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.
Once
upon a time, Robert Morris could have parlayed a strong season and
valiant effort in a first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Alabama into
something more. These days, the Colonials have no choice but to start
from scratch. The leading scorer from RMU's NCAA Tournament tangle with
the Crimson Tide, Amarion Dickerson, is headed to USC. The second-leading scorer, Alvaro Folgueiras is headed to Iowa.
In total, just one of the top nine from last year's rotation are back.
Veteran coach Andy Toole has done a nice job of assembling some transfer
talent to replace what he lost, but Robert Morris is nonetheless a case
study in how hard it is for mid-major programs to build sustained
success in the game's modern era.
The search at IU Indy has wrapped, and an announcement is expected in
the next 24-48 hours. The names that I have heard here include D2 West
Liberty Head Coach Ben Howlett (217-37 – .854 in 8 seasons at WL),
Florida Atlantic assistant Jordan Fee (went 32-3 in one season as the
head coach at D2 Gannon), Tampa head coach Linc Darner (former head
coach at Horizon League foe Green Bay), one more current D2 head coach,
and one more D1 assistant. Parker has been running this search, with
Grant Higgison serving as the lead.
JEFF HANS: Going into the 2023-24 season, Jeff Hans was
the winningest coach in NCAA women’s basketball with two NCAA Division
III titles and one NAIA championship and two runner-up finishes in an
amazing 13-year run at Thomas More, winning 339 games against 42 losses
(an .889 winning percentage) that has seen the Northern Kentucky Sports
Hall of Famer and Wilmington College grad return to NKU this past season
as the women’s coach with the goal of turning around a stagnant program
much the way he did TMU’s.
