Horizon League Overview

Horizon League Conference Overview

There are some changes happening in the Midwest as one of the signature Mid-Majors from the heartland reshuffles their deck.  When some bigger conferences came calling a couple of schools left for the greener pastures of those more prestigious conferences.  They also give programs the opportunity to get multiple teams selected to the Big Dance which this conference has done, but not often, in the past.  That will be much more difficult this year with the changes.  The first shoe to fall was Dayton who talked fellow Ohioans Xavier to join them in the A-10.  LaSalle had actually been thinking of coming this way but got snagged by the A-10 and they were looking to replace West Virginia, Rutgers and Penn State who all, in turn, had joined power six conferences. 

Speaking of power conferences, Marquette and St. Louis were out the door for the new, shiny Conference USA which meant this league had some voids to fill.  Oh, and tourist team Evansville was gone to the Missouri Valley after a brief stop here.  With only two original members left, Butler and Loyola of Illinois, from the old Midwestern City Conference which quickly became the Midwestern Collegiate Conference and added Detroit Mercy.  Three schools do not make a league so this team did what the bigger conferences did to them.  They stole some schools from the lower leagues and we are not necessarily talking D-1 schools.  That is the way the system works now.  Some call it trickle down but in reality it is take from the poor and give to the rich and everyone else tries to survive.  This has led for some opportunity for some lower-level schools to move up into D-1 and thank goodness or this league would have went the way of the dinosaurs. 

Pre-Season Ranking:                           

  1. Loyola of Chicago
  2. Detroit
  3. Butler
  4. Cleveland State
  5. Illinois-Chicago
  6. Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  7. Wright State
  8. Wisconsin-Green Bay

Ist Team Pos Year Team
Alfredrick Hughes F So Loyola of Chicago
Jerry Harkness G-F Sr Loyola of Chicago
Dave Debusscherre F Sr Detroit
Billy Shepherd G Jr Butler
Spencer Haywood F-C Sr Detroit
Jeff Blue C Jr Butler
Larry Reed F-C Sr Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Chuck Lambert C Jr Illinois-Chicago
Les Hunter F-C Sr Loyola of Chicago
John Long G Jr Detroit
Terry Tyler F Jr Detroit
Tom Anderson G Jr Wisconsin-Green Bay
Franklin Edwards G So Cleveland State
Ken 'Mouse' McFadden G So Cleveland State
LaRue Martin C Jr Loyola of Chicago

The Horizon League has a Distinct Power Vacuum at the Top.  

The powers that be also figured this was a good time for a name change so the five new schools (there were rumors Northern Illinois was coming but they stayed in the MAC at the last minute as that league expanded to 12 teams) are Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin-Green Bay (I would guess they were a package deal), Illinois-Chicago (UIC to most in the Windy City), Cleveland State and greenest member Wright State, who also hails from Ohio (Dayton to be exact in an obvious replacement move).  The Raiders are not just new to the Horizon but this is their first year in D-1 but they were highly successful in D-2 just winning a national championship.  The other four have not been at this level much longer and are happy to join a league as being an Indy in these days of college basketball is not helpful to your program’s success.  As you can see, these new programs are nowhere near the level of the teams that left so the Horizon might be taking a step back.  But they still do have those three solid programs (all have been to the big dance before at least once) and this quarter of new programs are not exactly chopped liver. Still, dare I say, it is a whole new world this group comes together to battle the big dogs and success is just over the horizon.  If they can stay together? 

The Horizon League has a distinct power vacuum at the top.   At least the three that should be competing for the league crown!  The rest are all new so things will be a little disjointed in the Midwest.  That is not all bad however as this might just be a two program conference in March. Stay with me.  If two of these three schools run the table in the regular season and they end up playing for the conference title at the end, then all bets are off.  This is when scheduling a good out of conference group of opponents really helps and all three of those schools, Butler, Detroit and Loyola of Illinois have pretty solid schedules.  Will this help?  Well, they got to beat all the newbies all of the time first.  But, there are three schools who should be battling for a trip to the BD and though most 8 team mid-majors don’t get a chance at a 2nd team in that illustrious democratic tourney this conference just might have enough in the tank to get the job done. 

There are 106 miles to Chicago, we have a full tank of gas, got half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark outside and we are wearing sunglasses.”  All trails in the Horizon lead to Chicago and not only because the favorites are from Loyola but because the rest of the league is almost within that 106 mile range.  Oh, and btw the league originated in the Windy City after some super secret meetings between the likes of schools from DePaul and Bradley.  Those schools did not join but the headquarters were first located in Champaign and this league revolves around the 2nd City.  Of course not all of the teams in this league are from the Chicago suburbs.  The other big two that will be battling the Ramblers for supremacy of this underrated conference are Butler from Indianapolis and Detroit from, well, Motown.  These three will battle it out primarily because the Horizon lost some major players specifically Xavier, who has dominated this league for the last couple of years, left for the A-10 along with Dayton while St. Louis left for Conference USA, Evansville joined the Valley and Oral Roberts decided to go dominate the Mid-Continent instead of being an afterthought up here.   This might not help the league overall as the new five teams, Illinois-Chicago, Green Bay and Milwaukee from Wisconsin, Cleveland State and Wright State from Ohio replacing Dayton and Xavier, are nowhere near those previous programs level but it might actually help this league finally get two teams as those three up top should have great league records and all have solid out of conference schedules. 

The Ramblers have been pushing the envelope for quite some time and are the favorites due to an experienced lineup that has been there before.  Coach George Ireland became the first coach to start four black athletes a few years back in the BD and that group went way further than expected.  All of them have one shot left including team leader and great all-around athlete Jerry Harkness who can and will play anywhere.  Joining him will be Les ‘big game’ Hunter and Johnny ‘Token’ Egan but Ireland has some underclassmen who are every bit as talented and will push for their own glory.  Junior big man LaRue Martin is huge at 7 foot 240 plus but is a project who could be special.  But the real stud is sophomore wing Alfrederick Hughes who is one of the best offensive players in the league and arguably in the Midwest.  This team can go far but has to beat another loaded team from Motor City.  The Detroit Titans have as good of a pair of forwards as any team in the country and that is not hyperbole.  Seniors Spencer Haywood and Dave Debusscherre are terrific players who complement each other well as Debusscherre is an outside-in player who relies on his midrange game offensively and is a beast defensively and on the boards.  Haywood is the best postup player in the country under six nine though he may have to play some center to get new Coach Dick Vitale’s (legendary Coach Bob Calihan retired to help his brother sell auto parts) best lineup on the court together.  The Titans have much support (they have renamed their arena Calihan Hall for obvious reasons) and will score.  How well they defend will determine if they first beat the Ramblers and then how far they can go in the post season.  Both have great out of conference schedules so they will be tested but if they can win a few each against the power conference teams this might allow an avenue for both to get in.  The third team pushing for the postseason the Butler Bulldogs will have something to say about that.  The Bulldogs who play in iconic Hinkle Arena (they like to name arenas after former coaches here and they do it quickly as Tony Hinkle just retired) in Indianapolis have nowhere near the talent of the Titans or Ramblers.  They do have a new coach in young Brad Stevens who has brought in some new talent and a style of play that keeps games close and with a few breaks this team could shock the world.  Seniors Bobby Plump (yes the Hoosiers Jimmy Chitwood is based on him) and Jeff Blue are the primary carryovers but Stevens promises he has got some studs coming in and if they are good as advertised then the Bulldogs will be fine if they do what they have always done, play as a team and defend. 

The best of the rest has got to be Cleveland State as Coach Kevin Mackey has some gifted young players coming back for a second season.  Led by a gifted backcourt with the likes of sophomores Franklin Edwards and Ken ‘Mouse’ McFadden, the key to the team will how six eleven big man Darren Tillis develops.  Mackey’s Vikings can score though Tillis has a long way to go offensively but he is a rim protector and his presence gives this team a real chance to upset the big three in the Horizon if they can keep their momentum from their surprising first season together in the Rock-N-Roll capital! 

The other four programs are too young and new to really know if they can compete here and most are just glad to be finally in D-1 so for any of them to sneak into the top four would be success enough for now.  Defensive minded Dick Bennett in Green Bay will keep scoring under control and his Phoenix could rise a little higher than expected with a few close wins but they are no match for the big dogs here.  He does have some carryover D-2 talent and defense does win some games and he did steal a pretty heavy recruit with the same last name from the Big 10 but unless Harry Potter pulls some magic in Green Bay, the Phoenix are not rising to the top of this Horizon.  Milwaukee has a bit more talent on the other side of Wisconsin but have been in a state of flux since they got the word they were jumping into this tough league and grabbed controversial Coach Bruce Pearl late to lead them.  Pearl can flat recruit though his methods are questionable but he should have some talent coming to play for the Panthers to join carryover big man Larry Reed who brings at least some continuity here.  Wright State better find some talent quick and Coach Ralph Underhill is beating the bushes everywhere to complement some fine D-2 players from their nice run down there.  When you got D-1 scholarships it is a bit easier to find players as (what are you eating) Underhill has found out.  Still, the Raiders will be happy to get double digit wins and in reality have no chance of playing in the post season in their first season at this level.  We started in Chicago and end there as the last team on the list are the Illinois-Chicago Flames under new coach Bob Hallberg.  Hallberg has three experienced big men to hang his hat on in Juniors Chuck Lambert  and Greg Olsen and sophomore Ivan Daniels but unless he finds some guards this team will go down in dare I say in Flames!  He has one in super sophomore Craig ‘Cubby’ Lathen who might be the best passer in the Midwest not named Magic and really loves to push the tempo.  But this super sophomore has got to stay on the court (he missed some games with disciplinary issues) if he is to be effective.  If he does play a full year and Hallberg finds some wings, this team could move up into the top half of the league.  That would be a heck of a move but nobody is beating the big three in the Horizon this year.  The big question is not who will win of these three vastly underrated programs but if the winner brings along a dance partners to go with them in March? 

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