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.
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:
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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.
The Golden Gophers had been quietly building their résumé throughout the
season, and they were finally rewarded with hosting duties for the first
time since 2005. All five of Minnesota’s starters average double figures,
which should be enough to take care of a Green Bay team that is coming off
its third straight Horizon League championship.
Green Bay:
The Phoenix is a 13-seed as it makes its third straight Big Dance. It’s
a matchup of former South Dakota head coaches as Kayla Karius leads GB
against Minnesota and Dawn Plitzuweit, who led the Coyotes to the 2022
Sweet 16.
These
last few seasons have represented a big opportunity for Sargent and
he’s clearly got Wright State trending in a great direction. Sargent was
a long-time disciple of Scott Nagy, playing for him at South Dakota
State before serving on his staffs both there and with Wright State.
After all that time, Sargent got the top job in 2024 when Nagy left
town. After mediocre results last year, Sargent just took the Raiders to
the Horizon League Tournament title and gets his first Big Dance in
just his second season as a head coach.
Five more conference champions were crowned tonight!! Long Island had
already wrapped up the NEC auto-bid, but finished off Mercyhurst to win
the NEC Championship officially. Wright State is back in the dance after
beating Detroit Mercy in the Horizon League Championship. Hofstra held
off Monmouth in a thrilling CAA Championship game, Gonzaga came from
behind to beat Santa Clara in an exciting WCC final, and Siena won the
MAAC. We had some crazy semifinals as well and a few major conferences
got underway.
We have two more tickets punched!! Troy won the Sun Belt and Furman
pulled off an upset over East Tennessee State to win the SoCon. It was
also Semifinal Day in the Horizon League and CAA and we had some
incredible games in those tournaments. We run down all the action and
preview tomorrow’s matchups as both the Big 12 and Big Ten are about to
get underway.
Charges against Smith were unsealed in January along with 25 others.
Besides the fixers who recruited players and placed bets, the charges
targeted 17 former college basketball players, including Robert Morris’ Markeese Hastings, and four other players who were active with their college teams this season.
