLVC rivval, in this case Bellarmine. Where the Horizon League might have an advantage is that the Screaming Eagles don’t have a football program and the ASun’s recent additions as well as the Division II programs being linked to the conference indicate football as a focus. Bellarmine was added before the ASun’s recent shift toward football schools, and could be a candidate to be poached from the conference that extends all the way to southern Florida much like NKU was in 2015.

The situation that would likely allow USI to join the Horizon League sooner rather than later would be for Murray State to wind up in the league and Bellarmine to decide to stay in the ASun. The Horizon League has typically waited at least a short amount of time before taking teams that move up from Division II, but in this case it might be best to act quickly. The provisional Division I status shouldn’t be a sticking point for the league, as it would be going above its normal membership count to bring in Murray State.

The league would be less likely to add both former GLVC rivals at the same time, but it’s a bold move that could pay huge dividends quickly. Bellarmine contended for the ASun regular season title and made the conference championship in its first year of Division I, seemingly putting it far ahead of where Northern Kentucky was as a Division I member before joining the Horizon League. Given how NKU has panned out, the league might not want to miss out on the Knights. USI has a strong program and new facilities, and could quickly become the king of a market that features a current Missouri Valley team. While both would most likely be considered as add-ons to Murray State, there’s plenty of reason to believe they’re worthy on their own merits.

Taking A Look at #HLWBB

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Bob and John Parker, filling in for Matt, welcome Kyle Rossi (@KyleHZRT) to talk about how the Horizon League shapes up on the women’s side. Topics include the brand-new roster for Detroit Mercy, Wright State’s coaching change and how good the top half of the league, specifically IUPUI and Milwaukee, will be. They also discuss a conference change that could have ramifications for the Horizon League. 

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Conference Realignment: Has the Horizon League invited Murray State yet?

John Parker
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Conference Realignment: Has the Horizon League invited Murray State yet?

If not, somebody needs to get on the phone

Matt Brown of Extra Points broke news Friday that Belmont is set to leave the Ohio Valley Conference for the Missouri Valley Conference, with an announcement expected as early as next week:

Belmont would join Jacksonville State, Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay — who are all leaving for the ASun — to become the fourth school to announce its departure from the OVC this year. But quantity isn’t the only concern for the conference: the four departing schools all finished in the top five spots of the OVC in men’s basketball in 2021, meaning the quality is likely to take a massive hit as well.

That news seemingly hasn’t been well received at Murray State, where Athletic Director Kevin Saal issued the following statement:

Murray State’s decision not to join the Horizon League when the school was rumored to be a candidate in 2017 likely came down to the OVC being at least on par with the Horizon League in men’s basketball and a better geographic fit. While geography is still in the OVC’s favor, the latest conference realignment swings the pendulum dramatically toward the Horizon League in terms of conference strength. According to KenPom, the Horizon League was already better than the OVC in 2021, and the four departing schools went a combined 80-33 overall last year.

But geography has to be a match for the Horizon League as well. Given that it’s not a major market and it’s outside the Horizon League’s current footprint, it is an issue worth considering. One way to overcome this is to add a travel partner alongside the Racers. Morehead State — which represented the OVC in the 2021 NCAA Tournament — makes a lot of sense, but adding NKU rival Bellarmine would be a return to the type of forward-thinking moves that position the league well longterm…not to mention it’d make the staff at HoriZone Roundtable very happy. The Knights finished a game out of first place in the ASun in the school’s first year in Division I last year. Considering how NKU has panned out after going 9-9 in its first year in the ASun, it’s reasonable to think Bellarmine could be a home run in its own right for the Horizon League. With Bellarmine being a non-football school that hasn’t been in the ASun long enough to be vital to its potential massive expansion plan, the Horizon League might be able to entice the Knights to move to a league that’s a better geographic fit, and in the process give Murray State a travel partner just a few hours down the road.

While the Horizon League might not be looking to grow beyond 12 schools, Murray State is the type of program you make an exception for. The Racers have finished with at least a .500 record in 33 of the last 34 men’s basketball seasons. In that stretch, every former coach but one has ended his tenure by moving on to a more prestigious job. Ja Morant recently became the latest Racers star to make the move to the NBA, following Cameron Payne and Isaiah Canaan. This success has helped Murray State overcome being located in a town with fewer than 20,000 people to create a rabid fanbase: at over 4,800 fans per game the Racers finished 2020 with higher attendance than everyone in the Horizon League but Wright State and Northern Kentucky. Adding a successful program like Murray State to the Horizon League would be a home run and if the school is in a position where it will accept an invitation to the league, that offer should already be on the table.

The biggest issue for the Horizon League is likely to be other suitors. Murray State was a finalist for the MVC during the previous round of realignment when Valparaiso left the Horizon League, but the public/private split in the conference was rumored to be a sticking point. With nearby private school Belmont making the move, an offer for Murray State might not be far behind. If that doesn’t happen, the ASun could still be a destination for Murray State as it continues to add members that have football. It’s possible the ASun already has an offer on the table, but the Racers are waiting to see what happens with the Missouri Valley first.

The football program could be another hurdle for Murray State considering a Horizon League invite, but it might wind up a minor issue. The Racers have posted just two winning records in football in the last decade, so the program isn’t likely to be as important in any realignment decisions as it would be for stronger football schools. When Robert Morris left the NEC last year, it moved its football program to the Big South, a conference that’s arguably a better geographic fit for Murray State anyway. With Kennesaw State and North Alabama set to leave the Big South when the ASun starts football, the opportunity to join the conference shouldn’t be hard to come by.

Ultimately, if the Horizon League has a chance to add Murray State it would be foolish not to do so. While geography and football present potential issues, the opportunity to add an annual title contender in men’s basketball should encourage league officials to find a way to make things work. The Racers would instantly elevate the Horizon League, and if it made an excuse to add Division I upstart Bellarmine, that’s even better!

Horizon Boy is Back for 2021!

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Horizon League handicapper Horizon Boy (@HorizonBoy_HB) is back to talk with Bob and John (who’s filling in for Matt) about the upcoming season. They also discuss some of the predictions made by some of the preseason basketball publications.

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#HLWBB Starting Five: Facilities Management Edition

Kyle Rossi
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#HLWBB Starting Five: Facilities Management Edition

Welcome to the Starting Five, your rundown of the five key stories in #HLWBB since the last Starting Five.

1. This counts as fun in September

We’re creeping towards the finish line on non-conference schedules, with eight of the twelve teams fully announcing their magnificent sevens (IUPUI and Oakland most recently) and a chunk of other games trickling out on the other four. Among the recent highlights:

  • IUPUI will visit Iowa to close out the non-conference segment of the season. The Hawkeyes, of course, are led by sophomore Caitlin Clark, a player who has earned too many honors for me to figure out which ones to list here and is widely considered one of the current faces of women’s college basketball, perhaps behind only Paige Bueckers. Iowa was 20-10 overall last season and advanced to the Sweet 16 before running into Bueckers and UConn.
  • Cleveland State’s games include six home contests and one away from the Wolstein Center – a marathon of a road trip to Akron. It’s really been interesting seeing how different teams set up their schedules, with title contenders IUPUI and Milwaukee taking big swings and CSU, which should be in the mix right after that, playing it a lot safer. The Vikings’ approach does accomplish two things: 1. It’s cheap (see below), and 2. It sets the team up to have some success coming off of the WBI title with a series of opponents that mostly have losing series records against the green and white, including the Zips and former Horizon League school Loyola Chicago.
  • Oakland and Green Bay will both head to Las Vegas for non-exempt multi-team events, although separately from each other. The Phoenix will be at the South Point Shootout at the end of November to play Oklahoma State and SMU, while the Grizzlies visit Sin City the following month for the Holiday Hoops Classic. OU will play Marshall and Campbell out west.
  • OU, by the way, also got a home game off of Michigan State, on November 26th. That’s two days after Wisconsin visits Milwaukee and two days before Butler visits IUPUI, with those contests representing three of the four HLWBB home contests against a power conference opponent. Milwaukee also hosts Marquette on December 8th.
  • Buried in this article about the pandemic finances of Youngstown State’s athletic department (which probably could’ve been an item on its own and is a worthwhile read) is this nugget: the Penguins are getting $15-20,000 for their trip to Penn State on December 12th, in case you’ve ever wondered what a guarantee banks on the women’s side of things. The apples-to-apples gods, as luck would have it, made sure that the YSU men visited those very same Nittany Lions this year, and their guarantee is reported at $60,000.

For those who don’t follow me on Twitter (rude), I’ve been keeping track of the Horizon League’s composite non-conference schedule, including the known games from the four teams that have yet to announce.

2. More planning than the actual Vikings

Cleveland State launched a strategic plan for athletics back on August 21st, with the fairly-obvious goal of improving the athletic department’s financial position. Honestly, it’s tough to say with any reasonable degree of certainty what the specific effects will be on women’s (or men’s) basketball at the school right now, but the good news is that both are cornerstone sports in an environment where CSU administration must make some tough decisions.

Those decisions don’t necessarily involve cutting sports right now (though at 18 of them, CSU is on the higher end of the Horizon League), but they may involve well-considered choices in terms of scholarships and funding that could impact “four or five” Vikings teams. To put it bluntly, the teams that can win and offer more return to the university by doing will get what they need, but others might not.

Somewhat counterintuitively, adding sports might actually improve Cleveland State’s balance sheet, if the enrollment and tuition dollars a program brings in exceed the cost of maintaining it. E-Sports has been tossed around as an inevitable move that may happen as soon as this academic year, but plenty of more traditional sports like hockey, rugby, and crew have robust club structures for non-scholarship teams, and those student-athletes are generally used to paying additional fees to participate.

Several CSU leaders did extensive interviews with Athletic Director U concerning the plan, and they’re worth checking out as a baseline for understanding the school’s philosophy and direction.

3. MKE Cribs

Speaking of “strategic,” check out the incoming practice digs for Milwaukee, which officially broke ground at the end of August. The full name of the place is the Orthopedic Hospital of Wisconsin Center but it will routinely be shortened to “O-How Center,” as in “O-How did the Panthers land that high major recruit?” or “O-How did a Horizon League athletic department find that much money?”

The thing will look a little like a mattress in need of the world’s largest fitted sheet on the outside, but the real magic is inside of course. The renderings, conveniently included in the above video, show a practice court (obviously), with an adjacent weight room, a film theater, and a posh lounge.

Also notable: Kyle Rechlicz is a big fan of the Sit Test, which has nothing to do with preseason conditioning.

4. Jordan year juggernaut

While we’re still working on processing 2022 entries, Milwaukee has already flipped the calendar ahead to 2023. Technically 2023s were off limits to the active recruiting process until September 1st but of course, that only regulates one side of the street. Still, 2023 commits are pretty rare, so of the 35 that existed nationally as of September 1st (per WBBBlog), it’s significant that two of them are future Panthers.

Payton Rechlicz (5-8 SG/W, Menomonee Falls HS) – Yes, Payton is the daughter of UWM head coach Kyle. No, she didn’t need that fact to get to this point. By all accounts, the younger Rechlicz has the basketball IQ and instincts that usually come baked into coach’s kids, but she has also won rave reviews for her athleticism and an ability to efficiently grab buckets when needed.

https://twitter.com/SophiaRampulla/status/1429155483013820420?s=20

Sophia Rampulla (5-10 SG/W, Union Grove HS) – Rampulla didn’t have the advantage of knowing the team’s coach her entire life, but nevertheless joined Rechlicz as a pre-9/1 2023 UWM commit a couple weeks ago. She has an extensive sophomore-year highlight reel at the top of her Hudl page (thanks Sophia, appreciate it) that shows an effortless shooter with good length, who has elite defensive awareness. So she should fit in great up there.

5. We’re all a little mad

In case you missed it, and if you follow women’s basketball at all I’m not sure how you did, but on the heels of a scathing report covering inequalities in the administration of men’s and women’s basketball by the NCAA, the “March Madness” branding will now be used for both tournaments. It’s about time.

Green Bay lands highest rated recruit in school history: Center – Donovan Short

Dillon Graff
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Green Bay lands highest rated recruit in school history: Center – Donovan Short

Will Ryan and the Green Bay phoenix have secured their first commitment in the 2022 class in 6-foot-10 Center – Donovan Short. Short is a skilled big man who can score from outside the arc and in the lane – Short averaged 21.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game at Denmark as a junior. 

This comes as a bit of a surprise considering Short held an offer from the USC Trojans and had also been in contact with programs such as: Ohio State, Stanford, Princeton, Miami (Ohio), Houston, Marquette,  Milwaukee Arizona State, Boise State, Butler, Creighton, California, Georgia, Wisconsin UWGB, Belmont University, South Dakota State, USC, Iowa State, and Virginia Tech.

Donovan Short is a Denmark, Wisconsin native and made the choice to stay home. This is a massive pick-up for Will Ryan and Green Bay. According to 247 Sports, Short is the highest rated recruit in program history. 

  • 222nd Ranked player in the country 
  • 36th Ranked center  in the country
  • 6th Ranked player in Wisconsin 

Donovan Short is a 6-foot10 stretch big that can play out on the perimeter, can step out and hit the three, and also has great ball handling skills for his size/position. He also has advanced footwork in the post and has the size to bang down low against opposing big men. Short is someone that could thrive in a system like Green Bay’s – I could see him becoming an offensive focal point for this program. 

This is a big recruiting win for Will Ryan and the phoenix who are changing their culture and building towards a sustainable foundation of winning. The second year head coach stated that he wanted to focus on in-state recruiting – and he’s done exactly that. In his first two full cycles of recruitment – all three recruits were from in-state (Cade Meyer, Kamari McGee, Brayden Dailey), and now add Donovan Short to that list as well. And while comprising a roster full of in-state players is no guarantee the program will find success, there is no denying it’s going to have fans around the state buzzing. 

Will Ryan and the Green Bay Phoenix have now landed their highest rated recruit in school history, and have this program headed in the right direction. #GreenBayAllDay

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