2025–26 Horizon League men's basketball season

2025–26 Horizon League men's basketball season
LeagueNCAA Division I
SportMen's basketball
Teams11
TV partner(s)ESPN+
ESPN2
ESPNU
ESPN
Regular season
Season championsWright State
Season MVPDeSean Goode
Top scorerCorey Hadnot II
Tournament
ChampionsWright State
  Runners-upDetroit Mercy
Finals MVPTJ Burch
2025–26 Horizon League men's basketball standings
Conf. Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
Wright State † 15 – 5   .750 23 – 11   .676
Robert Morris 13 – 7   .650 22 – 11   .667
Detroit Mercy 12 – 8   .600 17 – 15   .531
Oakland 12 – 8   .600 16 – 16   .500
Green Bay 12 – 8   .600 18 – 15   .545
Purdue Fort Wayne 11 – 9   .550 17 – 15   .531
Northern Kentucky 10 – 10   .500 20 – 14   .588
Milwaukee 8 – 12   .400 12 – 20   .375
Youngstown State 8 – 12   .400 15 – 17   .469
Cleveland State 6 – 14   .300 11 – 22   .333
IU Indy 3 – 17   .150 7 – 25   .219
† 2026 Horizon League tournament winner
As of March 10, 2026

The 2025–26 Horizon League men's basketball season began with practices in September 2025 and will end with the 2026 Horizon League men's basketball tournament in March 2026. This is the 46th season for Horizon League men's basketball, and the final season before the conference expands with Northern Illinois rejoining beginning in 2026–27.

Head coaches

Coaching changes

Coaches

Team Head coach Previous job Season Overall
record 		Horizon
record 		NCAA
Tournaments
Cleveland State Rob Summers Missouri (asst.) 1st 0–0 (–) 0–0 (–) 0
Detroit Mercy Mark Montgomery Michigan State (asst.) 2nd 8–24 (.250) 4–16 (.200) 0
Green Bay Doug Gottlieb none 2nd 4–28 (.125) 2–18 (.100) 0
IU Indy Ben Howlett West Liberty 1st 0–0 (–) 0–0 (–) 0
Milwaukee Bart Lundy Queens 4th 63–38 (.624) 40–20 (.667) 0
Northern Kentucky Darrin Horn Texas (asst.) 7th 114–76 (.600) 75–41 (.647) 2
Oakland Greg Kampe Toledo (asst.) 42nd 710–544 (.566) 128–81 (.612) 1
Purdue Fort Wayne Jon Coffman IPFW (asst.) 12th 197–154 (.561) 104–92 (.531) 0
Robert Morris Andrew Toole Robert Morris (asst.) 16th 252–241 (.511) 154–120 (.562) 3
Wright State Clint Sargent Wright State (asst.) 2nd 15–18 (.455) 8–12 (.400) 0
Youngstown State Ethan Faulkner Youngstown State (asst.) 2nd 21–13 (.618) 13–7 (.650) 0

Notes:

  • Season number includes 2025–26 season.
  • Records are prior to 2025–26 season.

Preseason

Preseason coaches poll

2025–26 Horizon League Preseason Coaches Poll[5]
Rank Team (First Place Votes) Points
1. Milwaukee (24) 428
2. Oakland (7) 384
3. Youngstown State (2) 364
4. Robert Morris (8) 345
5. Purdue Fort Wayne (1) 287
6. Northern Kentucky 274
7. Wright State 221
8. Cleveland State (2) 217
9. Detroit Mercy 176
10. IU Indy 115
11. Green Bay 93

Preseason All-Horizon League

First team Second team
Orlando Lovejoy, Detroit Mercy Faizon Fields, Milwaukee
Marcus Hall, Green Bay Seth Hubbard, Milwaukee
Amar Aguillard, Milwaukee Dan Gherezgher, Northern Kentucky
Tuburu Naivalurua, Oakland Corey Hadnot II, Purdue Fort Wayne
Cris Carroll, Youngstown State DeSean Goode, Robert Morris
Preseason Player of the Year: Tuburu Naivalurua, Oakland

Regular season

Player of the Week awards


Postseason

Horizon League tournament

Main article: 2026 Horizon League men's basketball tournament

The conference tournament will be played from March 2 to March 10, 2026.

The tournament will adopt a new format in 2026; instead of a traditional 11-team bracket with reseeding after each round, the new format includes a play-in for the bottom two teams by conference record, then a ten-team first round on campus sites. The five winners then advance to the final three rounds at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis. The bottom two teams by seeding play in the second round, while the remaining three teams are reseeded into the semifinals, with the winners advancing to the finals.[23]

Teams are seeded by conference record, with ties broken by record between the tied teams followed by record against the regular-season champion, if necessary.

Play-In Round
March 2
Campus Site
ESPN+		First Round
March 3–4
Campus Sites
ESPN+		Second Round
March 8
Indianapolis, IN
ESPN+		Semifinals
March 9
Indianapolis, IN
ESPNU/ESPN2		Final
March 10
Indianapolis, IN
ESPN
1Wright State90
10Cleveland State10110Cleveland State61
11IU Indy931Wright State103
2Robert Morris685Green Bay767Northern Kentucky90
9Youngstown State537Northern Kentucky96
3Detroit Mercy841Wright State66
8Milwaukee633Detroit Mercy63
4Oakland84
7Northern Kentucky852Robert Morris64
3Detroit Mercy70
5Green Bay64
6Purdue Fort Wayne56


Conference awards

2026 Horizon League individual awards
Award Recipient(s)
Player of the Year DeSean Goode, Robert Morris
Coach of the Year Clint Sargent, Wright State
Defensive Player of the Year TJ Burch, Wright State
Sixth Man of the Year Chevalier Emery, Cleveland State
Freshman of the Year Kellen Pickett, Wright State
Newcomer of the Year TJ Burch, Wright State
Sportsmanship Award Tre Beard, Cleveland State
Aaron Franklin, Milwaukee
Reference:[24]
2026 Horizon League all-conference teams
First Team Second Team Third Team Defensive Team Freshman Team
Orlando Lovejoy, DET
Brody Robinson, OAK
Corey Hadnot II, PFW
DeSean Goode, RMU
TJ Burch, WSU 		Preston Ruedinger, GB
Donovan Oday, NKU
Ryan Prather Jr., RMU
Michael Imariagbe, WSU
Cris Carroll, YSU 		Dayan Nessah, CSU
TJ Nadeau, DET
CJ O'Hara, GB
Kyler D'Augustino, IUI
Tuburu Naivalurua, OAK 		Orlando Lovejoy, DET
Tae Dozier, NKU
Nikolaos Chitikoudis, RMU
TJ Burch, WSU
Imanuel Zorgvol, YSU 		Tyler Spratt, DET
Stevie Elam, MKE
Darius Livingston, RMU
Michael Cooper, WSU
Kellen Pickett, WSU

Attendance

Average home attendances

Note: Figures include conference tournament

# Team GP Cumulative High Low Avg.
1 Wright State 16 56,985 4,892 2,827 3,562
2 Oakland 13 29,567 3,721 1,582 2,274
3 Northern Kentucky 17 35,680 3,604 1,502 2,099
4 Green Bay 14 28,772 2,744 1,510 2,055
5 Milwaukee 14 28,518 4,262 1,379 2,037
6 Youngstown State 15 30,522 4,637 1,356 2,035
7 Cleveland State 16 27,409 2,458 949 1,713
8 Purdue Fort Wayne 15 24,442 2,770 937 1,629
9 Detroit Mercy 14 20,678 3,131 787 1,477
10 Robert Morris 17 24,447 3,537 922 1,438
11 IU Indy 14 14,827 5,568 525 1,059
Total 165 321,847 5,568 525 1,951

References

  1. ^ Na, Justin (March 30, 2025). "North Texas men's basketball announces hiring of Cleveland State's Daniyal Robinson". NTDaily.com. Retrieved October 7, 2025.
  2. ^ pluto, terry (April 9, 2025). "Cleveland State names new men's basketball coach, a familiar face — Terry Pluto". cleveland. Retrieved October 7, 2025.
  3. ^ Athletics, IU Indy (September 26, 2025). "IU INDIANAPOLIS ANNOUNCES LEADERSHIP CHANGE IN MEN'S BASKETBALL PROGRAM". IU Indy Athletics. Retrieved October 7, 2025.
  4. ^ Holdaway, Ed; Athletics, IU Indy (September 26, 2025). "HOWLETT NAMED IU INDIANAPOLIS HEAD MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH". IU Indy Athletics. Retrieved October 7, 2025.
  5. ^ White, Rachel (October 8, 2025). "Milwaukee Earns Top Spot in 2025-26 Under Armour #HLMBB Preseason Poll". horizonleague.org. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  6. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (November 10)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  7. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (November 17)". horizonleague.org.
  8. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (November 24)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  9. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (December 1)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  10. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (December 8)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  11. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (December 15)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  12. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (December 22)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  13. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (December 29)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  14. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (January 5)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  15. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (January 12)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 14, 2026.
  16. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (January 19)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 21, 2026.
  17. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (January 26)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved January 28, 2026.
  18. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (February 2)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved February 2, 2026.
  19. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (February 9)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved February 19, 2026.
  20. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (February 16)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved February 19, 2026.
  21. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (February 23)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  22. ^ White, Rachel. "Under Armour #HLMBB Players of the Week (March 1)". horizonleague.org. Retrieved March 1, 2026.
  23. ^ Gentile, Drew (September 26, 2025). "Horizon League details reasons for changes to postseason tournament". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved October 7, 2025.
  24. ^ White, Rachel (March 2, 2026). "Horizon League Announces 2025-26 #HLMBB All-League Awards". horizonleague.org. Retrieved March 2, 2026.
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