The past couple years have been a time of transition for the Horizon League. To put it kindly.
Other descriptions may not be so charitable. There’s no avoiding that the Horizon of late as a whole has struggled through some of the roughest times in its 40-year history.
Through it, though, two schools have emerged as the Horizon’s best over the past couple years, and are positioned well to stay there for a while. Perhaps they can even bring some strength back to a league that used to regularly compete for NCAA Tournament at-large bids, before conference departures, a mass of coaching changes and rampant transfers dealt a triple blow to its stature.
Northern Kentucky and Wright State have risen to the top as the Horizon’s most solid programs and dueled for the regular season title each of the last two years, including finishing in a tie for first this year. The two also have combined for the Horizon’s last three NCAA Tournament appearances, with the Norse winning in 2017, the Raiders in 2018 and NKU back this year.
Northern Kentucky won 26 games, its third straight 20-win season at the NCAA Division I level and its most wins since 27 victories in a 2000-01 season that resulted in a Division II regional finalist (Sweet 16 in D-I terms) finish. The Norse might’ve made some rumblings in the NCAAs if not for a tough draw taking on Texas Tech in the first round. It’s still been one of the more underrated stories in the country how quickly NKU has become a quality Division I program, considering the Norse just became eligible for the NCAA Tournament in 2016-17 and qualified in their first year of eligibility.
Wright State also came on down the stretch, playing into a tie for first and then giving Clemson all it could handle in the NIT. The Raiders are now working on a string of four straight 20-win seasons, dating back to Billy Donlon’s last year. There also started to feel a bit of rivalry between the Raiders and Norse, as the two played three times in the 2018-19 season, including a pair of terrific regular season meetings before Northern Kentucky delivered big in the conference tournament.
Collectively, the Horizon League showed some positive signs in 2018-19. After finishing a worst-ever 26th in the conference RPI the year before, the league moved up to No. 22 in that ranking this year. The Horizon was even slightly better (21st) in the NCAA’s new NET ranking among conferences, per WarrenNolan.com.
Besides the top two teams’ success, the Horizon also put a team in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament final for the second straight year, with Wisconsin-Green Bay getting there after Illinois-Chicago did a year earlier. The league also had one of the most exciting freshmen in the country with Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis, and it continued to be a good place to look for fast-paced play, ranking fifth nationally among Division I conferences in scoring.
Final Standings:
| Horizon | Overall | |
| Wright State | 13-5 | 21-14 |
| Northern Kentucky | 13-5 | 26-10 |
| Oakland | 11-7 | 16-17 |
| Wisconsin-Green Bay | 10-8 | 21-17 |
| Illinois-Chicago | 10-8 | 16-16 |
| Youngstown State | 8-10 | 12-20 |
| Detroit Mercy | 8-10 | 11-20 |
| Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis | 8-10 | 17-17 |
| Cleveland State | 5-13 | 10-21 |
| Wisconsin-Milwaukee | 4-14 | 9-22 |
Conference Tournament
The 40th edition of the Horizon League Tournament brought another format change for an event that has had a slew of them. After three years of sending all ten of its teams to Detroit, this year’s event invited just eight teams, and only four went to Little Caesars Arena in Motown with quarterfinal games played on campus.
Whether because of the new format or just the law of averages balancing out, for once the tourney saw a dearth of upsets. One year after semifinals with seeds 2, 4, 6 and 8 and two years after a 6 seed was the second-highest left in the semis, there was only one upset by seed, and that didn’t come until No. 2 Northern Kentucky’s 77-66 win over top seed Wright State in the final.
That didn’t mean the event wasn’t competitive. Every game was decided by 15 points or less and three came down to five points or less. Third-seeded Oakland was involved in two of them, first holding off No. 6 Youngstown State 88-84 in the quarterfinals before losing a heartbreaker to Northern Kentucky in the semis. The Golden Grizzlies built a 17-point first half lead, saw the Norse come back to take an 11-point lead with 4:07 left in the game, but then scored 13 straight points to lead 63-61 with 10 seconds left. Drew McDonald hit a game-winning three-pointer with four seconds left, though, giving NKU a 64-63 win to end Oakland’s late five-game winning streak.
The other single-digit game was Green Bay knocking out UIC 82-77 in the 4-vs.-5 game, but the No. 4 Phoenix were slowed down by Wright State 66-54 in the semifinals. That set up a championship game between the two teams that tied for the regular season title, but Northern Kentucky was in control virtually from the start. The Norse shot 59.3% in the first half, hit 12 of 21 three-point tries in the contest, and also held the Raiders’ Loudon Love to 2 of 13 shooting. Five players scored in double figures-including Dantez Walton’s 15-point, 14-rebound double-double and Zaynah Robinson off the bench with 15 points-and NKU notched its second NCAA bid in three years with McDonald winning tourney MVP honors.
Postseason Awards
Player of the Year: Drew McDonald, F, Sr., Northern Kentucky
Defensive Player of the Year: D.J. McCall, G, Sr., IUPUI
Freshman of the Year: Antoine Davis, G, Detroit Mercy
Sixth Man of the Year: Jaylen Minnett, G, So., IUPUI
Coach of the Year: Scott Nagy, Wright State
All-Conference Team
Antoine Davis, G, Fr., Detroit Mercy
Sandy Cohen, G, Sr., Wisconsin-Green Bay
Drew McDonald, F, Sr., Northern Kentucky
Xavier Hill-Mais, F, Jr., Oakland
Loudon Love, C, So., Wright State
Season Highlights
- Northern Kentucky tied for the Horizon League regular season crown and won the league tourney to make its second trip to the NCAA Division I Tournament in three years and in just three years of being eligible for the Big Dance.
- Wright State tied NKU for the Horizon regular season title and played in the NIT, where the Raiders gave Clemson all it could handle before falling on the road 75-69.
- Wisconsin-Green Bay went on quite a run in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, winning four games to advance all the way to the final. The Phoenix posted a good win at East Tennessee State and then defeated Florida International, Cal State Bakersfield and Texas Southern at home, the latter game in overtime, before falling at Marshall in the final.
- Detroit Mercy guard Antoine Davis ranked third in the country in scoring as a freshman, averaging 26.1 points per game. With the greenest of green lights, Davis also was second in the country in three-pointers made/game (4.40), fourth in three-point field goal attempts (347) and fifth in total three-pointers made (132) and field goals attempted (657).
What we expected, and it happened: Wright State continued to be the Horizon’s most consistent program under Scott Nagy. That’s a testament to Nagy’s work in just three years and also to the program as a whole; it may be one of the better-kept secrets in the country that the Raiders have won 20 games ten times in the last 13 years.
What we expected, and it didn’t happen: UIC looked primed to be a top contender coming into the season with a deep and seasoned backcourt springboarding off a College Insider Tournament title game appearance. The Flames missed the interior presence of Tai Odiase, though, and were a .500 team essentially all season.
What we didn’t expect, and it happened: Antoine Davis exploded on the college hoops scene with a huge first season at Detroit Mercy that brought some positive attention to a program in need of it. Also, Youngstown State climbed to respectability maybe a year earlier than even we might’ve projected, just missing only its second .500 or better mark in the Horizon in 14 years in the league. The Penguins eight league wins were their best since 2012.
Team on the rise: Youngstown State. Many even remotely familiar with the Horizon League in the past might be asking: “Who?” The Penguins were improved in Jerrod Calhoun’s second year, though, and a young squad is poised for more improvement and maybe to even challenge for the league title in a year or two.
Team on the decline: Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Like Cleveland State a couple years before them, the Panthers have been completely ravaged by transfers the past few years. Blame some of that on the coaching flux that started when the school let go of Rob Jeter, whose teams maybe weren’t dominant but were at least almost always competitive. It’s been tough to watch for a program that for the first 15 years of the new millennium was one of the best in the Horizon.
2019-20 Horizon Outlook
Another positive for the Horizon is that, as of mid-summer, it appeared the league may have a bit more stability than it has had the last couple years, with just one coaching change and the number of transfers limited at least from the top teams.
Next year could be wide-open race, with the potential for some new names atop the standings, or it could come down to Northern Kentucky and Wright State once again. The Norse saw head coach John Brannen move on to Cincinnati, and they’ll miss the terrific Drew McDonald. New coach Darrin Horn-formerly of Western Kentucky and South Carolina-has plenty of experience, though, and his team won’t lack for it either. Tyler Sharpe, Jalen Tate and Dantez Walton are a very good trio to start with. The biggest question will be how an experienced core adjusts to a new coach.
Wright State, meanwhile, brings back its top three scorers with Bill Wampler, Cole Gentry and Loudon Love. A return to health from Jaylon Hall-a 9-ppg scorer as a freshman two years ago-also would be huge, after he was lost for the season after one game with a shoulder injury. Depth has been a challenge for the Raiders in Scott Nagy’s first few seasons; if his team can build a little more, it will be hard to pick against.
Green Bay will play its regular high-octane game under Linc Darner, and the Phoenix bring back an experienced team short of Sandy Cohen, who only led the team in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks. It’s also the last chance for six seniors for UIC. Tarkus Ferguson, Markus Ottey and Godwin Boahen make a very nice backcourt. They may have to bring their games to another level if the Flames are going to challenge for the title.
Youngstown State is a team to watch, the young Penguins starting to build a talented roster and running players at opponents in wave. Detroit made a prudent coaching hire bringing in Mike Davis last June, and with his entertaining son Antoine lighting it up should only get better.
Oakland, IUPUI, Cleveland State and Milwaukee were decimated by transfers, the Vikings and Panthers stuck in a seemingly never-ending cycle. Greg Kampe’s team was set to make a serious run at the title; now, who knows? At least Xavier Hill-Mais is still around and Kampe is, too. IUPUI also lost high-scoring, three-point bombing Camron Justice to transfer, and with four of its top five scorers gone now will rely heavily on junior guard Jaylen Minnett, the league’s top sixth man last year.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
