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.
Venue: Higher seed campus sites and Corteva Coliseum
Top Seed: Robert Morris Colonials
Winner: Cleveland State Vikings
It is now the fourth season in a row that has seen the Vikings finish at or
near the top of the Horizon League standings, and four years in a row that
they were one of the favorites to win the conference tournament. The Vikings
head into the tournament this year as one of the best defensive teams in the
entire country and the best defensive team in the Horizon League. Scoring on
Cleveland State has become a chore. They force turnovers and force you to
play in the half-court. The Vikings do foul a lot, but they make up for it
by rarely allowing a clean look at the basket. The Vikings have been the
best team in the Horizon since January.
Sleeper: Oakland Golden Grizzlies
Looking at it on paper, most would think that there is no chance that any
team outside of the top 4 teams will win this league. That would be an
acceptable assumption, but given that the Horizon League tournament never
goes as people expect it, and it has been full of upsets, anyone can win it.
The Golden Grizzlies were the Cinderella of the NCAA tournament last year
when they made the Sweet 16, and they did so with ridiculous three-point
shooting. Oakland still takes a ton of threes, but this year, they are
shooting under 30% from deep. They likely won’t fix that in a week, but if
they can make some shots, they can stick around for a while.
Horizon tourney predicted champ: Youngstown State (#4 seed) Dates: March 4-11 Location: Campus sites and Indianapolis, IN 2024 tourney champ: Oakland (#1 seed) Fun fact: 4 different champs in past 4 years Seeding: 7 of past 9 champs were not #1 seed I
do like Penn alumni so I am dying to go with my fellow Quaker Andy
Toole, the head coach at Robert Morris (or as the folks at HoopsHD like
to call them: Morris Robert). However, this tourney dislikes #1 seeds so
I will go with another HoopsHD favorite: the Penguins! Even though I
dislike 1st-year coaches, Coach Ethan Faulkner has had quite a wild
debut season. He started 2-5 in non-conference play, then won 8 in a
row, then had a rocky ride in conference play but was still able to
finish top-4 in the conference standings. Their starting lineup is a
little short with nobody standing taller than 6’6”, yet they are #10 in
the nation with 5.4 BPG due in “large” part to 7’3” C Gabe Dynes, whose
defensive prowess is…DYN-O-MITE!!
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