The Horizon conference, which includes teams from the Midwest area, remains wide open this basketball season, as there is no clear-cut favorite to win it. Green Bay is currently leading the horizon conference by one game, having a conference record of nine wins and three losses. Close behind is Youngstown State, Oakland, and Wright State, with Cleveland State and Northern Kentucky within striking distance.

Northern Kentucky was the preseason favorite to win the Horizon conference, followed by Milwaukee. Green Bay is proving doubters wrong, as they were picked to finish dead last in the conference, behind IUPUI. According to KenPom, an analytical ranking system that the NCAA committee uses to determine tournament-worthy teams, it has Youngstown State winning the Horizon conference. Youngstown State is ranked 120 at KenPom and supports an adjusted offensive efficiency ranking of 121 in the country, an adjusted defensive efficiency ranking of 135 in the country, and an adjusted tempo pace ranking of 119 in the country. It has one of the best offenses in the conference, aside from Wright State led by Trey Calvin, but Wright State ranks in the bottom of the country in defense, at 343, which ranks bottom 30 in the country.

With how conference play has gone so far, it may be even closer once we get to late February into March. I do not expect Green Bay to hold onto first-place though, especially because of their defensive lapses down the stretch of games. A lack of offense against good defenses will cost the Phoenix as well, especially when they see Youngstown state in Green Bay February tenth. The Horizon conference, in my opinion, is a four-team race. between Youngstown State, Oakland, Wright State, and Cleveland State. Now, Youngstown State got swept by Oakland this year, but both of those games were decided by single digits. They rarely allow more than 75 points per game, as the only conference team to exceed that mark was Oakland. They have faced Wright State’s juggernaut offense and could only muster 71 in a game, shutting down a top 30 offensive unit. Only one team is going to get a bid from the NCAA committee, and that is going to be the team that wins the Horizon League Tournament in March, and the winner may surprise us all this year by the looks of it.

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