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 2022 Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship will include San Jose State, Missouri State, North Texas, Ball State, UNC Wilmington, Vermont, Long Beach State, and Oakland. They will spend Thanksgiving Week in the Bahamas in what is being announced as the largest College Basketball Event in 2022 featuring 20 schools in total. Baha Mar is also hosting an eight-team Women’s event (Pink Flamingo Championship) and the four-team Bahamas Championship featuring Oklahoma State, UCF, Santa Clara, and DePaul. The 2022 Tournament is set for Friday through Sunday, November 25-27.
OAKLAND vs. LONG BEACH STATE (8PM ET) - LBSU might be my sleeper pick to win this event. You heard that correctly. A team that was as hot as anybody last year in the second half of the season, surprised many by winning the Big West regular-season championship. This season they have added Marcus Tsohonis (via VCU and Washington) to a core that includes Joel Murray, Jadon Jones, and Aboubacar Traore. Great roster on paper. Oakland Head Coach Greg Kampe is no stranger to great mid-major players. He has Rocket Watts, Keaton Harvey, and Lorne Bowman all coming in this season! Jalen Moore and Trey Townsend are also back in the fold for the Golden Grizzlies. This nightcap promises to be a fantastic matchup. Let’s also not forget that Oakland won the 2021 Gulf Coast Showcase, which included a quarterfinal round win over Vermont.
28. Golden State Warriors – F Patrick Baldwin Jr. (Milwaukee Panthers) – Draft Grade: A
The reigning NBA champs have the luxury of taking a big swing on a
prospect at this point in the draft and what bigger risk than the 6’9
forward and former five-star prospect? Baldwin
would be going from a bad team and environment to one of the golden
standard organizations in all of sports in Golden State. Baldwin would
benefit from playing with the splash brothers and gives the Warriors a
stretch forward to work with. It could become the next great draft pick
for the team.
28. Golden State Warriors - Patrick Baldwin Jr., F, Milwaukee
Grade: A
This is the best possible landing spot for
Baldwin. The 6’10 forward was projected to be a top-10 pick coming into
the year before enduring one of the most trying freshmen seasons by a
highly-touted recruit in recent memory. Baldwin hurt his ankle early in
his senior year of high school, and it lingered into his freshman year,
limiting him to only 11 games. Baldwin had an offer from Duke but chose
to play for his father at Milwaukee instead. The poor team context hurt
him all season when he was on the court. If you throw out the freshman
year, there’s a lot to like about Baldwin. He has major size with a 9’2
standing reach, and had a reputation as a knockdown shooter at the high
school level. Baldwin is no sure thing because of his injury issues and
his lack of athleticism, but his size, shooting, and blue chip pedigree
is appealing at this point in the draft. Read my feature on Baldwin’s rise and fall as a top draft prospect here.
28. Golden State Warriors - Patrick Baldwin Jr., F, Milwaukee
A well below-average athlete, though, Baldwin will need
to rely on his length to be effective defensively. However, even if he’s
a defensive liability, his scoring potential is good enough to still be
an effective role player. With that said, it puts even more pressure on
him proving that his ugly shooting numbers at Milwaukee were an
aberration.
It’s unlikely to expect Golden State head coach Steve
Kerr to integrate Baldwin into the rotation anytime soon. However, that
should give him even more time to refine his game with the Warriors
developmental coaches, possibly seeing extensive playing time in
G-League, and avoid the high-pressure circumstances that generally comes
with a first-round pick. — Marc Delucchi, Golden State of Mind
The 2022 NBA Champions selected Milwaukee product and former top-five prospect Patrick Baldwin Jr.
who missed most of the 2021-22 season with a reaggravated ankle injury.
While his health has been the main question, the Warriors see a
long-term project in Baldwin with tons of potential and if given the
time to heal and develop properly will pay dividends a few years down
the line.
Why Patrick Baldwin Jr. is the best pick on the board: Baldwin
was considered a top-five overall recruit entering college because of
his size (6’10) and knockdown shooting ability. He chose to play for his
father at Milwaukee instead of taking an offer from Duke, and had a
disastrous freshman year thanks to a lingering ankle injury and poor
team context around him. Baldwin still has the size and shooting
projection to be a natural fit in the league if he can stay healthy.
He’s certainly a risky pick given his lack of durability and
underwhelming production in a mid-major conference, but a team like San
Antonio with four top-38 picks is in a perfect spot to roll the dice on
him.
22. Memphis Grizzlies
Why Patrick Baldwin Jr. is the most likely pick on the board: The
Grizzlies traded up to select a tall wing with outside shooting ability
last year with Ziaire Williams. Baldwin is even taller with a better
shooting projection. Baldwin’s rough freshman year makes him a better
bet for a team with multiple first round picks, which Memphis has. It
isn’t often you can get someone who was supposed to be a top-10 pick at
the start of the year this late in the draft.
Not by any stretch. I do think there’s a good chance he goes in the
first round because someone will gamble on his talent. Remember, he was a
top-10 prospect coming into the season and dealt with injury most of
the year — but he had a few extremely productive games when healthy,
averaging 17.4 points and 8.2 rebounds through Milwaukee’s first five
games.
There are three teams with multiple first round picks — the
Grizzlies, Spurs and Thunder — that have a history of both drafting
players with a high basketball IQ (like Baldwin) and swinging on upside,
placing trust in their player development. I would not be surprised if
one of those teams selected him in the 20s, but there’s no guarantee.
Baldwin’s stock has dropped significantly since the start of the
season when he was a projected top-10 pick. Poor play against lesser
competition with Milwaukee has played into his slide along with poor
athletic testing — his 26.5-inch vertical is one of the worst in combine
history.
Those factors, coupled with his injury history, may cause him to fall
out of the first round entirely. However, he’s going to become a real
value at his current draft position.
Baldwin’s skill set still intrigues many NBA teams. He has a
reputation as a knockdown shooter at 6-foot-9, and he regained that
reputation during individual workouts after a poor shooting season with
the Panthers. He also has a tremendously high basketball IQ with good
passing skill and the ability the handle the ball — though no one is
going to confuse him for a point guard.
Not much will change about Baldwin’s athletic profile in the NBA and
he likely won’t be anything more than an average rebounder. Those are
true negatives to his game. But chatter about his lack of production is
truly overblown.
In the first three games of the season — when Baldwin was the most
healthy — he averaged 17.7 points and 8.3 rebounds a game. He then
suffered an ankle injury in Milwaukee’s next outing and missed three
more games before turning it around against Robert Morris,
posting a career-high 26 points and seven rebounds. Baldwin did
struggle shooting in their next matchup against Colorado before being
re-injured against Rhode Island. He played in four games and wasn’t the
same.
So, in the five games when Baldwin was healthy, he averaged 18.2
points and 7.4 rebounds per game. I think we’re still looking at Baldwin
as a lottery pick if those were his numbers for the entire season.
It’s fair to say that the Sussex native won’t be a franchise
cornerstone. At the same time, his high level of offensive skill and
3-point shooting ability should allow him to carve out a solid role in
the NBA.
Not everyone can be a superstar and it’s clear Baldwin won’t be that.
But not everyone can be a reliable secondary scorer, either, and
Baldwin still has the tools to develop into that type of player,
providing immense value at his projected draft range.
The Scout: Holden was among the most productive
scorers to enter the portal, having averaged 20 points per game in the
Horizon League this year on his way to his second-straight Horizon
League first-team All-League honors. He carried Wright State to the NCAA
Tournament, where he put up an awesome 37-point performance against
Bryant that led Wright State to a First Four win. Holden is a foul
magnet, a guy who constantly attacks, plays well off of two feet,
absorbs contact, and either finishes or gets to the line. He also moves
well off the ball and finds points off of cuts, scoring more points off
of cuts — per Synergy — than any wing in the country, largely playing
off of Grant Basile
post-ups and motion offense back-cuts. Holden is a reluctant shooter
who won’t have the ball as much at a high-major stop. But he should be a
high-major starter next year due to his age, experience, basketball IQ,
and well-rounded game.
The Fit: Under Chris Holtmann, the Buckeyes have
tended to really feature their best players with a lot of usage. Will
Holden be that, or more of just a starter? It probably depends on who
else the staff can bring in. Holden moves really well off the ball and
knows how to create shots that way, which is something Ohio State hasn’t
really had over the last few years given how ball dominant players like
E.J. Liddell, Malaki Branham,
and Duane Washington were. But in order to take best advantage of that
in the Big Ten, given the size and length that most teams have on the
interior, Holden is going to have to work to consistently extend his
range beyond the 3-point line. Being a driver and cutter toward the rim
is a bit tougher when going against 7-foot giants in the Big Ten. Holden
hit 41 percent of his catch-and-shoot jumpers last year, per Synergy,
so hopefully for Ohio State he can up his volume on those to round out
his offensive game.
Baldwin, a top-10 recruit in the 2021 recruiting class, had a
disappointing freshman season at Milwaukee largely due to an ankle
injury. When he was healthy at the very start of the season, though, he
played at the level of a top-10 prospect. With so many picks this year
and in the future, Oklahoma City can gamble on the long-term upside
because of Baldwin’s versatility, shooting ability and high basketball
IQ.
