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Post by ptctitan on Nov 27, 2019 7:50:49 GMT -5
NKU - Jalen Tate
GB - Tank Hemphill (lower body injury acc/GB newspaper)
UIC - Marcus Ottey (left foot or ankle) & Jordan Blount (knee surgery) out for unknown time. Rob Howard out for season.
Wright State - Loudon Love (injured in LaSalle game exact nature & severity unknown)
Milwaukee - Te'Jon Lucas (source is a tweet by a Milwaukee fan who says he is "possibly injured")
Detroit - B.J. Maxwell (possibly returning this weekend)
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Post by Commissioner on Nov 27, 2019 8:32:51 GMT -5
NKU - Jalen Tate GB - Tank Hemphill (lower body injury acc/GB newspaper) UIC - Marcus Ottey (left foot or ankle) & Jordan Blount (knee surgery) out for unknown time. Rob Howard out for season. Wright State - Loudon Love (injured in LaSalle game exact nature & severity unknown) Milwaukee - Te'Jon Lucas (source is a tweet by a Milwaukee fan who says he is "possibly injured") Detroit - B.J. Maxwell (possibly returning this weekend) But we shouldn't let the league off the hook for its poor performance in non-conference play. Love only got injured in the last game-- he was there when WSU lost at home to Kent State. Likewise, Te'Jon Lucas only got injured in the last game, in which he played 32 minutes. Tank Hemphill has been out since the season opener, but I doubt he would have made a difference in Green Bay's 4 losses, which were all by at least 15 points, and all of them were really more lopsided than the lopsided final scores indicate. Ditto for Detroit and Maxwell. The Titans played OK against NC State and Clemson, but were never close to an upset, and they played horribly against Wyoming and Louisiana, losing by 27 and 19 points. Only UIC really has an excuse. The possible losses of Love and Lucas (I don't think we know the prognosis on either--maybe their injuries are no big deal) only suggest that things will get worse.
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Post by Commissioner on Nov 27, 2019 9:00:49 GMT -5
As of this morning, the Horizon is 21st of 32 conferences in NET ranking. Thank goodness for NET--we're 28th under the old RPI formula.
Only Northern Kentucky and Wright State, both 3-2, have winning records against D-1 schools.
By quadrant, the league's record in games: Quadrant 1: 0-9 Quadrant 2: 3-4 Quadrant 3: 5-11 Quadrant 4: 12-12
Look at that--17-23 quadrant 3 and 4 games. We are the quadrant 4 conference.
Quadrant 4 losses include Oakland losing to Delaware on a neutral floor; UIC losing to Canisius and Mercer at home; Detroit losing by 27 at Wyoming; Cleveland State losing at home to Florida International by 46 (!); Milwaukee losing at home to Western Michigan and on neutral floors to George Washington and Rice; IUPUI losing on neutral floors to Southern and Loyola of Maryland; Northern Kentucky to Texas Southern at home; and Wright State losing on a neutral floor to La Salle.
Some other notable losses: IUPUI lost by 33 to Butler and by 34 to Bradley; Green Bay by 18 to Colgate; UIC by 46 to Memphis, by 19 to Ball State, and by 30 to Canisius; Oakland by 24 to Northern Illinois and by 30 to Maryland; Detroit by 19 to Louisiana and NC State and by 22 to Clemson; Cleveland State by 35 to Minnesota, 27 to South Carolina, and 20 to Missouri State; and Youngstown State by 23 to Louisville and 22 to Akron.
Green Bay's 4 losses have been by an average of over 18 points. It's one victory over a D1 school was a 1 point win against 0-7 Cal-State Northridge.
Not only is the league not winning, it's not even coming close.
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Post by ptctitan on Nov 27, 2019 9:20:32 GMT -5
The purpose of the post was not to let HL teams off the hook. A lot of weaknesses on HL teams are being exacerbated by these injuries. A lot of the injury news may not be well-known by readers of this board. Finally, a lot of the pre-season predictions about the HL did not assume these injuries.
It's just unusual to see so many important HL players injured this early in the season. The HL's DL is something to monitor when the conference season starts in about 4 weeks.
Maybe one reason more games are not closer is the injury issue.
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Post by Commissioner on Nov 27, 2019 9:41:37 GMT -5
Best NET non-conference wins so far:
1. IUPUI @ South Florida (#99): 70-53 2. Detroit vs. UC-Irvine (#68) (neutral floor): 86-74 3. Northern Kentucky @ Ball State (#131): 59-57 4. Wright State @ Miami (Oh) (#146): 88-81 5. Northern Kentucky @ Coastal Carolina (#163): 69-68 6. Oakland vs. UT-San Antonio (#141) (neutral): 75-62 7. Oakland vs. Southern Illinois (#143) (neutral): 61-52
These are the only wins against teams in the top half in the NET rankings.
Worst NET losses so far (losses to teams in bottom 100 of NET rankings):
1. IUPUI vs. Southern (#340) (neutral): 77-83 2. UIC vs. Canisius (#282) (home): 64-94 3. Detroit @ Wyoming (#321): 49-76 4. Milwaukee vs. Western Michigan (#276) (home): 110-115 (3OT) 5. Milwaukee vs. George Washington (#283) (neutral): 63-66 6. IUPUI vs. Loyola (Md) (#281) (neutral): 77-81
Of course, it's early and some of these games may not turn out to be as good wins or bad losses as they currently appear.
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Post by ptctitan on Nov 27, 2019 14:50:29 GMT -5
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Post by motorcitysam on Nov 27, 2019 15:33:04 GMT -5
It is disheartening to see how far the conference has fallen, and how our program has slipped from even a few years ago. Wasn't that long ago that even wins over Atlantic Ten, Conference USA, and American Athletic Association teams weren't enough to stop the "fire the coach" calls.
I'm not saying the sky is falling; I think we'll play much better during the conference season with a routine two games a week schedule and sufficient practice time. But it feels like we've missed out on a chance to take advantage of what's been a really weak two or three year stretch for the HL.
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