HoriZone Roundtable

Few arguments in the First Round

March February Madness is here! Tonight is the start of the 2021 Horizon League Tournament and the first eliminations among teams that opted to finish this strange season will begin. A panel of HoriZone Roundtable writers and podcast staff made their first round picks and told us why they think they’ve got the perfect bracket.

In the first round of games, there weren’t many disagreements about the picks. Check out what Bob McDonald, Matt Dudek, Kyle Craven, Alec Kwait, Marc Weems, Horizon Boy and I had to say about tonight’s slate:

Detroit Mercy vs. Robert Morris

In the first game to tip off, fifth seed Detroit Mercy hosts Robert Morris in a rematch of last week’s season finale. The Titans went 9-1 in the second half of the season, with the lone loss coming in a weekend split with Horizon League co-Champion Cleveland State. Robert Morris has had a much more tumultuous end to the season, going 1-11 and losing star A.J. Bramah to the transfer portal. Our voters expect both teams to continue on their current trajectories.

How can Detroit Mercy win?

The Titans come into the Horizon League Tournament as one of the league’s hottest teams. After a two week pause in the middle of the season, the Titans went 10-2 the rest of the season. Guard play becomes increasingly important come tournament time, and the Titans have one of the league’s best in all conference first teamer Antoine Davis. He is one of the nation’s most prolific scorers, as he averaged over 23 points per game in the regular season.

With an impressive supporting cast consisting of Bul Kuol, Noah Waterman, and Matt Johnson; look for Detroit to have no issue with a struggling Robert Morris.

Alec Kwait

How can RMU win?

Even though I’m not a huge believer in the adage that it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season, it’s panned out in a couple of instances where I wouldn’t have expected it this year (IUPUI vs. Milwaukee and especially CSU vs. PFW.)

The Colonials have also pulled off most of their wins without their “ideal” lineup in place (vs. Milwaukee without Dante Treacy and Jon Williams, vs. Oakland without A.J. Bramah.) Obviously they will once again be without Bramah this weekend. Despite the final margins, RMU looked better in game two last week. I expect Andy Toole to make the most of the week of planning.

Devil’s Advocate

Youngstown State vs. UIC

Early in the year, the idea of UIC playing in a 6-11 matchup in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament might’ve been hard to believe because the thought of the Flames dropping to a six seed. After COVID stoppages and injury woes, UIC wound up falling all the way to the eleventh seed while Youngstown State went through a late-season surge with six wins in the team’s last seven games. Once again, momentum has the overwhelming support of our panel and the vast majority picked YSU.

How can Youngstown State win?

I think YSU gets the win behind a group effort. They’ve seen UIC already this year and without a last-second game-winning shot, YSU would’ve swept the series. Also, Darius Quisenberry being fully healthy again makes a huge difference. Everyone on offense and defense is back to where they should’ve been all year long.

Marc Weems

How can UIC win?

There’s no GOOD reason for UIC to beat YSU in the first round of the tournament. So with that in mind, call it a hunch.

YSU and UIC are the two teams who have had the most inconsistent rosters all season. I think Teyvion Kirk has the experience to lead them to victory along with Michael Diggins. Diggins being the super athlete he is could be an X factor in this game paired with Rob Howard down low. And never count out Jamie Ahale getting hot from 3.

The Flames simply have the right pieces and a young rising star coach in Yaklich to do some damage against the Penguins.

Matt Dudek

Green Bay vs. Purdue Fort Wayne

Green Bay gets the seven seed in the Horizon League Tournament and takes on a Purdue Fort Wayne team that — much like its fellow double-digit seeds — enters the league tournament on the heels of an awful second half of the season. Green Bay hasn’t been on a big win streak like Detroit Mercy or Youngstown State, but has been fairly steady since an 0-5 start to Horizon League Play. Our panel isn’t as concerned with Green Bay not dominating down the stretch, and thinks they’ll be able to dispose of PFW easily.

Green Bay just has way too much firepower. I know, I know. This is coming from the guy who didn’t put one Green Bay player in his top 15 (1st, 2nd or 3rd team) but I swear I got nothin but love for the Phoenix!

They sort of have the formula to be a good post-season team. They play good defense. They play great as a team, especially when it comes to hitting the glass. They do a good enough job moving the ball – but when it comes down to the “must win” situations, they have their guy. Last year’s Freshman of the Year and a second-teamer this year, Amari Davis is a bonafide stud. I think Green Bay sends Purdue Fort Wayne back home easily.

Kyle Craven

How can Purdue Fort Wayne win?

While the first season in the Horizon League for Purdue Fort Wayne has been rather rough, their showing in the last weekend alone should remind everyone that the Mastodons can get hot at any time. Naturally, PFW three-point shooting has been its long-time calling card under head coach Jon Coffman.

At the same time, specifically in the win against Cleveland State, the Mastodons have also proven they can be aggressive in the paint, with Dylan Carl, Ra Kpedi and Cameron Benford shouldering the load. 

Bob McDonald

Milwaukee vs. IUPUI

The 8/9 game features a Milwaukee team that’s been sliding since its second series against 9-seed IUPUI. Meanwhile, the Jaguars enter the game after going 5-3 since that series. The panel overwhelmingly picked the Jaguars to keep the second half surge going.

How can IUPUI win?

With the Panthers taking three out of four games over the Jaguars in the regular season, I LOVE IUPUI in Chapter V of the Battle of the Cats. When senior Marcus Burk gets hot, IUPUI is nearly unstoppable. Nobody in this conference tournament’s first round can take over a game quite like Marcus Burk and I don’t see him going down easy in his senior campaign. 

Alongside stud seniors Jaylen Minnett and Elyjah Goss, these Jaguars are out for blood. Byron Rimm and crew are going to leave it all on the court. This contest should be a cat scratch ‘til the end with Baldwin’s ballers Te’Jon Lucas and DeAndre Gholston providing a hell of a fight. I’ll take IUPUI to win straight up.

It’s a Jaguarantee!

Horizon Boy

How can Milwaukee win?

If not for the way Milwaukee defended him in three of the four matchups, there’s a pretty good chance the coaches would’ve seen eye-to-eye with our First Team All-League pick for Marcus Burk. In Milwaukee’s three wins over the Jaguars, Burk shot just 14-for-49 — or 28.6 percent — from the field with an effective field goal percentage of 35.7. If you take out the three Milwaukee losses, Burk’s effective field goal percentage jumps five points from an already impressive 57.8 to an incredible 62.9.

The biggest key to beating the Jaguars is stopping Marcus Burk. It’s not an easy task, but the Panthers have figured out how to do it three times already.

John Parker

The Horizon League announced its Postseason Awards and All-League teams on Tuesday, just hours after the release of the HoriZone Roundtable All-League teams. Like last year, I wanted to take a moment to compare the two teams.

Our voters and the Horizon League coaches agreed on three of the five awards and were in complete agreement on three members of each All-League Team. In total, we agreed on 13 of the 15 same All-League performers, with minor squabbles on overall rank.

Let’s compare the picks:

Awards

Coach of the Year and Freshman of the Year were the most decisive victories in our award vote. Dennis Gates was the only coach to earn multiple votes, while Warrick was a unanimous selection for Freshman of the Year. Needless to say, there was very little surprise with the results of those two awards.

While there was some speculation that Antoine Davis may wind up winning the Player of the Year vote due to Tanner Holden creating a split vote with Loudon Love among voters who wanted to pick the best player on the best team, Love came away with the award. Love and Davis were the only players to earn a single vote in our poll.

In a near-complete reversal from our Coach of the Year vote, there were a number of candidates for Defensive Player of the Year in the running until the final couple votes were cast. One of those candidates was the league’s official winner Tre Gomillion. With all of that in mind, even though our Defensive Player of the Year didn’t make the All-Defensive Team, we don’t have too much to argue here.

The discrepancy in Sixth Man of the Year voting seems like it probably came down to the parameters put on candidates. We were pretty lax, allowing players who played less than half of all league games to be eligible. With that said, Jefferson was nowhere near that in league play. He started just five of the team’s 20 league games, but did start all four of Green Bay’s non-league games. In all likelihood, that removed him from contention for the award.

First Team

Obviously Love and Davis were Consensus First Team All-Horizon League picks. The third player to gain that recognition was Oakland’s Jalen Moore. In addition to being the league’s assist leader by a wide margin, Moore spent much of league play averaging over 20 points per game before a late slump landed him at 18.3 points per game.

Marcus Burk was easily the player with the biggest discrepancy between our picks and the league’s, finishing above Moore on our team and on the Horizon League’s second team. The senior was not only productive – averaging 22.5 points per game in Horizon League play – but sickeningly effective with an overall field goal percentage near 50 despite taking over a third of his shots from long range.

The final spot on our All-League First Team likely opened up when A.J. Bramah opted to put his name into the transfer portal and he was removed from contention by several of our voters. Bohannon jumped up into the fifth spot on our team, but Horizon League coaches opted to make him a second team selection instead. Torrey Patton was our Defensive Player of the Year and as previously mentioned Holden played well enough there were thoughts that some might give him Player of the Year votes, so it’s hard to get too mad about either pick.

Second Team

Adding a 3-point shot allowed Amari Davis to maintain similar efficiency while his stats increased across the board. That stat increase was made far more impressive by the fact that it coincided with a shift from one of the top ten fastest tempos in Division I to the eleventh fastest tempo in the Horizon League.

Grant Basile earned Second Team All-League honors from both our voters and the league coaches after averaging 14.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game for Wright State. After fighting his way into the starting lineup early in league play, Basile looked like the best player on the Raiders at times as the season went on.

When writing up our All-League picks, I felt the need to justify having the Player of the Year and two second team come from a team that didn’t run away with the league. Then coaches turned around and gave the Raiders the Player of the year and another Top 5 performer while still keeping that Second Team All-League performer. Even with a short bench, that one would be tough to argue.

Patton’s consistent play for Horizon League co-Champion Cleveland State earned him a spot on our All-League Second Team. As one of the voters who did select Patton First Team All-League, I was still surprised to see him make the top team given that they didn’t even select him as a member of the league’s All-Defensive Team.

Third Team

As with the first two teams, HoriZone Roundtable and the Horizon League were on the same page with three of five picks on the All-League Third Team. Freshman of the Year Marques Warrick, double-double machine Daniel Oladapo and Purdue Fort Wayne’s do-everything guard Jarred Godfrey earned Third Team honors in both votes.

As a Milwaukee alum, it was surprising to see Te’Jon Lucas make the coaches’ All-League team. Particularly since it was Teyvion Kirk who missed out. Lucas is an amazing player, but I’d have a hard time arguing that he had one of the top fifteen seasons in the league. The other thing that caught me off guard with the pick was that Teyvion Kirk is obviously the Flames best option, while there was a good deal of vote-splitting in our results between Lucas and teammate Deandre Gholston that caused both to fall below the threshold to make the team.

Like I said in the Sixth Man of the Year section, we were seemingly much more lax with our parameters than the league. I realized we were probably going to be at odds on the A.J. Bramah pick while I was writing the article for our All-League picks and noticed his statistics were no longer listed on the Horizon League’s statistics page. When he did play, he was elite. Bramah averaged 21.8 points and 11.4 rebounds per game in Horizon League play.

The league’s final All-League pick, Bul Kuol had an outstanding year for the Titans after transferring in from provisional Division I school California Baptist. He averaged 16.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game playing next to Antoine Davis at Detroit Mercy. There’s no argument Kuol put up an incredibly impressive year, he was the Titans’ most productive player before Davis’ shots started falling and ended the regular season on a hot streak. It does feel strange that a player like Kirk – who frequently made the biggest impact for the Flames even when his shot wasn’t falling – was left off in favor of a second player for the fifth seeded Titans.

Following the HoriZone Roundtable Horizon League Men’s and Women’s awards announced yesterday and the Men’s All-League Teams announced earlier this morning, we’ve reached the end of our staff picks with the Women’s Basketball All-League teams. As you’ll soon see, it was an incredibly deep year for All-League candidates, with a player whose production would normally garner solid second team status slipping to the third team.

Let’s jump into the picks:

First Team All-League

Late surges by both Angel Baker and WSU resulted in the junior guard leading her team to a Horizon League championship and earning our selection as the Horizon League Player of the Year. After shooting just 36.6 percent from the field and 15.4 percent from 3-point range in non-league play, Baker’s numbers went through the roof against Horizon League foes.

Two-time defending Horizon League player of the Year Macee Williams has strong chance of winning the award for a third straight year, but in our picks she narrowly missed out on the three-peat thanks to the chaos of a COVID-19 season costing her 6 games, as well as the equally amazing play of Wright State star Baker. Williams finished the season as the Horizon League’s third leading scorer and top rebounder.

Walstad is our Defensive Player of the Year and the biggest reason that Milwaukee was able to hold on for a share of the Horizon League Regular Season Title. She was the league’s second leading rebounder and far and away the top shot blocker.

Caitlin Hibner did everything for the 14-4 Phoenix this season. She led the team in scoring and rebounding while finishing second in assists and steals. Hibner was an insanely efficient shooter, with a field goal percentage over 50 despite taking over one quarter of her shots from long range. She maintained a high level of efficiency from the perimeter as well, hitting 38.2 percent of her 3-pointers.

Mariah White led the Horizon League in scoring this year. While her shooting percentages weren’t exactly where you want them, she more than makes up for it to solidify her spot as a First Team All-League selection with her defensive prowess. The defending defensive player also led the league in steals this season.

Second Team All-League

Kahlaijah Dean was an incredibly difficult player to exclude from the First Team All-League this year. The 2020 Sixth Player of the Year absolutely stuffed the stat sheet for Oakland. She finished the year second in the league in scoring, third in assists, fifth in steals, eleventh in rebounds and twelfth in blocks per game. All of that for a team that dramatically outperformed preseason expectations. I guess it’s only fitting that a player who earned All-League honors coming off the bench a year ago be the first one in after the First Team All-League.

From a statistical standpoint, there’s actually an argument that Dunn shouldn’t be the YSU player in this spot. But she’s the centerpiece of the Youngstown State offense and creates opportunities for her teammates to do big things on paper. The 2019 First Team All-League pick returned from an injury that cost her last season and didn’t skip a beat, finishing the season as the Penguins’ leading scorer.

Rachel McLimore is arguably the best second scoring options in the Horizon League. Her 15.1 points per game technically trail Youngstown State’s Nneka Obiazor among second options, but McLimore has to make sure the biggest star in the league gets her touches and the Jaguars have an overall stronger team than Youngstown State. McLimore is another player who suffered from COVID-19 stoppages limiting the number of games she was able to play, with six games missed through no fault of her own.

Like the IUPUI players, Lindsey Duvall would likely be getting more recognition if not for how many games her team missed due to COVID-19 stoppages. When she did play, Duvall was an absolute star. On a per-game basis, she was fifth in the league in scoring and seventh in rebounding. It’s a particularly impressive feat considering the four teams that Northern Kentucky played to end the season were the top four seeds in the upcoming Horizon League Tournament. Unfortunately, with just 12 league games played it’s difficult to grade her next to players who put in nearly a whole extra half of the league season.

Walstad’s frontcourt partner in crime, Brandi Bisping was Milwaukee’s lone Preseason All-Horizon League pick before taking a backseat to her teammate during the season. Nonetheless, Milwaukee’s significant overachievement from the Preseason Poll was that Bisping put up an even better season this year. As a result, she’s able to live up to her preseason expectations despite not being the Panthers’ primary option.

Third Team All-League

Nneka Obiazor feels very out of place here. Our Freshman of the Year pick is putting up numbers that clearly don’t look like they belong on the third team, but with Youngstown State’s 9-7 Horizon League record it’s difficult to justify that they’re one of the three teams with two of the season’s top ten performers. Thinking back on it, I’m wondering if I should flip this pick with Dunn in case the YSU star decides to stick it to a niche blog for picking her Third Team All-League and returns for a sixth season with the Penguins.

Chelsea Olson is one of the more versatile players in the league. While she missed out on a double-digit scoring average; she was second in the league in assists, sixth in blocks, and cracked the top 20 in both steals and rebounds. Once again, a YSU player gets knocked down slightly in the rankings because of the team’s league record.

Alona Blackwell is a high-quality second option for the surprise fourth seed Oakland. While it’s hard for her numbers to stand out next to her do-everything teammate Kahlaijah Dean, she also did a little bit of everything for the Golden Grizzlies. Dean had some of her best performances in some of Oakland’s biggest weekends. She averaged 13.5 points per game in the team’s sweep of league champion Wright State and averaged 14.5 per game against Green Bay in a series where the Golden Grizzlies were one rimmed-out shot away from one of the biggest upsets of the early season.

Tyler Frierson is one of the more interesting players in the Horizon League. Her per 40 minute and per 100 possession statistics are worthy of First Team consideration, as she’s Wright State’s second leading scorer and the league’s fourth leading rebounder in just 17.5 minutes per game. Unfortunately, the 6-foot-4 Center isn’t likely to come close to the 40 minutes needed to accumulate those stats. Despite avoiding fouls well, her season-high for minutes is 24, set and then matched in a sweep of Milwaukee.

Nadia Dumas was Cleveland State’s second leading scorer and rebounder in Horizon League play. Up until this past weekend against Youngstown State, she was the definition of consistency for the Vikings. In that 12-game stretch, she never scored fewer than eight points or more than 19. Her stats rarely jump off the page, but she has regularly made a positive impact for the team.

Yesterday, we announced the HoriZone Roundtable picks for the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Postseason Awards. Naturally, that means today we’re ready with our First, Second and Third Team All-Horizon League picks.

With some of our Preseason All-League picks like Darius Quisenberry, Rashad Williams and Al Eichelberger battling injuries throughout the season, there was plenty of unexpected room to slide into the top two All-League teams. With the addition of two more Horizon League schools, we opted to follow last year’s lead and select a Third Team for the postseason.

Take a look at our team’s 2021 Horizon League Men’s Basketball All-League selections:

First Team All-Horizon League

Love was our Horizon League Player of the Year pick after a dominant end to the season unquestionably elevated him above Tanner Holden as the standout for a Wright State team that tied for a share of the regular season crown. From there, our voters picked the best player on the best team over Antoine Davis and his gaudy scoring totals on 10-6 Detroit Mercy. 

Davis narrowly missed on Player of the Year honors after shooting a ridiculous 40.1 percent from beyond the 3-point arc on a high volume of shots. After an 0-4 start to league play where Davis shot just 33.8 percent from the field, the Titans went on a two week mental health break related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon the team’s return, Davis bounced back beautifully from the rough start to lead the team to a 10-2 record down the stretch.

IUPUI star Marcus Burk led the Jaguars to a 7-9 record in Horizon League play a year after the team finished in a distant last place a year ago. Not to let Antoine Davis outdo him as a shooter, Burk shot 42.9 percent from beyond the arc. Despite COVID-19 wiping out enough league games that the Jaguars played less league games than last year in spite of an expanded schedule, Burk was the key component in IUPUI more than doubling its Horizon League win total in 2021.

Jalen Moore finished his first season at Oakland as exactly the floor general Greg Kampe was missing a year ago. Moore’s assist total isn’t just first in the Horizon League, it’s first by almost four assists per game. The 3.7 assist per game gap between Moore and Te’Jon Lucas’ 5.8 would be the ninth best assist per game total of a Horizon League player. That would likely be enough to make Kampe happy, but Moore is also third in the league in scoring even after a recent shooting slump.

After two seasons of being one of the first players out on our Preseason and Postseason All-League votes, Bohannon comfortably makes the first team. With Preseason First Team All-League pick Darius Quisenberry hindered by an injury, Bohannon stepped into the role of go-to-guy very well. He had just three 20-point performances in his first three seasons at YSU, but eclipsed the mark eight times in 20 Horizon League contests as a senior.

Second Team All-Horizon League

Tanner Holden was Wright State’s leading scorer by a comfortable margin for much of the year until Loudon Love’s late season surge. While that was going on, Holden’s shooting slumped and he had a couple single-digit scoring performances. With a strong field of All-League contenders, all it takes is a few weeks of play that aren’t up to par to knock a player out of Player of the Year contention. With that said, our preseason prediction of Holden as a breakout player looks pretty good right now.

One thing that might get lost when you look at Amari Davis’ season is that changing coaches from Linc Darner and his uptempo style to Bo Ryan’s son and his…more Bo Ryan-esque tempo means that Davis’ counting stats aren’t what they would’ve been last year. Nonetheless Davis upped his scoring, assists, and steals while seeing only a slight decline in rebounds. Obviously his per possession stats are even more improved. Adding a 3-point shot that’s at least passable enough that defenders need to get a hand in his face allowed him to increase his overall effective field goal percentage despite his shooting from inside the arc decreasing from last year. While Green Bay’s breakout star was obviously P.J. Pipes, Amari Davis’ improved counting statistics despite the much slower pace still have us feeling alright with our pick as well.

Torrey Patton was one of the more consistent players on both sides of the ball in the Horizon League this year. The senior forward rarely jumped off of the page, but reached double figures in 18 of 20 Horizon League games for the Vikings. He was also selected as our pick for Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year. With quiet but stellar performances on a near-nightly basis, Patton feels like the embodiment of a Cleveland State team that many can’t explain as Horizon League Champion.

Under normal circumstances it’d be difficult to justify having Grant Basile give one of the league’s co-champions the Player of the Year and two Second Team All-League players while the other co-champ has just one second teamer, but clearly this wasn’t a normal season. Cleveland State and Wright State took dramatically different approaches this year, with the Vikings regularly going 12 or even 14-deep in the rotation while the Raiders frequently used just two bench players. The result for WSU is that a player like Basile can earn All-League honors after coming off the bench for six of the team’s first seven games. Like his teammate Holden, Basile is a 2020 All-Freshman team pick that clearly lived up to his breakout player potential.

Trevon Faulkner came into the year with high expectations from our staff following the graduation of 2020 All-League picks Tyler Sharpe, Dantez Walton and Jalen Tate. While he couldn’t improve his shooting, he still very much lived up to those expectations by being a reliable scorer for the Norse while contributing in other areas of the game. He finished the year twelfth in scoring, and despite being just 6-foot-3 finished sixteenth in rebounding.

Third Team All-Horizon League

During the first half of the season, it looked like Jarred Godfrey was destined for a First Team All-League selection. Then both he and Purdue Fort Wayne saw their seasons change dramatically. The 20-point performances for Godfrey and the wins for PFW that were regular occurrences in the first half of the year became far more rare down the stretch.

Given that he’d already been a productive player at Ohio, Teyvion Kirk’s instant success in the Horizon League is something that was definitely predictable. Kirk wasn’t always the best shooter and his scoring total wound up sixteenth in the league, but he more than made up for it with an assist total good for fifth in Horizon League play and rebounding numbers that snuck him into the league’s Top 10.

Despite being undersized, Daniel Oladapo established himself as one of the premier frontcourt players in the Horizon League. He finished the regular season as the one of two players to average a double-double in league play, with Player of the Year Loudon Love missing out on being a third by 0.1 rebounds per game. Oladapo put up some absolutely insane rebounding totals, getting at least 18 rebounds on four separate occasions in league play. Clearly, the departures of Xavier Hill-Mais and Brad Brechting created the opportunity for Oladapo to be a breakout star.

We’ve known Marques Warrick was going to be the Freshman of the Year for a long time. Now, he’s officially posted a season good enough to earn honors that aren’t reserved for players fresh out of high school. Warrick finished the year fifth in the Horizon League in scoring while maintaining a high level of efficiency and continuing to improve as the season went on. Something tells me we’ll be seeing a lot of Mr. Warrick on these lists going forward.

Had he finished out the year with RMU and produced at a similar level, A.J. Bramah very well might have pushed Naz Bohannon off of the top All-League team. Instead, he became one of the more divisive All-League candidates. Some graded him on the performances we saw. Others docked him for playing just 11 Horizon League games. Others decided that since he was no longer a Horizon League player they wouldn’t include him at all. In the end, he sneaks into the last spot on the third All-League team.

Love’s late surge helps him win Player of the Year

With the Horizon League regular season over, it’s time for the HoriZone Roundtable postseason awards and All-League Teams. We’ll lead things off with our men’s basketball awards, with the women’s coming shortly and All-League teams later today.

This year, our writers and podcast staff collaborated on the men’s basketball awards and All-League teams.

For the third time time in a row (preseason and postseason selections), Loudon Love and “wins” bested Antoine Davis and “stats” for Horizon League Player of the Year. Dennis Gates won Coach of the Year from the top of the standings despite our projected last-place finisher arguably having a stronger resume than the one Gates won the award with last year. Torrey Patton emerged from a large field of candidates to narrowly win Defensive Player of the Year. Marques Warrick made official what we’ve known was coming for a long time as our Freshman of the Year. And finally, voters decided that five Horizon League starts wasn’t too many to disqualify Green Bay’s second leading scorer Josh Jefferson as Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year.

Player of the Year: Loudon Love, WSU

HoriZone Roundtable Preseason Player of the Year Loudon Love has lived up to expectations and is our 2021 Horizon League Player of the Year.

It was a result that definitely developed over the season, as although Love was consistently flirting with averaging a double-double in Horizon League pay it wasn’t until the a string of dominant performances that began in late January where he established himself as this season’s go-to-guy over wing Tanner Holden.

Over halfway into Horizon League play, Love was averaging 14.5 points per game in league contests while Holden was averaging 17.8. It would be one thing if that difference were the result of Holden taking a much higher volume of shots, but through thirteen Horizon League games, Holden’s effective field goal percentage was actually nearly seven points higher than Love’s. Love had a substantial lead on the boards and had the advantage of being the defending Player of the Year, but there was a legitimate discussion about which WSU player would have deserved to win the award.

That’s when Love took over. He averaged 22.7 points per game on 59.4 percent shooting along with 10.7 rebounds in the last seven games of league play. At the same time, Holden started to fade into the background. The end result is that Love is comfortably ahead of Holden in both scoring and rebounding, and Wright State’s best Player of the Year candidate is a no-brainer.

After Antoine Davis won our Preseason Player of the year for 2019-20, Love has now picked up two postseason Player of the Year awards as well as being our Preseason Player of the Year this season. Wins have a clear advantage over stats among our voters.

Coach of the Year: Dennis Gates, CSU

For the second season in a row, Dennis Gates is HoriZone Roundtable’s pick for Coach of the Year.

Interestingly, Gates was the pick this year from the complete opposite perspective that he won it from last year. A season ago his Cleveland State team was the overwhelming pick to finish last in the league and wound up with a surprising 7-11 record in league play, narrowly missing a first round home game in the Horizon League tournament. The dramatic overachieving got him selected over Wright State’s Scott Nagy, who was just meeting expectations by winning the league by two games as the near-unanimous preseason champion.

This year, the Vikings were projected to finish fourth in the HoriZone Roundtable Preseason Poll and finished as the regular season champion. Like Cleveland State last year, IUPUI was a consistent last-place pick in our preseason poll. Due to COVID-19 stoppages, the Jaguars actually played fewer Horizon League games this year than schools played in 2020. Nonetheless, Byron Rimm’s team finished with a 7-9 Horizon League record, matching Gates’ 2020 win total with two less losses.

For all intents and purposes, both the predictably successful coach at the top of the league and the projected last-place finisher had stronger resumes this season. Ultimately, Gates gets the nod because a fourth place projection and first place finish is an impressive overachievement instead of simply meeting expectations.

Gates will almost certainly win the official award, as the league’s official voters thought CSU would finish in seventh place.

Defensive Player of the Year: Torrey Patton, CSU

This vote was out of control. Four Cleveland State players and two Wright State players — along with a couple others — were nearly even in the vote and it wasn’t until the final vote was cast that I could make the call that Torrey Patton is our pick for Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year.

Much like CSU’s defense, which shifts from man-to-man into zone, versatility is a big part of what makes Patton so valuable to the Vikings defensively. The 6-foot-5 senior forward is primarily a perimeter player, but with three true guards starting alongside him in the Vikings’ lineup Patton is the guy who will slide into the post to defend next to Spider Johnson when an opponent plays a more traditional lineup. Much like how his reliability on offense is a big part of CSU’s success, his versatility is a big part of the team’s defensive success.

In the end, one of our Cleveland State guys was torn between Patton and another CSU player. He decided to flip a coin to come up with his answer, and wound up casting the tie-breaking vote for Patton.

So if you’re like the vast majority of our staff and disagree with our pick? That’s OK, there were a number of strong contenders and the field was wide open this year. But don’t get mad at us, get mad at the coin.

Freshman of the Year: Marques Warrick, NKU

Not to say I told you so, but…

OK, so there hasn’t been a doubt on this one since the first half of the season. In a few hours Warrick is probably going to pick up his seventh Horizon League Freshman of the Week award of the 13 awarded. He could’ve played worse down the stretch than he did through the first half of the season and still won Freshman of the Year. Instead, he played better. The 6-foot-2 guard averaged 16.4 points per game during the first half of Horizon League play, which was already a huge improvement over the 10.2 he averaged in non-league play. In the last ten games he’s bumped his scoring up once again, averaging 18.4 points per game.

And it’s not just that Warrick is taking a bunch of shots to rack up high scoring totals, he’s maintained a high level of efficiency along the way. On the season, Warrick shot 46.4 percent from the field and 37.2 percent from long range. In league play, those numbers jump to 47.4 percent from the field and 38.7 percent from long range. His effective field goal percentages of 54.6 overall and 55.7 in Horizon League play are definitely a big part of why Northern Kentucky finished 11-7 in Horizon League play and gets a bye in the first round of the league tournament. As a result, Warrick is garnering not just Freshman of the Year consideration, but All-League consideration as well.

Sixth Man of the Year: Josh Jefferson, Green Bay

There’s always some gray area when it comes to this award. Grant Basile came off the bench for Wright State in nine of Wright State’s first 10 games, but started the final 13. In our eyes, starting more than half of the season — and 60 percent of the Horizon League season — takes Basile out of contention

Jefferson started every game from Green Bay’s season opener to the end of its first weekend of Horizon League play, then three of the last four games for the Phoenix. That adds up to nine of 24 games, but just five of the team’s 20 Horizon League games. As he wasn’t a starter for 75 percent of Horizon League play, most of our voters clearly felt comfortable picking him.

Once you get over the hurdle of whether he qualifies, Jefferson is arguably just as much of a lock for this award as Warrick is for Freshman of the Year. The 6-foot-2 senior finished the year averaging 14.8 points per game, good for second place on the Phoenix despite starting the majority of the team’s games on the bench. While a number of hot shooters this season might make it hard to tell, Jefferson’s Horizon League effective field goal percentage of 49.5 is a very respectable number that compares well to several players that earned All-League honors last year.