DDN Horizon League Rankings
1. Cleveland State (6-1)
2. Milwaukee (5-1)
3. Valparaiso (5-2)
4. Butler (4-3)
5. Youngstown State (4-1)
6. Detroit (3-4)
7. Green Bay (2-4)
8. Wright State (2-4)
9. Loyola (1-4)
10. UIC (2-3)
5 things to know
1. Butler, two-time NCAA tournament runner-up and league favorite, has lost to Evansville, Louisville and Indiana.
2. Detroit was picked second, but the Titans are playing without four players (including preseason all-league first team center Eli Holman, who is on an indefinite leave of absence).
3. A pair of Evansville transfers, junior forward James Haarsma (9.3 rebounds per game) and senior point guard Kaylon Williams (6.0 assists per game), are driving Milwaukee to a fast start.
4. There are few more versatile tandems than Valparaiso’s 6-foot-7 Ryan Broekhoff (14.3 points, 9.3 rebounds) and 6-8 Kevin Van Wijk (14.8 points, 7.5 rebounds), both juniors.
5. Stat leaders include YSU’s Kendrick Perry (18.2 points), Haarsma (rebounds), Williams (assists), Valpo’s Jay Harris (20-20 free throws), and CSU’s D’Aundray Brown (3.7 steals).
Kyle Nagel
The Cleveland State men’s basketball team won 27 games last season but lost Horizon League Player of the Year point guard Norris Cole, the Dunbar High School product who was selected in the first round of last spring’s NBA draft.
Many wondered how the Vikings could replace Cole, if at all. They were picked third in the preseason poll.
Then they took the court in Nashville, Tenn., and settled all of that.
Beginning with a season-opening 71-58 thumping of then-No. 7 Vanderbilt, Cleveland State has been the hottest team in the Horizon League as the league prepares to play its first conference games Thursday. Because the league’s teams participate in the annual BracketBusters event in February, the early December league matchups are necessary.
For Wright State, this means facing the best (Cleveland State) and most improved (Youngstown State) league teams in the early season for its first two games. The Vikings (6-1) present a particularly difficult Thursday matchup with wins against Vanderbilt, Kent State, Boston University and Rhode Island on their resume.
“We’re better than people thought we were with the loss of Norris Cole,” said Cleveland State coach Gary Waters.
That’s because CSU returned four starters — or five, if one counts leading scorer D’Aundray Brown, who was a starting guard two years ago before missing last season with a finger injury. Combined, CSU had 476 games and 302 starts of career experience entering this season.
“This group has been together, but what has given it a chance for success is it has been around success in the past,” Waters said. “They weren’t just here; they were here as part of winning teams.”
Aaron Pogue, the 6-foot-9 senior center and Dunbar product, leads CSU in rebounding (5.8 per game) and is third in scoring (9.0 points per game), including a career-high 20-point, five-rebound effort in CSU’s 67-45 drubbing of Rhode Island on Sunday.
“If he performs like he did in the last game,” Waters said, “we’re gonna be tough to beat.”
Youngstown State, which WSU hosts on Saturday, has finally found roster stability under seventh-year coach Jerry Slocum, and it shows. The Penguins finished 9-21 (2-16 in the league) last season, but they boast the conference’s top scorer in 6-foot sophomore Kendrick Perry (18.2 PPG), another high-scoring guard in 6-1 sophomore Chris Blake (13.8) and defensive presence in Damian Eargle, a 6-7 junior who ranks No. 2 nationally with 4.6 blocks per game.
“I picked them in the top half,” said WSU coach Billy Donlon. “I’ve always said Coach Slocum does as good a job as anybody in our league, and they have a team that if everybody stays healthy will compete at a very high level.
“I think their conference record last season was deceiving because of how many games came down to the last minute. They were good, and now they have very skilled returners.”
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