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.
Green Bay picked up a win in its last outing without head coach Doug Gottlieb and now gets him back on the sideline. The Phoenix carry momentum into this matchup and seem undervalued as an underdog.
Detroit
Mercy has struggled to string together consistent performances. Expect
Green Bay to take control and win this one outright.
Horizon: All Gottlieb needed to do was stop hosting his radio show (?)
Everyone:
pretend to be shocked that a collegiate head coaching job requires one
to focus fully on that and not have another full-time job on the side.
Douglas Gottlieb may have taken a year and a half too long to figure it
out, but credit to him, he finally did. And a program that went 4-28 last year – losing games to No Name University along the way – sits in second place this year.
It’s
a huge accomplishment for the Phoenix, who were picked to finish last
in the 11-team league. But the pole position currently belongs to Wright
State, who are led by its own second-year head coach and who themselves
were picked seventh. And don’t forget about the untouchable experience
of Greg Kampe and his up-tempo Golden Grizzlies, who probably deserve a
few more people at their home games for yet another gritty season.
#167 Robert Morris at #143 Wright State (-4), 2 PM ET, ESPNU.
Robert
Morris returns to action after a week off, and they'll look to remain
the hottest team in the league, currently riding a 4 game winning streak
that began with a win at home over Wright State. The Raiders however
are looking to clinch the Horizon regular season title outright in their
final home game of the season.
That first meeting in Moon
Township was Wright State's least efficient offensive game of the
Horizon season, primarily due to the fact the Raiders (a typically
dominant rim offense) shot just 42% at the rim on their usual high rim
rate. That's by far WSU's lowest mark of the Horizon season, and the
only game they've been held below 50% (they shoot 61% at the rim on the
season, on a 93rd percentile rate, per Synergy data). The crazy part is
RMU is a mid-tier Horizon rim defense by the numbers, and dead last in
the league in block rate, but tallied 9 blocks at a 20% rate in that
game. The Raiders enjoyed a higher "high quality shot" rate, were +7 in
FGAs, +11 in offensive boards, and +10 in FTAs- they just missed a lot
of layups. RMU has been without starting PG Albert Vargas, and there's a
fairly large efficiency drop between him and freshman Darius Livingston
(RMU a net +6 in comparison with Vargas on the floor, per EvanMiya
on/off efficiency data)- we'll see if the week off allowed him to return
to health. - Jordan Majewski
Oakland head coach Greg Kampe | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via
Imagn Images
Green Bay Phoenix at Oakland Golden Grizzlies
Green Bay enters at 15-13, while
Oakland
is 14-13. On paper, this looks like a tight Horizon League
matchup.
The Phoenix will be without head coach
Doug Gottlieb
after his suspension earlier this week, but that could galvanize
this group. Green Bay has shown the ability to compete on the
road, and Oakland hasn’t been consistent enough to justify this
spread.
Expect a competitive game throughout, with the Phoenix hanging
around and potentially stealing it late.
Green Bay at Oakland (7:00 PM, ESPN+) Good luck trying to
pick a winner in the Horizon League this year. Doug Gottlieb will be in
the penalty box for one game as a result of his postgame comments
following Green Bay’s loss at Milwaukee on Sunday.
Oakland returned Isaac Garrett to the lineup, but
he was unbelievably rusty in his first game back against RMU, turning in
a dreadful 1-11 shooting performance. The good news is Garrett
dominated in the first meeting with Green Bay, posting his best game of the season with a 17 and 10 double double....[Subscriber content]
–IU Indianapolis at Wright State (7:00 PM, ESPN+) I’d say
that Wright State should win in a breeze, but parity has hit this league
harder than others. Ask Oakland about their 20+ point loss at home
against the Jags back in January.
Green Bay is the first team to have the #1 seed secured and will at a
minimum share the Horizon League title.
Meaningful Games to Watch This Week
2-19: Youngstown State @ Northern Kentucky
Green Bay could lock up the outright Horizon title with a loss by Youngstown
State in this game. Otherwise, they can lock it up themselves on Saturday.
The work
that HC Mark Montgomery and staff are doing this conference season in
Motown is substantial. This program is in the midst of a multi-year
renovation project. The Titans raised money by getting paid to play
Notre Dame, UIC, Michigan State. DePaul and others. A road win at
Niagara was the program's lone non-conference win vs. a D1 opponent. The
battle scars, organic development, and situational lessons learned in
those games have helped Detroit Mercy compete in the Horizon League,
despite rougher KenPom/Torvik ranks.
Entering this past week, UDM
was 7-7 in league play and had a golden opportunity to avenge a
two-point home loss against league-leading Wright State. The program had
lost seven straight against the Raiders, and Montgomery said, "We've
been taking it on the chin every time we play Wright State."
Thanks
to a late "double-stagger curl-curl" coming out of a T.O.,
well-designed, I might add, the ball landed with Tyler Spratt. Spratt's
strong take to the cup and finish helped put Detroit Mercy up for good.
Legend
Geeter's rebounding and offensive contributions were also critical in
the road upset. Ryan Kalambay received a lot of praise for his big
blocked shot down the stretch.
The
Titans remembered they still needed to keep winning as Youngstown State
came to town on Sunday. When the game was in the balance, the Titans
raced out to a 15-point lead with around seven minutes remaining. A very
impressive display as Detroit Mercy eventually did secure a 76-70 win
to sweep the series against the Penguins. Six different Titans finished
in double-figured and the team was deliberate with the basketball, only
turning it over seven times in the game.
This
Titans team is suddenly 9-7 in Horizon League play. The Horizon
Tournament provides the Top Five teams with home games and a direct path
to Indianapolis with one win. Currently, the Titans would be the
six-seed but are within a couple of games of first place, unbelievably.
None of this would be possible without the season-defining week they
just put together. Remember The Titans.
