The Horizon League regular season has come to an end, and Dan Gliot from the Horizon League joins Bob, Matt and John to explain the ins and outs of the formula, seeding and the tourney format. Bob, Matt and John also talk about the last weekend of the regular season, including how any HL team has a shot at the tournament.
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A.J. Bramah’s decision to transfer from Robert Morris has opened up a number of discussions within Horizon League fandom. The senior forward led the team in both scoring and rebounding in every game he played against Division I competition this year, so it obviously throws a great deal of uncertainty into the end of the Colonials’ season. But RMU is currently in last place and the regular season ends on Saturday, so it might not change all that much for the team.
Next came questions of how it would impact All-League teams. Some media members feel Bramah’s per-game production warrants First Team selection, while others feel that choosing to leave the team should mean he’s not in the running at all. Obviously there will be a significant impact, with a likely spot on the first team opening up.
One question that hasn’t been addressed is: if a player whose senior year went as well as A.J. Bramah’s plans on taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility and holding off on a pro career for another season, who else might?
Let’s take a look at some of the Horizon League’s top seniors who might return next year:
Al Eichelberger – if there was one senior star that seemed likely to return for another year, it’s Eichelberger. After averaging 14.5 points and 6.4 rebounds per game as a junior on his way to Third Team All-League honors, injuries have derailed his season this year. He’s averaging just 5.2 points and 3.5 rebounds per game in limited minutes this year. The overseas opportunities he’d see coming off of this year likely wouldn’t compare to what he’d get with a return to his 2020 form in 2022. Don’t be shocked if Big Al is back for the Vikings next year.
Te’Jon Lucas – while several of the Horizon League’s 2020 stars have struggled this year, most of them would’ve had eligibility left without the blanket waiver. Lucas is the biggest name senior who hasn’t played as well as he did last year. There’s also an added caveat for the Milwaukee guard: if 6-foot-10 5-star recruit Patrick Baldwin Jr. opts to play for his dad and the Panthers, his combination of size and skills will draw heavy attention from opposing defenses and open things up for Lucas to regain the efficiency he showed last year. His assist-to-turnover ratio would likely also skyrocket in the process of his team adds a mobile shooter who is taller than many Horizon League post players.
P.J. Pipes – the upside of another year for Pipes is…well, upside. He’s steadily improved over the last three years from a promising youngster to a player who was robbed of sixth man of the year honors, and now into one of Green Bay’s go-to players. Making his 4.4 point per game improvement from last year to this year even more impressive, Green Bay’s pace has plummeted. The Phoenix were among the ten fastest teams in the nation under Linc Darner last year when Pipes averaged 9.3 points per game, while this year the teams tempo ranks 254 nationally – tenth in the Horizon League – while Pipes is scoring 13.7 points per contest. If he kept on the same trajectory he’s been on, Pipes could be in line to become Green Bay’s 1b. to Amari Davis’ 1a.
Marcus Burk, Jaylen Minnett and Elyjah Goss – many were surprised when Burk, Minnett and Goss opted to return to IUPUI after the Jaguars posted a 3-15 league record under Byron Rimm. All three seemingly could’ve pursued bigger opportunities like Bramah has. Given that they’ve already shocked us once, who knows!?!?! Maybe they’ll go for one more surprise and try to lead the Jaguars to a winning league record in 2022.
Loudon Love – OK, maybe I just want to throw a little nightmare fuel onto the fire. Love is the caliber of player who would likely have lucrative opportunities overseas and with his style he would be unlikely to improve his stock with another season. With the Raiders once again looking like the team to beat in the Horizon League Tournament, another possibility is that a major team will hire Scott Nagy away and Love might take an extra year of eligibility to play for his coach in a power conference.
Naz Bohannon – I genuinely don’t believe this one as I’m typing it, but I wouldn’t have pegged A.J. Bramah as a candidate to spend another season in college for all the same reasons that I don’t think Bohannon will. Bohannon is a highly productive college frontcourt player who has some elements you’d look for as he transitions to the wing at the next level (if he gets a rebound, he’s probably the guy taking the ball up the court) but severely lacking in others (he hasn’t hit a 3-pointer since his season debut against Binghamton.) Both Bohannon and Bramah might do well to ask Amari Davis what he did to become a passable 3-point shooter on a much higher shot volume than last season. Until that happens, I don’t see much upside in Bohannon staying another season…but Bramah’s doing it, so what do I know?
The Horizon League’s official Tournament seeding and our Power Rankings might never be more at odds than they are right now. With the league seemingly making Horizon League games played its biggest factor in the standings while these rankings weigh recent wins and strength of schedule, it was bound to happen.
There wasn’t much movement in the rankings this week, and I might’ve made a little too much movement artificially, but here it is:
| Team | Rank | LW | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wright State Raiders | 1 | 1 | – |
| Green Bay Phoenix | 2 | 2 | – |
| IUPUI Jaguars | 3 | 3 | – |
| Cleveland State Vikings | 4 | 6 | +2 |
| Northern Kentucky Norse | 5 | 4 | -1 |
| Milwaukee Panthers | 6 | 5 | -1 |
| Oakland Golden Grizzlies | 7 | 7 | – |
| Youngstown State Penguins | 8 | 8 | – |
| Robert Morris Colonials | 9 | 9 | – |
| UIC Flames | 10 | 10 | – |
| Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons | 11 | 11 | – |
Early in the season, it was hard to get a good read on Wright State. The Raiders had an impressive record, but hadn’t played any of the league’s top teams. The last two weeks put an end to that; the Raiders went 4-0 against Milwaukee and Northern Kentucky and now appear destined for the top seed in the Horizon League Tournament. While this weekend’s matchup between WSU and Green Bay will have significant impact on the next Power Rankings, Wright State has done more than enough for the top spot for now.
Green Bay cruised to a pair of wins over UIC this weekend. It’s not the type of marquee win that was going to elevate the Phoenix closer to Wright State, but it’s hard to knock a team for 24 and 25-point wins. That’s especially true since the Flames have had a number of fairly close games in recent weeks. With all of that in mind, Green Bay keeps last week’s spot in the Power Rankings.
IUPUI also pulled off a sweep to maintain last week’s spot in the rankings. The Jaguars beat Youngstown State twice, albeit by smaller margins than they were beating the rest of the league early in the season. But again, the Jaguars look like a team that could be a top contender for the Horizon League Tournament Title. With IUPUI originally scheduled to play Detroit Mercy this week, the Jaguars’ regular season is over.
Okay, this is probably my overreaction of the week, but Cleveland State skyrockets to fourth in the power rankings with a weekend sweep of Purdue Fort Wayne plus Northern Kentucky losing four in a row and Milwaukee splitting with an Oakland team that hasn’t looked like it belonged in the upper echelon all year. The Vikings have won five straight Horizon League games.
Northern Kentucky lost two more games after Preseason All-League guard Ally Niece went down with a season-ending injury. I’m reluctant to punish a team that looked so good until the last two weeks when the losses might just be the result of playing the top teams in the Horizon League in those games. But NKU is now just 2-4 in Horizon League play since a December 20 win over Purdue Fort Wayne, so it’s hard to get a good read.
Milwaukee split with Oakland, which is enough to argue they can stay above the Golden Grizzlies in the Power Rankings since they seemed to be in a better overall position all weekend, but the team falls again because it hasn’t looked like the same one that jumped out to a 12-0 start to Horizon League play. The Panthers are just 1-5 in the last three weekends. All of the losses were to solid opponents, but it’s impossible to deny Milwaukee’s recent slide.
Oakland was on the other side of the weekend split that cemented Milwaukee’s slide as a problem, but the Golden Grizzlies don’t have the quality wins necessary to jump Milwaukee at this point. That’s especially true since Oakland needed a late surge in Friday’s 83-82 overtime win or they would’ve been swept.
Youngstown State has a chance to make me look foolish for putting a team that’s 7-7 in Horizon League play four spots higher than the 8-6 Penguins. Before last weekend’s sweep at the hands of IUPUI, YSU won eight of its previous nine games. With that said, the best win in that run was against seventh ranked Oakland.
Robert Morris remains ranked where it was last week because nobody behind the Colonials made a move and RMU had the week off thanks to a previously scheduled set of games against Detroit Mercy.
UIC stood little chance against heavy preseason favorite IUPUI this weekend, but with the lack of balance between the top and bottom of the league this year that just means the Flames stay put in tenth place this week. This week likely won’t go too much better, as despite Milwaukee’s struggles the team has had no problem against schools like Detroit Mercy and Purdue Fort Wayne this year.
Purdue Fort Wayne definitely didn’t see its first season in the Horizon League playing out quite like this. The Mastodons are still winless, likely thanks in part to not getting to play either UIC or Detroit Mercy. While the team lost a number of seniors from last year’s squad, moving from the Summit League – which sent two teams to the NCAA Tournament in 2019 – to the Horizon League figured to make for an easier season. Obviously that hasn’t been the case.
Don’t consider it contradictory, think of it as a second opinion. Here are Norse Report’s Power Rankings.
Our formula for HLPOY has been tweaked this recenly to account for an anomaly in how it was scoring certain bench players, who are unlikely to win the award based on their lack of playing time. We’ve reformulated our metric to account for this and have a new top 5 list.
Written by Chris Hart; Edited by Kyle Craven
| Team | Record (Conference) | Kenpom Rank |
| Wright State | 17-4 (15-3) | 56 |
| Cleveland State | 15-6 (15-3) | 152 |
| Detroit | 9-9 (8-6) | 160 |
| Northern Kentucky | 12-9 (10-6) | 204 |
| Oakland | 9-16 (9-9) | 220 |
| Youngstown State | 13-10 (8-10) | 237 |
| Milwaukee | 7-10 (6-9) | 230 |
| Green Bay | 7-15 (7-11) | 252 |
| IUPUI | 7-8 (6-8) | 259 |
| UIC | 8-11 (5-9) | 264 |
| Purdue Fort Wayne | 6-13 (5-13) | 293 |
| Robert Morris | 4-12 (3-10) | 287 |
This was one of the first weeks that it seemed like teams played into what the analytics have been saying all along. Cleveland State finally slipped up and opened the door for a tie in first place with Wright State (the statistically superior team). Detroit continued winning and is pushing for a #3 seed in the Horizon League Tournament. You will notice that our Power Rankings are beginning to converge with the Kenpom rankings because of this.
It should come as no surprise that this teams recent turnaround has coincided with the return of Darius Quisenberry. Horizon League fans should be well aware of what Quisenberry is capable of and will likely give their first-round opponent in the Horizon League tournament some serious heartburn. That being said, they have done their recent damage against the bottom feeders in the Horizon League. Even if they pick off two wins against IUPUI this week, we really will not have a true indication of their strength until we get to the tournament.
The Flames are in steep decline as they have now dropped seven straight games. While the first few games of this losing streak could be brushed off as tough games (Wright State, NKU), this week they got swept by IUPUI. It won’t get any easier to end the season as their final series is against a respectable Green Bay team. It is not unrealistic to think that the Flames might end with a 5-11 conference record. This is turning out to be a rather disappointing end to a promising season.
| Player | Class | Team |
| 1. Loudon Love | Senior | Wright State |
| 2. Marcus Burk | Senior | IUPUI |
| 3. Trevon Faulkner | Junior | NKU |
| 4. Tanner Holden | Sophomore | Wright State |
| 5. Antoine Davis | Junior | Detroit |
Honorable Mention
While the number one spot remains unchanged, we have seen some dramatic shake ups in the rest of the race. Marcus Burk rocketed up into the Top 5 with a fantastic performance over the weekend. After dropping over 30 points in consecutive games he pushed himself to a close second in scoring in the conference behind fellow top 5 player Antoine Davis. Norse fans will notice that Adrian Nelson has shown up in the Honorable Mention section for the first time. As I have mentioned before, our metric really values efficiency and Nelson is one of the 50 most efficient scorers in the country. That combined with his prolific rebounding has pushed him into the very edge of our top 10.
We have finally reached the last week of the regular season. I have to say I am impressed that with everything that 2020 and 2021 has brought us that they were able to get a season of college basketball in at all. That it seems like we will have an NCAA Tournament is also very impressive. This has been a unique season for the Horizon League but one that brings me hope for the future. There are some very promising teams in this league that the outlook for the 21-22 season is very bright. In terms of this last week of the season there are some very fascinating games to watch. The question is how will it impact the seeding for the tournament? Based on the wacky formula the league is using, it is nearly impossible to predict.
The Mastodons fell to Youngstown State in a a pair of close games over the weekend. Friday’s 84-70 loss was due to an all around poor defensive effort, while Saturday’s 72-70 loss was heartbreaking after having to foul the last two minutes and an inability to hit a go ahead shot in the closing minutes.
Jarred Godfrey and Jalon Pipkins had a stellar weekend, but they were unable to find consistent help, and the Mastodons struggled to get stops when they truly needed to.
They have two more games before the Horizon League Tournament kicks off, and the Mastodons need to find some way to gain some momentum. Anything can happen in a conference tournament, and the key is to be playing well at the right time.
Momentum will be hard to come by this weekend, with Purdue Fort Wayne facing off against one of the top dogs in the conference, Cleveland State.
These games will be at home for PFW, where they play much better, with a 4-5 record, as opposed to on the road, where they have a 2-8 record.
If the Mastodons can get hot at the right time and steal a game over Cleveland State, that can go a long way in gaining momentum for the conference tournament.
This will be the first time they compete in the Horizon League Tournament, so they are somewhat of a wildcard. If Godfrey and Pipkins can keep up the scoring output, and Deonte Billups and Bobby Planutis can hit shots consistently from deep, then the Mastodons have a chance to pull of an upset.
As of now, PFW will likely face off against Wright State in the tournament, which will be a tall task, but this time of year anything is possible. Hence the name “March Madness”. No it won’t quite be March, but it is still the time of year when madness can occur.
The Mastodons were consistently one of the best shooting teams in the country, and when a team is hitting three-pointers at a high clip, then they can knock off a top seed.
Back to this weekend…Cleveland State is a very stout defensive team, and they are trying to grab the 1 seed for the conference tournament, so it is unlikely they will overlook the Mastodons. If PFW wants to pull off an upset in the tournament, they need to show it this weekend, and steal one of the games over Cleveland State.
PFW is on an eight-game losing streak, and going into the tournament on a ten-game losing streak is less than ideal.
The Mastodons need to have the mentality of they have nothing to lose. Cleveland State is the team with something to lose, so they need to throw haymakers and try and knock off the Vikings and get some positive momentum for the conference tournament, where they will need the same mentality.
Wright State’s stranglehold on first place in the power rankings increased when Cleveland State lost on ESPNU on Friday. With the WSU sweep and Cleveland State’s split with previously third place Detroit Mercy, there was no movement at the top of the power rankings. But after the top four things got crazy thanks to some teams previously near the bottom of the rankings pulling off sweeps while the middle continued to struggle.
| Team | Rank | LW | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wright State Raiders | 1 | 1 | – |
| Cleveland State Vikings | 2 | 2 | – |
| Detroit Mercy Titans | 3 | 3 | – |
| Northern Kentucky Norse | 4 | 4 | – |
| IUPUI Jaguars | 5 | 10 | +5 |
| Youngstown State Penguins | 6 | 9 | +3 |
| Oakland Golden Grizzlies | 7 | 5 | -2 |
| Green Bay Phoenix | 8 | 8 | – |
| Milwaukee Panthers | 9 | 6 | -3 |
| UIC Flames | 10 | 7 | -3 |
| Robert Morris Colonials | 11 | 12 | +1 |
| Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons | 12 | 11 | -1 |
Wright State had its fourth straight weekend sweep in the second half of the weekend. The Raiders are tied with Cleveland State for the best record in the league, but haven’t lost since the Friday game with CSU. Additionally, WSU is over 100 spots higher than anyone in the league in the NET rankings.
Cleveland State had enough of a lead on the rest of the league to stay in second following a split with Detroit Mercy. If Matt’s prediction on the podcast that nobody in the league was going to beat another team four times proves true, this spot would become vulnerable as CSU plays Purdue Fort Wayne this weekend.
Detroit Mercy lost its first game in 2021, but did so against first-place Cleveland State. As a result, the Titans’ first loss of the new year comes in a weekend that actually helps legitimize it as a threat down the stretch. Prior to this weekend, 9-9 Oakland was the only team the Titans beat in league play they didn’t have a losing Horizon League record.
Northern Kentucky split with Green Bay, with a Friday overtime affair marking NKU’s lone loss in its last four weekends. Like the Titans heading into the weekend, there are still questions about the Norse and whether the recent run is due to improvement or a weaker schedule. Nonetheless, 7-1 through the last eight games warrants a strong spot in the power rankings.
Northern Kentucky stayed fourth in the rankings despite a loss thanks in part to the middle of the league suffering worse weekends. On the other end of things, IUPUI wound up the biggest beneficiary. The Jaguars swept UIC and in the process skyrocketed to fifth this week. Since being swept by Wright State, the Jaguars have gone 4-2.
Youngstown State is the other team that made a significant jump in the rankings thanks to being on the winning side of a weekend sweep this week. The Penguins swept Purdue Fort Wayne this week to move to four straight wins in Horizon League play. With that said, wins over Robert Morris and PFW aren’t convincing arguments that the Penguins will threaten the top of the league right now.
Oakland had a great opportunity to move up this week with continued slumps from Milwaukee and UIC. But the Golden Grizzlies fell to a Robert Morris team just hours removed from the announcement they all-everything forward A.J. Bramah would be leaving the team. As a result, OU falls in this week’s rankings.
If there’s an example of how close the middle of the league is, it should be that Green Bay and Northern Kentucky played one of the most competitive series of the season with one ranked fourth and the other eighth. With that said, the Phoenix are 2-4 in the last three weeks. For now, they’ll remain at the bottom of the league’s middle tier.
Milwaukee’s losing streak continued this weekend, prompting a further slide in the Power Rankings. With that said, this was easily the most palatable weekend of the losing streak. The Panthers were relatively competitive with Wright State in both games, making them the only team that can say that all season. Still, at some point Milwaukee needs to get some actual wins.
One of the main things protecting Milwaukee from a bigger slide has been UIC going through an even bigger slump. The Flames looked like a potential contender early but are now losers of seven straight heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
Robert Morris seemingly should’ve stayed in last with the loss of A.J. Bramah, but the shorthanded Colonials beat Oakland this weekend while Purdue Fort Wayne is still looking for its first win of the second half of the Horizon League season.
As mentioned, Purdue Fort Wayne‘s season has spun out of control since the Mastodons had a .500 record halfway through league play. Now at 5-13, PFW hasn’t won a game since. And things don’t get easier this week, with a matchup against first place Cleveland State.
Wright State would begin the final month of the regular season with a rematch of their final game of the 2019-20 season… the 2020 Horizon League semifinals against the UIC Flames.
The teams would start out slowly on offense, just like the Raiders did last March.
Throughout the half it would get faster and faster, as they ultimately took their first double digit lead with 5:45 remaining. Wright State would lead by a score of 33-23 at the break.
Less than a minute out of the half, Loudon Love would reel in his eighth double-double of the season, finishing with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
He would help the Raiders to a 72-47 victory to start the weekend, stretching their win streak out to six.
Trey Calvin would finish the game scoring 12, his first double digit scoring performance in three games. Grant Basile was a point shy of a double-double.
On Saturday, the Raiders would look to match their longest win streak of the season, as well as their fifth sweep of the Horizon League season.
They would be looking forward to doing that, starting the game out on a 9-2 run and taking a double-digit lead before the second media timeout.
It would never get too high for the Raiders in the first half as they alternated ten and seven point leads for the final ten minutes of the half.
Leading 36-29 at the break, the Raiders shot 50% from deep and outrebounded the Flames by five in the first frame.
UIC would come out of the half cutting it down to five, but a big 7-0 Raider run got the lead back out to 12 early.
The Raiders would grind out the rest of the half, leading by 11-15 for the majority of it. They would be able to stretch it out to 21, and ultimately win by a score of 77-57.
Both head coaches’ sons were able to play late, as Loudon Love racked in yet another double-double late in the half. He finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Grant Basile and Tanner Holden would each score double-digits as well.
Wright State would enter Valentine’s Day weekend looking for their longest win streak of the season. Also, it would possibly be Loudon Love’s final two games ever at the Nutter Center.
The Raiders would come out looking cool with their camouflage jersey’s. Their offense was the same, cold.
A big 7-0 run would give them a 14-10 lead at the second media timeout, as the Raiders made an amazing play to keep the ball alive, as well as their offense.
Milwaukee would get hot and regain the lead, but a 15-2 run before the half-allowed Wright to take a 42-28 lead at the half.
“If it wasn’t for that (run) we wouldn’t of won the game,” Head Coach Scott Nagy would say later on.
This was also in large part to their free throw shooting, where they were 11-12 from the charity stripe early.
Milwaukee would continue cutting into the lead during the second half, but the Raiders would respond as multiple players made key contributions.
Five Raiders scored double digits as they beat Milwaukee is game one, 92-81. This would stretch out their win streak to a season-high eight. Loudon Love led the way with 21, as Jaylon Hall scored 14 off the bench. Alex Huibregste made a couple key threes, as he ended the day a perfect 2-2 from behind the arc.
“Everyone on this team can score, and for sure at a high rate. I think it’s just that give-and-go offense,” said Love postgame.
Wright State would shoot 75% in the second half, but Milwaukee scored 53 points, making it a close game.
Later in the night, Cleveland State would drop a game against Detroit Mercy, creating a tie in first place between the Vikings and the Raiders. They would each win on Saturday, making the final weekend crucial for the ever important #1 seed and automatic bid to the NIT.
“What our guys have done, I can’t even tell you how proud I am of them,” said Nagy about the teams fight to first throughout the season.
Loudon Love would enter Saturday in what was more-than-likely his final game at the Nutter Center. He would make it a night to remember. The Raiders would lead in the first half by as much as 22, taking a 52-37 lead at the break.
Love finished the game scoring 29 and rebounding 12.
Milwaukee would cut the lead down to single digits about halfway through the half but could never get it down below six. Another great second half for the Panthers.
“It felt a little like bit like yesterday, pretty identical,” Nagy would say postgame.
The Raiders would finish their 2020-21 home campaign out rebounding their opponent by a score of 44-29, along with shooting over 50% from deep.
Jaylon Hall would have another big game, shooting 4-4 from deep, only missing one shot on the game, and scoring 19 off the bench as the Raiders extended their win streak to a season-high 12.
Hall attributed his great play to the movement, saying postgame, “The back-cuts and just the constant movement got me open. And my teammates again finding me, at the right time, giving me the chance to knock down those shots.”
Wright State will finish their regular season with a weekend series against rival Northern Kentucky. They have clinched either the first or second seed of the Horizon League Tournament.
This past weekend’s series between Cleveland State and Detroit featured two of the hottest teams in the Horizon League. The Vikings came into play riding a four game winning streak, while the Titans rattled off five in a row before their trip to Northeast Ohio. The Titans have looked like a completely different team following their mental health/COVID pause, as the Vikings certainly had their hands full with Antoine Davis and the Titans.
Game one of the doubleheader saw the Titans take a commanding lead early in the game. Detroit took a 46-30 lead into the halftime locker room. Horizon League player of the year candidate Antoine Davis led all scorers with 35 points on the night.
Torrey Patton led the Vikings back in the second half, as the senior scored a season high 33 points of his own. A Tre Gomillion dunk tied the game 63 with just over six minutes left in regulation. Unfortunately for the Vikings, Detroit freshman Noah Waterman iced the game down the stretch with three crucial three pointers. The Titans prevailed in game one in a shootout 89-83.
Game two started a lot like game one for the Vikings, as Detroit got off to a 14-1 lead, which forced an early Cleveland State timeout. Dennis Gates was quick to pull two of his starting guards, Craig Beaudion and D’Moi Hodge from the lineup in favor of Yahel Hill and freshman Alec Oglesby. Oglesby played a career high 33 minutes and scored 15 points, which was good enough to tie with Torrey Patton for the team high.
Following the conclusion of CSU’s 71-64 win, Dennis Gates stated, “My player of the game is Alec Oglesby. Being able to come in off the bench…and he was a +20 on the score so at that point, I had to make sure he was gonna stay in the game no matter what…being able to keep Alec Oglesby on the court is the reason we won this game.”
Oglesby, a three-star recruit from The Rock School in Florida was a huge land for Gates’ program. His continued maturation has provided the Vikings with yet another capable scorer and defender coming off of a deep bench.
With the regular season winding down with this weekend’s set of games, Horizon League fans are beginning to look towards the conference tournament and the rankings, something that has been the subject of much debate.
While the league has not made the rankings formula public, the Vikings remain in the number one spot, with Wright State, Oakland, and Northern Kentucky to follow. The top four teams in the standings will receive a first round bye, and play a home game in the second round. The tournament will also reseed after each round, meaning the top remaining team will face the lowest team.
What does this information mean for Cleveland State? The Vikings will certainly earn one of the top two seeds in the field, meaning they will not only get a first round bye, but will host a quarterfinals matchup on March 2. If CSU is able to win on the 2nd, they will advance to Indianapolis for the semi finals.
While Cleveland State’s final series of the regular season is not considered a must win, the Vikings will have the opportunity to fine tune their game on both ends of the floor against a team they have already defeated twice this season; Purdue Fort Wayne. Tipoff of game one is scheduled for February 19 at 7:00pm.
Wright State’s sweep of Milwaukee combined with Cleveland State’s nationally televised Friday night loss to Detroit Mercy has resulted in a tie at the top of the Horizon League standings.
Detroit Mercy’s win plus a loss by Northern Kentucky resulted in last week’s observation that the Norse might be emerging as a solid third place team proving premature. NKU wasn’t even in third place in the league’s official standings, then lost to previously seventh place Green Bay.
As this is a (hopefully) one-of-a-kind season, we don’t have access to the official league standings. If I were to guess, we’ll find out in a few hours that splits by NKU and Oakland kept the Golden Grizzlies ahead of the Norse in the league’s metrics. The Wright State/Cleveland State flip should be reflected in the league’s standings, and obviously 2-0 weekends from Youngstown State and IUPUI should help them move up.
| School | Record* |
|---|---|
| Wright State | 15-3 |
| Cleveland State | 15-3 |
| Northern Kentucky | 10-6 |
| Detroit Mercy | 8-6 |
| Oakland | 9-9 |
| Youngstown State | 8-10 |
| IUPUI | 6-8 |
| Milwaukee | 6-9 |
| Green Bay | 7-11 |
| UIC | 5-9 |
| Purdue Fort Wayne | 5-13 |
| Robert Morris | 3-10 |
While it wasn’t at the forefront of the weekend’s action, IUPUI-UIC featured an insane pair of performances from the Jaguars’ 2020 All-League pick Marcus Burk. Burk averaged a ridiculous 35 points per game against the Flames, and arguably an even more impressive 78.2 effective field goal percentage on 39 shots.
Freshman of the Week figures to be an interesting debate on the men’s side. If it were up to me, Noah Waterman would get it. While he averaged just 12 points per game, he added six rebounds per night and had an effective field goal percentage of 75. His five-for-seven night from beyond the arc on Friday led Detroit Mercy to the weekend’s biggest win over Cleveland State. Freshman of the Year favorite Marques Warrick averaged 17.5 points in a split against Green Bay and seems likely to be the league’s pick. If the league insists on someone from a team that went 2-0 over the weekend, Shemar Rathan-Mayes’ 14 points and four assists per game should have him in a good position.
Macee Williams has been in the background since IUPUI fell from first place, but the two-time defending Horizon League Player of the Year should still be in a good spot for a threepeat. This weekend, she averaged 20 points and 11 rebounds per game for the Jaguars in a sweep of Youngstown State.
Emani Jefferson led Wright State to a pair of wins over a dangerous Northern Kentucky team and is what I’d consider an easy pick for Horizon League Freshman of the Week. She averaged 17.5 points and 4 rebounds per game, with her perimeter scoring helping her to an effective field goal percentage of 105.6. Jasmine Kondrakiewicz had an excellent weekend with 14 points and nine rebounds per game, but did it against a UIC team that has just one league win.
Wright State cruised to a pair of wins against Milwaukee to make up ground on Cleveland State this weekend. On Friday, the teams played even until the finial six and half minutes of the first half. From there, the Raiders finished the half on a 15-2 run to take a 42-28 lead and maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of a 92-81 win. Saturday looked like it was going to be one of the blowouts Wright State has been accustomed to pulling off at least once every weekend in Horizon League play. The Raiders led 47-25 with just over four minutes to play in the first half, but Milwaukee chipped away and wound up losing by a smaller deficit 92-82.
Loudon Love put up another dominant weekend that should have him getting some consideration for Horizon League Player of the week. Love averaged 25 points and 10.5 rebounds for the Raiders. With an even better weekend this week than last, Love continued to establish himself as the favorite for another Horizon League Player of the Year award. Love is averaging 25 points and 10.8 rebounds per game for the Raiders in the last five games.
DeAndre Gholston had his best weekend of the year, which is saying something considering he’s Milwaukee’s leading scorer and rebounder this season. Gholston averaged 24.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game for Milwaukee. With his late surge and Te’Jon Lucas’ struggles, Gholston has emerged as an All-League candidate.
Detroit Mercy pulled off the most significant upset of the weekend on ESPNU on Friday. The Titans jumped out to a huge 39-19 lead thanks to hot shooting from seemingly everyone on the court. But the Vikings didn’t quit, eventually tying the game at 63 with 6:08 to play. From there, Waterman and Antoine Davis took over, combining for 22 points down the stretch to keep the Vikings from ever gaining the lead in an 89-83 win.
Davis continued his ascent to what now looks likely to be a First Team All-Horizon League selection. He averaged 29 points, six assists and six rebounds. In Friday’s win, he scored a season-high 35 points to lead the way for Detroit Mercy in the victory.
Torrey Patton had a career-high 33 points in Friday’s loss. Considering how this section has gone all season, that’s a really bizarre sentence to type. Patton’s success has always been a key indicator of CSU’s success, but his best game of the year was in a loss. He had a more typical 15 points and eight rebounds in Saturday’s win.
NKU and Green Bay took part in one of the most competitive series not just of the weekend, but of Horizon League play. Our friends at Norse Report laid out just how close the series was:
On Friday, Green Bay jumped out to a first half lead that grew to as much as nine before NKU chipped away at it for 26 minutes. A Bryson Langdon layup with 37 seconds to play tied the game up, but he missed an and-1 opportunity and the game went to overtime. From there, Green Bay got the best of NKU in an 86-82 win. Given the intro, Saturday’s outcome should be pretty clear. In a near-complete reversal of Friday, it was the Norse pulling ahead by nine before things tightened up in the second half. A P.J. Pipes 3-pointer with 1:35 to play capped off an 8-0 Green Bay run and put the Phoenix ahead for the first time in the second half at 66-65, but NKU responded with the last six points of the game in a 71-66 win.
With such slim margins, Trevon Faulkner’s play was a key to the weekend. Faulkner struggled on Friday, scoring just 11 points on 3-for-13 shooting. He bounced back nicely with 21 points on 9-for-17 shooting and three makes from long distance on Saturday. While shooting efficiency is still a struggle, Faulkner’s all-around game is a crucial part of NKU’s record being four games above .500 with two games to play in the regular season.
Josh Jefferson returned to the starting lineup this week and put up 26.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game for the Phoenix. Jefferson has been excellent off the bench since the second weekend of Horizon League play, but played great stepping into the lineup with P.J. Pipes sidelined on Friday and got to keep a starting spot on Saturday. It will be interesting to see whether a standout performance in a close loss will convince Will Ryan to keep him in the starting lineup.
The first place team in the league lost to an opponent that’d be .500 in Horizon League play if not for that victory and there’s a strong argument that it’s not the most surprising result of the weekend. Just hours after it was announced that the Horizon League’s second leading scorer and rebounder A.J. Bramah was ending his season and entering the transfer portal, RMU won a double-overtime thriller over Oakland. OU seemed to have command of the game from the first half, with the lead stretching as large as 10 points and the Golden Grizzlies never trailing for the rest of regulation. But a Dante Treacy 3-pointer with 59 seconds to play capped off a late RMU rally and forced overtime. Neither team went ahead by more than one possession in the first overtime, and Jon Williams tied the game with a pair of free throws with 34 seconds left in the extra session. RMU quickly got up by four in double overtime, and OU was unable to keep up as the Colonials won 88-82. Oakland seemed to learn its lesson on Saturday, taking a lead less than two minutes into the game, stretching it out to 30-15 and keeping the Colonials from ever pulling within a single possession in an 86-81 win.
Daniel Oladapo once again stuffed the stat sheet for Oakland, averaging 22 points and 13.5 rebounds for the Golden Grizzlies. The 6-foot-7 forward is averaging a double-double in Horizon League play with 14.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. On a team that’s full of volatile performers, Oladapo has been a second player who can regularly be relied on to produce. As a result, he seems to be well-positioned for postseason honors.
Kahliel Spear once again stepped up without A.J. Bramah in the lineup, averaging 12 points and 12 rebounds for RMU. Spear’s 16 point, 15 rebound game on Friday was undoubtedly crucial for the Colonials. Before Saturday, Spear was the only player other than Bramah to lead. theColonials in scoring or rebounding in league play. He’ll be key for the team next weekend against Detroit and looking forward to the 2021-22 season.
Youngstown State continued to climb the Horizon League standings with a weekend sweep of Purdue Fort Wayne. The Penguins cruised to an 84-70 win on Friday, taking the lead at 14-12 with 11:47 to play in the first half and never looking back. Saturday was a much more competitive contest, with YSU battling back from a nine-point deficit with 8:12 to play in the first half. From there, YSU always seemed to have the upper hand despite it being a back-and-forth contest. Naz Bohannon hit a jumper with 2:04 to play to give YSU a 68-64 lead, and while the last two minutes weren’t perfect the Penguins didn’t have an empty possession the rest of the way in a 72-70 win.
Bohannon had another strong weekend for the Penguins. He averaged 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists per game with an outstanding 5:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. With YSU’s late-season climb up the standings, Bohannon’s candidacy for postseason honors will only improve as long as he keeps posting these high-quality performances.
A return to form from Jarred Godfrey wasn’t enough to get the Mastodons a win this weekend. Godfrey averaged 20.5 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists per game for Purdue Fort Wayne. He even kept the turnovers low, averaging just 1.5 per game. But that along with an effective field goal percentage of 61.5 didn’t get Purdue Fort Wayne over the hump.
While Youngstown State’s schedule arguably made it easy to see a late-season surge coming, it’s unlikely many predicted the same from IUPUI. The Jaguars pulled off a weekend sweep of UIC and now have a chance to finish league play .500 and finish the regular season with a winning record. On Friday, the Jaguars raced out to an early lead and went into halftime up 10. The team didn’t let up, and extended its lead by another 10 points for an 89-69 win. The Flames did a better job of hanging around on Saturday, going into halftime down 43-38 but bouncing back from multiple IUPUI runs until the Jaguars went ahead 78-68 with 3:20 to play. From there, UIC never got closer than the final seven-point defecit as IUPUI won 88-81.
The weekend’s success wasn’t dependent on just Marcus Burk, but on all of IUPUI’s returning stars from last year. Elyjah Goss averaged 16 points and 11.5 rebounds per game for the weekend, pulling his season averages up to a double-double with 10.0 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. While Burk and Jaylen Minnett — who averaged 22.5 points per game on the weekend himself — might split votes and keep Goss from earning All-League honors even with a surprisingly strong season from IUPUI, there’s certainly a strong argument that he’s deserving of a spot.
Teyvion Kirk had one of his best weekends of the Horizon League season. He averaged 20 points, 5.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds for the Flames. While he wasn’t able to keep up the insanely high level of play that he started the season with — and the Flames have struggled significantly of late — he should still be positioned well for All-League honors after next weekend.
Wright State has pulled back into a first-place tie with Cleveland State, and Bob and Matt welcome ex-Raider Bill Wampler (@BillyWampler2) on the podcast to talk about his old team and their ongoing success. Bob and Matt also tackle the rest of the week in the Horizon League, which feature the exit of AJ Bramah from Robert Morris, Marcus Burk’s offensive tear, and a rare stumble for Cleveland State.
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