Get to Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: Horizon League

You know all about the Power 5 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 26 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness. It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the Horizon League. The Horizon League was originally known as the Midwestern City Conference back when it formed in 1979; the name would later change to Midwestern Collegiate Conference, then to its current moniker in 2001. While it had six teams at the start, there are now 11 within it, still located in the midwest despite the name changes. All 11 of the Horizon League’s teams qualify for the men’s and women’s conference basketball tournaments, which is simple enough, but the complication is in the seeding once the tourneys are already going. The Horizon uses a reseeding format that resets the bracket after every round, assuring that the highest remaining seed is always facing the lowest remaining seed, which is how you end up with future scheduled games that don’t say “No. 5 vs. No. 4” but instead “Fifth-best 1st-round winner vs. Fourth-best 1st-round winner”. That seeding setup is huge, as there are no byes: there is an initial play-in between the bottom two seeds, but then the top seed goes right at it against the winner of that game in the first round. This setup makes winning the whole tournament easier for the top seed(s), and that’s vital since the automatic bid is the only way a Horizon League team will be making it to March Madness this year. Horizon — Men’s College Basketball Leaders: The Horizon tournament started early with the play-in on March 2, which already gave us a wild game between 10th-ranked Cleveland State and 11-seed IU Indy. On Tuesday, 5-seed Green Bay eliminated 6-seed Purdue Fort Wayne — the rest of the first round will be played on Wednesday, March 4. Cleveland State takes on top-seed Wright State, while 9-seed Youngstown State faces 2-seed Robert Morris, Milwaukee (8) goes up against Detroit Mercy (3) and Northern Kentucky (7) matches up with Oakland (4). As said before, everything will be reseeded and the bracket remade after this, being sure to put the top team left against the bottom remaining squad. Which means if Cleveland State were to eliminate Wright State, the reward would be then facing 2-seed Robert Morris, which would actually then be the new 1-seed. Getting all the way to the Horizon tournament finals as a low-seed underdog is rough. The good news for these lower seeds is that the high ones aren’t exactly knocking down the door to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Wright State is the top team not just by seeding but also in the NCAA Evaluation Tool: it’s ranked 143, with Robert Morris right behind it at 147. Oakland and Northern Kentucky both make the top-200 as well, with Green Bay at 205, Youngstown at 214, Detroit Mercy at 236 and Milwaukee 246th. Cleveland State, the lone bottom seed remaining, is 314th. So, there is a notable gap between the likes of Wright State and Cleveland State, but it’s not the gap between a top-200 team and a top-30 one, or a top-150 and a 50. Robert Morris is the top Horizon League squad by Wins Above Bubble — it ranks 136th with a score of -6.94. Consider: every game is scored between 0-1 in WAB, so if Robert Morris rattled off a few wins in a row against top-ranked teams, it would still fall short. It’s not something you can turn around in an instant this far into the season, or that far out. The difference between Robert Morris and Green Bay, though, is much narrower by WAB. Since Purdue Fort Wayne was already eliminated, that means the conference’s top scorer is out, as well. Corey Hadnot’s 20.4 points per game are no longer a consideration for potential opponents. The top player in the conference by Player Efficiency Rating remains, however, as Robert Morris has sophomore forward DeSean Goode. Goode, who transferred from IU Indy for this season, leads in rebounding and shooting percentage (63.3%), as well as Plus/Minus and Offensive Rating. He’s a difference maker, and going to be dangerous for these lower seeds to overcome. Horizon – Women’s College Basketball Leaders: Detroit Mercy already took down Milwaukee in the play-in, setting it up to face top-seed Green Bay on Wednesday. Wright State (9) faces Youngstown State (2), Oakland (8) goes up against Cleveland State (3), IU Indy (7) takes on Northern Kentucky (4) and the first round concludes with Robert Morris (6) vs. Purdue Fort Wayne (5). Following that round, everything will be reseeded and the bracket reset for the second one. There is a little more of a gap between the best and worst teams in the women’s portion of the Horizon League, mostly owing to Green Bay. It’s 101st in NET 93rd in WAB, with Youngstown State and Cleveland State also both closer to being designated a bubble team for the women than the men’s top squad, Robert Morris, is. Purdue Fort Wayne is the last of the bunch to rank in the top 150 in NET, and then the gap widens. Northern Kentucky is 185, Robert Morris 205, IU Indy 255, Oakland 264, Wright State 297, Detroit Mercy 305 and Milwaukee 309. Green Bay is going to be able to tower over the opposition deep into the tournament, basically, but even if it ends up facing off against the next-best team by NET in Youngstown State, there is still a 32-spot gap. Of course, anything can happen in single-game elimination, and Green Bay went 17-3 in conference play, losing to Cleveland State in overtime, Northern Kentucky by 18 and Purdue Fort Wayne… all in the last few weeks. This is not an invulnerable team by any means, and it’s certainly not the caliber where it’s safe to assume it will be the Phoenix representing Horizon in March Madness this year. Here are some players who could make a serious impact during the tournament, changing their team’s fortunes. Green Bay forward-center Jenna Guyer, a senior, leads in Plus/Minus and is fifth in Offensive Rating. Youngstown State sophomore forward Sophia Gregory Cleveland State leads Horizon in rebounds per game, but is also tops in Defensive Rating (74.0), is first in defensive rebounds and fifth in offensive boards, ranks second in blocks per game and is the most accurate 2-point shooter in the conference (63.5%). Fifth-year transfer from Montana, Izabella Zingaro, is a 6-foot-4 forward for Cleveland State leading in PER (33.4), Offensive Rating (120.6) and is third in Defensive Rating (83.6) in addition to leading the conference in scoring. It’s not difficult to imagine Guyer being the reason Green Bay pushes through its recent slump, or either Gregory or Zingaro eventually being the reason it continues.