2021–22 Horizon League men's basketball season

The 2021–22 Horizon League men's basketball season began with practices in September 2021 and ended with the 2022 Horizon League men's basketball tournament in March 2022. This was the 42nd season for Horizon League men's basketball.

2021–22 Horizon League men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Men's basketball
Number of teams	12
TV partner(s)	ESPN+ ESPN2 ESPNU ESPN
Regular season
Season champions	Cleveland State & Purdue Fort Wayne
Tournament
Champions	Wright State
Runners-up	Northern Kentucky
Finals MVP	Grant Basile

2021–22 Horizon League men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Cleveland State	15	–	6		.714			20	–	11		.645
Purdue Fort Wayne	15	–	6		.714			21	–	12		.636
Northern Kentucky	14	–	6		.700			20	–	12		.625
Wright State †	15	–	7		.682			22	–	14		.611
Oakland	12	–	7		.632			20	–	12		.625
Detroit Mercy	10	–	7		.588			14	–	15		.483
Youngstown State	12	–	9		.571			19	–	15		.559
UIC	9	–	10		.474			14	–	16		.467
Milwaukee	8	–	14		.364			10	–	22		.313
Robert Morris	5	–	16		.238			8	–	23		.258
Green Bay	4	–	16		.200			5	–	25		.167
IUPUI	1	–	16		.059			3	–	26		.103
† 2022 Horizon League tournament winner

Head coaches

Coaching changes

• On April 13, 2021, IUPUI announced Ball State assistant Matt Crenshaw as the team's new head coach. Previous head coach Byron Rimm II served as the team's head coach for two years while the program's search for a permanent head coach was prolonged by the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1]

Preseason

Preseason coaches poll

2021-22 Horizon League Preseason Coaches Poll[2]
Rank	Team (First Place Votes)	Points
1.	Cleveland State (30)	502
2.	Wright State (9)	463
3.	Northern Kentucky (1)	406
4.	Milwaukee (2)	396
5.	Detroit Mercy (2)	350
6.	Oakland	340
7.	Youngstown State	214
8.	UIC	204
8.	Purdue Fort Wayne	169
10.	Robert Morris	157
11.	Green Bay	146
12.	IUPUI	85

Preseason All-Horizon League

First team	Second team
Torrey Patton, Cleveland State	DeAndre Gholston, Milwaukee
Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy	Trevon Faulkner, Northern Kentucky
Patrick Baldwin Jr., Milwaukee	Marques Warrick, Northern Kentucky
Jalen Moore, Oakland	Jarred Godfrey, Purdue Fort Wayne
Grant Basile, Wright State	Tanner Holden, Wright State

Preseason Player of the Year: Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy

Preseason watchlists

Below is a table of notable preseason watch lists.

	Wooden[3]	Robertson	Cousy	West	Erving[4]	Malone	Abdul-Jabbar	Henson[5]
Patrick Baldwin Jr., Milwaukee	Y				Y			Y
Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy								Y
Tanner Holden, Wright State								Y
Jalen Moore, Oakland								Y

Rankings

Main article: 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

Legend

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll
(Italics)		Number of first place votes

		Pre/ Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Final
Cleveland State	AP
	C
Detroit Mercy	AP
	C
Green Bay	AP
	C
IUPUI	AP
	C
Milwaukee	AP
	C
Northern Kentucky	AP
	C
Oakland	AP
	C											RV
Purdue Fort Wayne	AP
	C
Robert Morris	AP
	C
UIC	AP
	C
Wright State	AP
	C
Youngstown State	AP
	C

Regular season

Player of the Week awards

Week Player of the Week[6] Freshman of the Week[6] 1 Grant Basile, Wright State Patrick Baldwin Jr., Milwaukee 2 Jamal Cain, Oakland Sam Vinson, Northern Kentucky 3 Jamal Cain (2), Oakland Sam Vinson (2), Northern Kentucky 4 Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy Patrick Baldwin Jr. (2), Milwaukee 5 Marques Warrick, Northern Kentucky Dwayne Cohill, Youngstown State Sam Vinson (3), Northern Kentucky 6 D'Moi Hodge, Cleveland State Hubie Pivorius, Northern Kentucky 7 Grant Basile (2), Wright State AJ Braun, Wright State 8 Jamal Cain (3), Oakland Sam Vinson (4), Northern Kentucky 9 Antoine Davis (2), Detroit Mercy Kamari McGee, Green Bay 10 Kevin Johnson, UIC Kamari McGee (2), Green Bay 11 Tanner Holden, Wright State Sam Vinson (5), Northern Kentucky 12 Michael Akuchie, Youngstown State Sam Vinson (6), Northern Kentucky 13 Grant Basile (3), Wright State Cade Meyer, Green Bay 14 Jamal Cain (4), Oakland Sam Vinson (7), Northern Kentucky 15 Antoine Davis (3), Detroit Mercy Jace Carter, UIC 16 Marques Warrick (2), Northern Kentucky Kamari McGee (3), Green Bay

School POTW FOTW Cleveland State 1 0 Detroit Mercy 3 0 Green Bay 0 4 IUPUI 0 0 Milwaukee 0 2 Northern Kentucky 2 8 Oakland 4 0 Purdue Fort Wayne 0 0 Robert Morris 0 0 UIC 1 1 Wright State 4 1 Youngstown State 2 0

Conference matrix

	CSU	DET	GB	IUPUI	MKE	NKU	OAK	PFW	RMU	UIC	WSU	YSU
vs. Cleveland State	–	1–1	0–2	0–1	0–2	1–1	2–0	1–2	0–2	1–0	0–2	0–2
vs. Detroit Mercy	1–1	–	1–0	0–1	0–2	0–2	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–2	1–1	1–0
vs. Green Bay	2–0	0–1	–	0–2	2–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	2–0
vs. IUPUI	1–0	1–0	2–0	–	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	2–0
vs. Milwaukee	2–0	2–0	0–2	0–2	–	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–0
vs. Northern Kentucky	1–1	2–0	0–2	0–1	1–1	–	0–2	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–2	0–2
vs. Oakland	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	2–0	–	1–1	0–2	0–2	2–0	1–1
vs. Purdue Fort Wayne	2–1	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	–	0–2	0–1	2–0	0–2
vs. Robert Morris	2–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	–	2–0	2–0	1–1
vs. UIC	0–1	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	1–0	2–0	1–0	0–2	–	2–0	2–0
vs. Wright State	2–0	1–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	2–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2	–	1–1
vs. Youngstown State	2–0	0–1	0–2	0–2	0–2	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–1	–
Total	15–6	15–6	4–16	1–16	8–14	14–6	12–7	15–6	5–16	9–10	15–7	12–9

Early season tournaments

The following table summarizes the multiple-team events (MTE) or early season tournaments in which teams from the Horizon League participated.

Team	Tournament	Location	Dates
Cleveland State	Lake Erie Challenge	Cleveland, OH Buffalo, NY	November 20–24
Detroit Mercy	Bahamas Championship	Campus sites	November 17–27
Green Bay	Jersey Mike's Classic	St. Petersburg, FL	November 18–21
IUPUI	Roadrunner Invitational	San Antonio, TX	November 15–21
Milwaukee	Fort Myers Tip-Off	Campus sites Fort Myers, FL	November 14–24
Northern Kentucky	Blue Demon Classic	Campus sites	November 18–28
Oakland	Gulf Coast Showcase	Estero, FL	November 22–24
Purdue Fort Wayne	FGCU Invitational	Fort Myers, FL	November 26–28
Robert Morris	Kentucky Classic	Campus sites	November 12–22
UIC	Las Vegas Classic	Las Vegas, NV	November 25–26
Wright State	Naples Invitational	Naples, FL	November 22–24
Youngstown State	Penguin Classic	Youngstown, OH	November 19–21

References

1. Associated Press (April 13, 2021). "IUPUI men's basketball hires Matt Crenshaw as its next head coach". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
2. "Cleveland State Named #HLMBB Favorite, Detroit Mercy's Davis Tabbed Preseason Player of the Year". horizonleague.org. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
3. "JOHN R. WOODEN AWARD PRESENTED BY WENDY'S ANNOUNCES 2021-22 MEN'S PRESEASON TOP 50 WATCH LIST". Wooden Award. November 9, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
4. "Basketball Hall of Fame names 20 small forwards to 2022 Julius Erving Award watch list". www.ncaa.com. October 22, 2021. Retrieved October 22, 2021.
5. "Four #HLMBB Players Named to Lou Henson Award Watch List". horizonleague.org. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
6. "Nike #HLMBB Players of the Week (February 28)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved November 28, 2022.