Horizon League watch guide Dec. 2-7

Feast Week is officially behind us, and for the Horizon League, that means it’s time for some early-season conference matchups. As it currently stands, just two teams in the conference have winning records, with Northern Kentucky at 6-2 and Robert Morris at 5-3.

Through November, however, the League has faced plenty of uphill battles with buy games against high majors and other road games against quality mid-major programs. As many teams look to find their footing, a week of early-conference play is an opportunity for teams to see where they stand before wrapping up non-conference action.

Below are some of the key games to watch for an early idea of league hierarchy. Note that there are no games on Monday, Tuesday or Friday this week:

Wright State (4-4) at Youngstown State (4-4), Wednesday, Dec. 3, 6:30 p.m. ET, on ESPN+

For Youngstown State, the season opened in encouraging fashion. The Penguins played well on the road in a loss against Pittsburgh and then won at Grand Canyon, a place where road teams don’t usually enjoy playing. Then faced with the tall task of playing at St. Bonaventure, Ethan Faulkner’s team fell 84-80, starting a three-game slide. The second loss in the stretch was at Toledo, which isn’t necessarily a bad loss, but in an opportunity to get right in the Jacksonville Classic, Youngstown State blew an 18-point halftime lead and lost to then 0-5 UNC Greensboro. Now, the Penguins have won two straight and have an opportunity to open conference play at home, looking to get back to the level they played at to start the year, looking like the team to beat in the league.

Wright State, while having the same record as Youngstown State, hasn’t had a standout win in the young season. The Raiders are led in scoring by a freshman but have seen contributions from across the board with 10 players averaging at least five points per game. After quietly playing some good basketball to start the season, Wright State has the opportunity to make a statement in its first conference game.

Cleveland State (3-6) at Northern Kentucky (6-2), Wednesday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m. ET, on ESPN+

It was Youngstown State early in the season, but Northern Kentucky stands alone atop the league record-wise ahead of the first conference games. Entering the game against Cleveland State, the Norse are winners of four-straight games over mid-major opponents, including a win over Wofford, which has only lost otherwise to George Mason and Auburn. For mid-majors to succeed on the national stage late in the season, the backcourt has to be good, and Northern Kentucky has that trait right now. Dan Gherezgher leads the league in scoring at 18.1 points per game, and his running mate, Donovan Oday, is third with 17.9 points. LJ Wells is also second in the conference on the glass, averaging 7.9 rebounds per contest. The Norse has played complementary basketball to jump out to a league-best record and will look to continue against the Vikings.

For Cleveland State, it hasn’t been a smooth road to start the Rob Summers era, but Dayan Nessah, averaging 15.3 points per game, has been a major positive. The Vikings will look to find their footing as conference play begins.

Robert Morris (5-3) at Green Bay (4-5), Thursday, Dec. 4, 7 p.m. ET, on ESPN+

Green Bay has a chance to surpass its win total from all of last season in the first conference game of this season, a testament to the improvement in year two under Doug Gottlieb. In the past three games, all without its leading scorer Marcus Hall, Green Bay has rattled off three consecutive victories, two against mid-major opponents. In the program’s first season playing all home games at the Kress Center, you can’t ask for much more than a home game against a solid Robert Morris team to open the conference slate. Justin Allen broke out in the Virgin Islands in Hall’s absence, scoring 27 and 28 in wins over UMass and Iona, and Preston Ruedinger scored 30 to down NAIA Haskell. The Phoenix will need continued production from those two, amongst others, should Hall continue to be sidelined.

Robert Morris has lost three times on the road this season but has taken care of business otherwise. The frontcourt of Nikolaos Chitikoudis and DeSean Goode has been a handful for every opponent this season, and they’ll look to help the Colonials get off on the right foot in conference play.

This game will be a true litmus test to see if Green Bay can be competitive in the conference this season, and Robert Morris will begin its quest for back-to-back titles.

Toledo at Oakland (3-5), Saturday, Dec. 6, 3 p.m. ET, on ESPN+

In the lone non-conference matchup of the week, Oakland will finally play a Division-I opponent at home. Even after clearing the gauntlet of four buy games, three of which against the nation’s top teams, Oakland played a road game at Eastern Michigan before traveling to Montana for an MTE. Isaac Garrett is fifth in the league in scoring at 16.1 points sharing the frontcourt with Tuburu Naivalurua and Michael Houge, who made his season debut in the game at Eastern Michigan. He has scored 17, 16 and 19 in his first three games. The Golden Grizzlies have what appears to be a three-headed monster in the front court as conference play approaches with Brody Robinson, the conference leader in assists at 5.6 per game, to get them the ball. Record-wise, Oakland may be a late bloomer after a brutal stretch to open the season, but it has looked like a real threat to win the league since Houge’s return.

On the other side of this matchup, Toledo was picked to be middle of the pack in the MAC preseason poll, but is 3-0 vs. the Horizon League. This game should be an extremely competitive battle between two teams who can feel good about their seasons to this point but are looking to take the next step.

Robert Morris at Milwaukee, Saturday, Dec. 6, 8 p.m. ET, on ESPN+

After being named the preseason favorite in the conference, Milwaukee has flown under the radar, partially thanks to its tough schedule. Two high-major road games at Indiana and Texas Tech were likely never going to fall in the Panthers’ favor, but they also played at Wofford, Wichita State and Akron. Bart Lundy tested his team in the early going and the benefits of doing so should start to come to fruition in conference play, where the record is most important. The preseason All-league backcourt of Seth Hubbard and Amar Augillard has been serviceable, averaging 16 and 12, respectively. In the frontcourt, Faizon Fields was a preseason All-league honoree, but it has been Danilo Jovanovich who has broken out, averaging 13.4 points and 5.6 rebounds in the first eight games.

The Panthers haven’t necessarily lost a game they were supposed to win, but now as conference play begins against Robert Morris, it will need to find the form people expected to see preseason when they were picked to win the league.