Horizon/Sun Belt

Horizon League-

Our friends in the Horizon League kickoff tourney play tomorrow night at on-campus sites. The semi-finals and final will be played in Indianapolis.

There are 5 teams in the KenPom top-200. They are regular season champ Oakland (141), Youngstown State (129), Wright State (155), PFW (158) and Northern Kentucky (187). This league is really dragged down this year by IUPUI and Detroit. The league needs to eliminate the dead weight teams. It would help them immensely with seeding. Remember, Green Bay was that team the last 3 years.

Local schools, Green Bay and Milwaukee, finished T3rd and T5th respectively. Green Bay was one of the most improved teams in the nation after dumping Auto Zone Bo Ryan’s son and hiring a non-nepo baby.

As for a winner, this league is always a mess. Oakland has some big losses on the ledger. Youngstown State has the most consistent conference offense and defense and are the pick.

Sun Belt

The Sun Belt will also start tomorrow night with all games being played in Pensacola. 

The regular season champ was Appalachian State who was 26-5 overall and 16-2 in league. 73 in KenPom, they’d be a popular pick to spring an upset in the tourney. They also own a win over Auburn.

In second place was James Madison who went 28-3 and finished 15-3 in league. They’re 62nd in KenPom. They were swept, though, in the regular season by App State. The Dukes did win at Michigan State but that’s only because they have a better coach.

Troy did finish 3rd in the league and has a win over Appalachian State. At 127 in KenPom, they can certainly win this.

Hoping for an App State-JMU final. Whoever wins would be a formidable opponent in the opening round of the Big Dance. I’ll take James Madison