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.
This
was an underrated story that wasn’t talked about nearly as much as it
should have. Two seasons ago, Detroit Mercy finished the season just
1-31 after picking up their lone win over IUPUI (now IU Indy) 81-66 at
home. I can still remember watching that game because it became a
phenomenon across college basketball social media given that both teams
were two of the worst five teams in college basketball.
Following
that disastrous season, Mark Montgomery took over as head coach. In
year one, he finished 8-24 with some signs of the potential to turn
things around. They had seven wins against Division I teams, took some
close losses to Wake Forest and Rhode Island in the non-conference, and
for the most part were far more competitive in the Horizon League.
In
year two, things really turned around. The Titans finished 17-15 on the
season and took down Milwaukee and Robert Morris in the Horizon League
tournament to reach the Championship game for the first time since 2012
when they took down Valparaiso. They finished the season as winners of
nine of their last twelve games to build some real momentum heading into
next season.
Unfortunately, they’ve lost their best player in Orlando Lovejoy(15.8
points, 3.7 assists, and 3.6 rebounds) due to lack of eligibility, and
rising Sophomore TJ Nadeau has announced his intent to enter the
transfer portal. Nadeau averaged 13.8 points and 3.2 rebounds. Junior
Ayden Carter who averaged 12.2 points and 4.3 rebounds has yet to
announce whether he’ll be staying or leaving, but he did originally cite
that he committed to Detroit Mercy to be closer to home, so maybe there
is hope that he stays.
Regardless, Mark Montgomery has
shown already in just two-years of what he’s capable of building. This
season was a huge step in the right direction and this is someone that
should be on your radar on the coaching carousel over the next few
years.
Gohlke scored 32 points off the bench in Oakland’s shocking upset of No.
3 seed Kentucky in 2024. | Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
What we remember: Gohlke’s star shined bright in March
2024. During No. 14 seed Oakland’s upset of No. 3 seed Kentucky in the first
round—a contest that ended up being coach John Calipari’s final game
coaching the Wildcats—Gohlke scored 32 points off the bench on 10-of-20
shooting from beyond the arc. He also drained six three-pointers in the
second round, but it wasn’t enough as Oakland’s Cinderella story ended with
a 79–73 overtime loss to No. 11 seed NC State.
Where is he now?: Gohlke has spent the past two
seasons bouncing around from league to league. He played 26 games in the G
League in 2024–25, and has appeared in eight games for the G League’s Texas
Legends this year. In addition, Gohlke has also played in Montenegro, Mexico
and Brazil.
7. Ryan Prather Jr., 6-foot-5 junior guard, Robert Morris
Another big portal entry out of the Horizon League, Prather posted 15.9
points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game this past season. All-Horizon
Second Team honors followed that impressive stat line, and the 6-foot-5
junior joins DeSean Goode —
featured in our last ranking
— as another top Colonial on the market.
The junior guard led RMU in scoring last year at 15.7 points per game. He
was the lone holdover from a 2025 squad that went to the NCAA Tournament
after winning the Horizon League.
Prather transferred to RMU after starting his career in Akron. He ended up
playing 70 games for the Colonials, starting 45.
Also departing from this year’s team are Horizon League Player of the Year
DeSean Goode and 6-foot-9 forward Nikolaos Chitikoudis.
Green
Bay led for well over 50% of the game and had aspirations of being the
first No. 13 seed since Wright State in 2021 of upsetting a No. 4. And
then everything went wrong all at once.
The Golden
Gophers opened up the fourth quarter on a 12–0 run and the barrage
didn’t stop there. By the time the damage was done, Minnesota would
outscore Green Bay 30–9 in the final frame and erase any notion of this
tournament’s first upset.
A much closer game than the final score will indicate, but what a deflating loss for the Phoenix.
In a similar vein to Hill, Wright State’s growth in 2025-26 is in part due
to the sophomore development of TJ Burch who arrived from Ball State this
past offseason. Burch had played just 21 games as a freshman with the
Cardinals and averaged only 4.8 PPG before transferring over to Wright
State where he’s managing 12.3 PPG, 3.5 APG and led the Horizon League
with 3.5 SPG. That was enough to earn Burch the conference’s Defensive
Player of the Year award in addition to a plethora of other silverware in
just his second season of college basketball.
Bad feeling for ol' Wright State that this will go similarly to the last
time they were a 14 seed and got smoked by Tennessee in 2018. Wright can
score very effectively in half-court and pounds the post just like they did
back then, but that's a really bad idea against an excellent post defense in
Virginia. On the other end of the court, teams have been picking apart
Wright all season long with off-ball screens, which they simply don't seem
well-equipped to defend:
0:00
/0:09
Actions like these could lead to a fairly big offensive day for the Cavs.
Somewhat similar to Tennessee's game back then (which the Vols won by 24)
this has a strong smell to it of a game where Virginia motors down early and
doesn't look back. Not sure the Hoos have the same getaway power as other 3
seeds - in fact I know they don't - but in this specific setup something in
the range of a 14-24 point win feels accurate. Virginia averaged 1.32 PPP
against non-top 100 competition this year and held a +16% 2PT% delta in
those games. When you get back 44% of your missed shots in said games you're
very well equipped to avoid a miserable Round of 64 experience. Wright
against top-100 competition: 0.99 PPP. If those held it's an 87-65 UVA
victory, so we'll see.
The Wright State Raiders cruised through the traditionally unpredictable
Horizon League this season, going 23-11 overall and 15-5 in conference. They
rank 118th in offensive adjusted efficiency and 193rd in defensive adjusted
efficiency.
Michael Cooper
has been one of the most underrated freshman in the country for Wright
State. The 6’3 guard is averaging 13.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.2
assists while shooting 44.9% overall and 36.4% from three-point. He can be
streaky, as any freshman can, but when he’s on he’s nearly impossible to
stop.
As a team, they are 59th in effective field goal percentage, 88th in
offensive rebounding percentage, 50th in three-point shooting percentage,
74th in two-point shooting percentage, and 90th in non-steal turnover
percentage. They score a ton of points, but shockingly don’t run a super
fast offense. The Raiders are just 192nd in tempo and 228th in average
possession length at nearly 18 seconds per possession.
Virginia is 29-5 and 13th in KenPom. They sit at 27th in offensive adjusted
efficiency and 16th in defensive adjusted efficiency. This isn’t the old
Cavaliers that are scoring 50 points per game, but they still run a slower
tempo under Ryan Odom as they are 270th in tempo and 149th in average
possession length.
Wright State is going to have to shoot their way out of this matchup and
with as good of a defense as Virginia has, it’s going to be very difficult.
