Primarily a collection of news links about all 12 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.
We keep saying it, respect Matt Majkrzak. And the Northern Illinois Huskies reminded us about that by downing Anthony Grant’s Dayton Flyers 81-76 in another overtime banger.
Max Weisbrod dropped a game-high 27, including a number of big shots when the Huskies needed it. NIU entered the night hanging in the 300s in most rankings, only to upset a team some thought could be the third member of a three-bid A-10.
#219 IU Indy (-2.3) at #296 Indiana State, 7 PM ET, ESPN+ IU Indy led the country in free-throw rate last season and is right back at it with 62 attempts per 100 shots. Indiana State is 0-2, shooting a 39% effective field goal percentage, and already putting teams on the line a lot. Have you ever seen a team take 50 free throws in a game?
Wednesday, November 11
Last week, Wednesday was the worst night of the week. This week, it’s one of the best. Clear the evening.
B Games
#97 Green Bay at #109 Illinois State (-0.5), 7:30 PM ET, ESPN+ Green Bay went 25-8 last season, opened with a 76-60 loss at Duke, and then got its first win. Illinois State is 2-0 and plays fast, averaging 80 possessions per 40 minutes. Nevaeh Thomas is averaging 21.5 points and 8.5 rebounds, and Trista Fayta has 6.5 assists per game. Horizon vs. Valley on a Wednesday night.
Friday, November 13
C Games
#297 Valparaiso at #313 Purdue Fort Wayne (-1.8), 11 AM ET, ESPN+ Valpo went 0-32 last season and is 0-2 this season with a 36% effective field goal percentage. Fort Wayne is 0-2. The SICKO GAME tradition continues with an 11 AM tip. Can Valpo win a game?
Cleveland State 62 - Penn State 61: even though PSU has a new coach and an entirely new roster (sans one player), this is a bad loss for the Nittany Lions. On the other side of the coin, however, it's a great win for Cleveland State, who also happens to have a new coach and a bunch of new players. Making it all the more fun for the Vikings, their new coach, Bob Dunn, is a Cleveland native, had already been an assistant at Cleveland State, and last year he was...an assistant at Penn State!
Matt Majkrzak picked up his first Division I win in a big way, upsetting Dayton on the road.
Click to see the full box score.
The Huskies dominated the first half, jumping out to a 17-point lead at one point. The Flyers clawed back and forced overtime, but ran out of gas in the extra period.
Max Weisbrod stuffed the stat sheet with 19 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds. David Douglas Jr. added 27 points and 6 rebounds as the Huskies dominated the glass. Aiden Derkack logged a double-double for Dayton with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Photo: Courtesy of Courtsiders (www.courtsidershoops.com)
Pangonis isn’t the only one to know though as Andrea Holden has been
dominating on the glass and on offense. He is averaging 19.5 points,
11 rebounds, two assists, and one block per game. At 6’6, he’s
functioning like a big man as he already has two double-doubles.
This week, they’ll take on a sneaky tough Toledo squad on the road,
then travel down to Birmingham to take on Samford.
-Dayton fell behind early to Northern Illinois. They fought back in the second half, but couldn’t pull away. Northern Illinois had three key players foul out, and Dayton still couldn’t pull away. Northern Illinois forced overtime, then won in overtime 81-76. NORTHERN ILLINOIS!! AT DAYTON!!! I said at the beginning of the year I would not be fooled by Dayton again and did not pick them to win the A10 or make the NCAA Tournament, but I never thought they’d lose at home to NORTHERN ILLINOIS!!! Now, to be completely fair to the Huskies, they have a lot of players no one had really seen play at the D1 level and may be a lot better than we expected. They certainly looked good and played with a lot of confidence last night. But this was a STUNNING result in that a team that was picked to finish pretty much at the bottom of the MAC went on the road and beat a team many were picking to make the NCAA Tournament. (Note from Stalica – It’s worse than that – NIU was picked 10th out of 12th in the Horizon League. #StupidPuppet forgot they left the MAC).
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:
-Green Bay @ Saint Thomas – neither team is likely to be anywhere near the bubble, but it’s a solid UTR matchup
-Northern Kentucky @ Texas A&M – NKU is probably way overmatched, but they have managed two really solid wins away from home so far and could really make some noise if they can pull off an upset tonight
-Florida Atlantic @ Wright State – both teams 1-0
BUY GAMES:
-Youngstown State @ Ohio State – Ohio State looking for their first win
Green Bay gave Duke a scare. The Phoenix led after the first quarter and were up six in the second before Duke pulled away 76-60. Maddie Skorupski had a game-high 16 points, and Kristina Ouimette added 14. Duke was without Fournier, so it comes with an asterisk. But Green Bay going into Cameron and leading a top-10 team for a quarter and a half shows how tight the margins can be.
Cleveland State beat Penn State, 62-61. A Horizon League team winning at a Big Ten program in the opener is a great result, not a fluke. Between this and Green Bay's start at Duke, the Horizon showed up in Week 1. The Vikings came back down to earth a bit Thursday, losing 77-73 at Bowling Green.
The Euros versus the Speedsters, what a game we should have on Saturday in Indianapolis. IU Indy's insanely fast pace gets opponents into a game that barely looks like basketball at times, and most of UT Martin's players come from a FIBA system overseas that couldn't possibly be more different. The Skyhawks' players, who largely are playing their second actual college basketball game ever, may be in for culture shock.
UT Martin's defensive scheme is a 5-man switching system that is meant to fully cut off driving lanes. On the flipside, IU Indy's offensive system is built around a hub big man, which then runs cutters and handoffs through that big at the top of the key. Again, these teams couldn't be more different.
The Skyhawks do have a giant size advantage here, standing as the ninth-tallest team in the country. Considering this non-stop IU Indy pressure allowed copious rim baskets off the back end last year, that size at every position should make a big difference here. The counterpoint would be that pressure may force a ton of turnovers for a UT Martin team that was eighth-last nationally in that stat last year, but pardon the pun, there is lots of turnover on this new roster for Jeremy Shulman and Co.
One thing I can tell you is this game will be fast, very fast. But IU Indy giving a jumbo, physical squad like UT Martin with skilled guards Kaan Onat and Davi Remagen lanes to the basket off its pressure likely doesn't end well for the home team. - Matthew Winick
