Primarily a collection of news links about all 11 Horizon League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.
The 13 players already under contract for 2012-13 are LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier, Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller, Norris Cole, Joel Anthony James Jones and Dexter Pittman.
Detroit — A Catholic school in Michigan, which is quite a ways outside of the current geographic boundaries of the MAAC. Has 3,000 students and is ranked #23 in the US News’ rankings for the Midwest. A strong basketball program which could be looking for a lifeline depending on how the Horizon League continues to react to this whole realignment business. Probably not the first call, but a possibility. (H/T: TitleBU)
The realignment game is just beginning here on the east coast. We’ll see where are the musical chairs land. Hey, maybe NJIT can even get into a real conference.
3. The Horizon League is desperate for good news after the abrupt departure of Butler to the A-10. Loyola (Ill.) returned from an Italy trip with some dramatic uptick in numbers. The Ramblers averaged a meager 57.2 points a game last season but on a 4-1 trip they averaged 82.3 points a game. The Ramblers also hadn’t had a player average five assists a game since 2003. But Iowa transfer Cully Payne handed out 9.3 assists in the four games. Porter Moser is hoping to see a turnaround and the indication is that this trip may give the Ramblers the necessary bounce.
The Heat also could fill out their power rotation with players already working with the team. Veteran power forward Juwan Howard was the first Heat player to return to workouts at AmericanAirlines Arena in the wake of the team's championship. Center Mickell Gladness, who began last season with the Heat before closing the season with the Golden State Warriors, played for the Heat's summer-league team in July and recently joined Heat guard Norris Cole and Heat free-agent prospects Terrel Harris and Jarvis Varnado at the NBA's rookie transition program, a mandatory program for NBA newcomers that was not held last summer because of the lockout.
The Heat currently have 13 players under guaranteed contract for the coming season: James, Dwyane Wade, Bosh, Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, Haslem, Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Mike Miller, Anthony, James Jones, Cole and Dexter Pittman. Teams can carry a maximum of 20 players during the offseason and training camp, 15 during the regular season.
- A good-read on Wright State coach Billy Donlon and what he is doing to get his program back to prominence. The Raiders were perennial Horizon League favorites in the later part of the ’00s, but haven’t been the same since Julius Mays transferred out
Things have been quiet out of the UWM camp this past week. Same as MU, players are back home resting up for the upcoming season/school year.
Great to see that a few members of the team helped out with the Make-A-Wish Foundation's 12 hour Hoopla Event to help raise money for kids in need. In the linked article, the picture shows red-shirt freshman JJ Panoske. I brought that up for a reason. For those that were unable to make it out to the Scion Dental Milwaukee Summer Pro-Am this summer, I must say, when it comes to JJ Panoske, you missed out. From a year ago, he was the most improved player in the league. He has put a good amount of muscle on his body and has really improved his game. Using his body, his court awareness, his footwork..... he still has a ways to go, but I really do think he will be a good one for the Panthers in the years to come.
The University of Northern Iowa tweeted that they will be hosting Rob Jeter's crew this season...
UNI Athletics @UNIAthletics: UNI will return home to play the Milwaukee Panthers on Dec. 1. UNI defeated Milwaukee last season, 67-51.
UWM's own Kevin O'Conner tweeted about some possible additions to the non-conference schedule....
Kevin O'Connor @kjocmke: #UWM men's basketball schedule continues to come together. Looking like home gms with Manhattan and Tenn Tech just about confirmed.
Good to see that Rob Jeter has what it takes to make Green Bay fans a bit uneasy....
Brandon Novack @BrandoNovack: At the dark knight movie and UWM head coach Rob Jeter walks in as I'm wearing my @uwgb basketball Tshirt. #FeelingTheTension
BENCH MARKS: If the Heat's 2012 championship was, as Spoelstra contends, a referendum on "position-less" basketball, it also was a statement about succeeding with limited depth. To a degree, the Lakers, despite emerging as West favorites, will enter 2012-13 with as many questions about their bench as the Heat did while counting on the likes of Norris Cole, Joel Anthony, Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem and James Jones. When rating Heat bench vs. Lakers bench, it's somewhat a study in desperation, with the Lakers' bench highlighted by Antawn Jamison, Jodie Meeks, Steve Blake, Jordan Hill, Chris Duhon and Earl Clark. Has the NBA reached the depth-is-overrated era?
Loyola is off to Italy to prepare for the season. They will play four games over two weeks as they tour the boot.
It sounds like the extra practice time allowed by the NCAA rule change has been a huge boost for the Ramblers as they have to integrate a lot of new faces into the mix this year.
Valparaiso: The Crusaders won the Horizon League last year. That's the conference that features Butler of 2010 and 2011 Final Four fame. Valpo defeated Butler three times last year but fell to Detroit (who you may have seen in the NCAA tournament face Kansas in Omaha) in the 2nd round of the Horizon League tournament. That loss cost Valpo an NCAA berth and had to settle for an NIT bid in which they fell to Miami. The Crusaders lose 15 points from last years team. That's 15 points total, not per game, just two seniors who only got mop up duty left the roster. They return every significant contributor from last year. Don't be surprised if you see this team on CBS in March. This will be a very stiff challenge for the Huskers.
Ray McCallum -- I got reprimanded by one scout for saying that McCallum was a solid shooter early in the day. I was reminded that he shot just 24% from 3 last year. But I responded that his form looked good here. He made me look good knocking down 5 three pointers in the night session. He was credited for 3/4 for 3 and 22 pts, 7 ast, 2 to, but had 3 in the first half and 2 in the second half (either he was on the line on two of them or the scorekeepers made an error). He's supposedly been putting in a lot of work putting up 1000 shots per day and the results are apparent. He won the point guard battle with Nate Wolters in day one and absolutely destroyed Peyton Siva and Ryan Boatright (2-13 fg) in the night session on Saturday. McCallum's father Ray Sr. is on hand to watch his son and Junior is making him proud. He's also making a case as one of the premiere PGs not only in camp but potentially available for this year's draft. He'll need to show that this shooting performance was no fluke and that he can bring his shooting numbers up considerably next year, however.
IPFW and Oakland Lobby For Open Horizon League Spot: Speaking of new directions, this story came out a couple months ago reporting that Oakland was interested in filling Butler’s vacated spot in the Horizon League. Oakland has been courting that conference for a long time, but it is not likely they will get their wish; there hasn’t been any movement on the Horizon’s end in several months, if at all. Even IPFW kicked around the idea of moving up in the world to join the Horizon. The Horizon could use a mid-major like Oakland to give it back some of the firepower they lost in Butler, but IPFW should get comfortable with its spot in the Summit. They aren’t going anywhere.
Paradise Jam, Nov 16-19 (St. Thomas, BVI): At least you get to spend time in the Virgin Islands if you attend this event. The field is wide open and could be a great opportunity for New Mexico to make an early season statement.
Field: UConn , George Mason, Iona, Mercer, New Mexico, Quinnipiac, UIC, Wake Forest
Kelsey Barlow was last seen getting booted off of Purdue’s basketball team in late February after his second disruptive incident in a year, when he and teammate DJ Byrd became involved in some kind of confrontation at a West Lafayette bar. A tremendous perimeter defender with ideal size for the position at 6’5″, Barlow left his team high and dry for the second straight year during March Madness — in 2011, he was suspended for “conduct detrimental to the team,” and while VCU thoroughly ripped Purdue in that year’s Round of 32, he surely could have helped the Boilers in their tight game with Kansas at the same spot last year. Illinois-Chicago announced on Thursday that Barlow will resurface in the Loop, sitting out next season as a transfer to become eligible to play as a senior in 2013-14. Barlow started 22 games for Purdue last season, averaging 8/4/2 APG in a key glue guy role while also helping to lock down opposing guards in Matt Painter’s sticky defense. This is a talented pickup for a program that was absolutely terrible last year — 3-15 in the Horizon League, 8-22 overall — let’s hope that Barlow uses his second chance wisely.
