On The Horizon

Jim Squire

Cleveland State Women's Basketball Travels To Green Bay For Pivotal Thursday Night #HLWBB Contest--csuvikings.com

HC+ Honor Roll, Feb. 13-19: Jalen Pickett, Keisei Tominaga have B1G weeks--Heat Check CBB

MAIN ATTRACTION

Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy

Thresholds: 90.0 MIN%, 30.0 USG%, 140.0 ORTG
Davis’ line: 91.3 MIN%, 35.0 USG%, 142.0 ORTG

Without wading too deeply into the debate surrounding Antoine Davis’ scoring title chase, the Titans’ superstar is going bananas as Year 5 comes to a close. In wins over Oakland and IUPUI last week, Davis scored 30 and 31 points, respectively — making it six consecutive games with 30 or more points. He is 124 points shy of tying the all-time points record of 3,667 set by LSU’s Pete Maravich in just three years, and without a 3-point line. With just two regular-season games left, Davis’ fate could boil down to UDM’s longevity in the Horizon League tournament.

Men's Basketball Looks For Revenge On NKU--detroittitans.com

Phoenix Closes Regular Season with Pair of Home Games--greenbayphoenix.com

Horizon League women's basketball title on line in UWGB's showdown against Cleveland State--Green Bay Press Gazette
Green Bay Prepares for Chance to Win a Horizon League Title--greenbayphoenix.com

JAGUARS TO HOST RED HOT ROBERT MORRIS ON BLACKOUT NIGHT AT THE COLISEUM--iupuijags.com

JAGUARS TAKE DOWN YOUNGSTOWN STATE, 87-80--iupuijags.com

Panthers Welcome Mastodons For Doubleheader On Campus Thursday--mkepanthers.com

Milwaukee Hosts Purdue Fort Wayne to Kick Off Home Doubleheader--mkepanthers.com

Bracket Breakers 2023: 6 potential Cinderella teams that first must win their conference tournaments--The Athletic

Northern Kentucky Norse
Horizon League
Killer Rating: 13.7
These Norse are 12-6 in the Horizon, trailing Youngstown State (14-5). And they are a different breed than the Northern Kentucky teams that made the NCAA tournament in 2017 and 2019, which took over 40% of their attempts from behind the arc and shot well. Under Coach Darrin Horn (who led Western Kentucky to a memorable 12-5 upset over Drake in the 2008 NCAA Tournament), Northern Kentucky has become a turnover-forcing machine: our model gives huge props to their 14.4% steal percentage, which ranks third in the NCAA. They’re strong on the offensive boards, too. So the Norse are capable of games like the ones they posted last month against Milwaukee, where Northern Kentucky had a total of 145 field-goal attempts across two contests and the Panthers just 98.
Unfortunately, we are honor-bound to point out that just because a team provides an extreme test of the possession-building strategies we like, that doesn’t actually make them a good team. Northern Kentucky shoots poorly (effective field-goal percentage: 49.1%, ranking 252nd in the nation) and is porous on defense when opponents manage to hang onto the ball (eFG% allowed: 51.5%, ranking 240th). And they managed to lose both of those games to Milwaukee. They’ll trap up and down the court, but they need more scoring to reach Valhalla.