Since the season starts at 3am ET, we’re going to try to do something a little different this year, and that’s create this live blog covering the ENTIRE DAY!!!

Following the men’s exhibition on Tuesday night, the women’s team had its turn to prepare for the upcoming season Wednesday evening with a preseason match against St. Bonaventure. Robert Morris was tested late, but the Colonials were able to pull out a 72-67 victory over the Bonnies to kick off Year 3 under head coach Chandler McCabe. McCabe’s starting lineup was similar to what Andy Toole ran for the men’s team the night before. The unit featured three newcomers, two of which being transfers, as well as two returning members.

It’s finally time for basketball season once again in Moon Township. Robert Morris welcomed Canisius to the UPMC Events Center Tuesday night for their lone exhibition match before the real fun begins next week. The contest served as an opportunity for RMU fans to get an early taste of what they can expect under head coach Andy Toole as he enters his seventeenth season at the helm of the program. The Colonial Crazies had early season access to a win, with Robert Morris defeating the Golden Griffins by a score of 87-74.

Exhibition games aren’t meant to matter much in the grand scheme of things. In general, they exist primarily to give players an extra set of practices, for coaches to try and iron out their system one last time before the beginning of the regular season (or in some cases, after the opening game against a non-D1 opponent), and if the scheduling is such, allow schools from below Division I a chance to visit larger facilities which nowadays only seems to be done by one-bid leagues during the non-conference portion of the schedule.

The Horatio Williams Foundation is dedicated to helping local youth realize personal success and achievement through a series of developmental leadership programs that will engage students in educatio...

To start the season, the Wright State Raiders brought in the Bellarmine Knights for an exhibition matchup in front of the Raider faithful. After previously taking a win in a secret scrimmage against Ball State, and with another scrimmage on the horizon before the season's start, the Raiders would give their home crowd the first opportunity to see the squad in action before the highly anticipated Stars and Stripes Classic on November 2nd, where undoubtedly the Raider bouncy house will make an appearance. Wright State used this opportunity to show their intensity on the court, smothering the Bellarmine Knights 76-54 and taking full advantage of an early defensive shut out to make sure the outcome was never in doubt.

Bonus Cut - Everyone Else's #HLMBB Preseason Prediction by HoriZone Roundtable on Patreon. Join HoriZone Roundtable's community for exclusive content and updates.

It may not count in the record books, but an in state rivalry was renewed for about 5,000 fans on Thursday night, as the Green Bay Phoenix hosted the Wisconsin Badgers in an exhibition game, which saw Wisconsin pull away late to a 96 to 77 win over the Phoenix. The fans in the Resch Center were split, as the crowd looked like a Christmas party, with red, green, and white spread throughout the arena. As Green Bay kept with the Badgers for 30 minutes, even those in the visiting cardinal and white rallied to support the hometown team.

INDIANAPOLIS (October 13, 2026) – The Horizon League has announced our 2026-27 #HLMBB television schedule, featuring six regular season games on ESPN linear networks. Why it Matters: A total of nine…

For the Wright State Raiders, last season could not have gone any better. While holding a dominant lead for the title of conference champions going into the championship, the Raiders were also able to capitalize on that success by clinching the Horizon’s bid to the dance, a feat they have not accomplished since 2007 when they defeated Butler as the 1 seed. In addition, the Raiders put Virginia on notice during the tournament, staying on their heels throughout the matchup until the final minutes. Now, third-year head coach Clint Sargent is looking to repeat for the title and another shot at the dance.

Navigating the ups and downs of a college basketball offseason can be a rollercoaster ride, especially at the mid-major level. Unlike the Green Bay women's program, which hasn't had a transfer out in three consecutive offseasons, the men's program has been much more typical to the current state of college hoops. After a much improved 18-15 record, including a 12-8 mark in Horizon League play, coach Doug Gottlieb looked to build on the upward trend of the program. It wouldn't be easy. Green Bay graduated two of its top players from the 2025-26 campaign, Justin Allen and Preston Ruedinger.

After failing to win consecutive Horizon League titles, Robert Morris is back for more. However, as Andy Toole enters Year 17 at the helm, things are going to look a lot different for his Colonials squad. RMU’s three leading scorers from last season, Ryan Prather Jr., DeSean Goode, and Nikolaos Chitikoudis all departed via the transfer portal. Speaking of the portal, Robert Morris did have success landing transfers, four of them to be exact. That class is headlined by UMBC’s Ace Valentine and Nicholls’ Jalik Dunkley. “I think the transfers that we got really fit what we needed,” said Toole.

In nearly every respect, the 2025-26 season was one that the Milwaukee Panthers would like to forget. Losing John Lovelace, Jr. before the campaign was bad enough, but subsequent losses due to injury stacked up as the year went on, leaving a team that was poised to compete for the top spot in the Horizon League mired near the bottom of the standings. That's not to say that there weren't any bright spots at all for Milwaukee. Sweeping Youngstown State and a critical late-season win over in-state rival Green Bay helped the Panthers stay out of the conference cellar.

What lies ahead for Oakland is not for the weak. Road trips to Alabama, Houston, Purdue, Arkansas, Michigan State, Arizona State, Boise State, Stanford and UC Santa Barbara await, all before Christmas. Not to mention where it starts, at defending national champion Michigan. There may not be many wins. There will be tired legs. But the potential payoff? Peaking at the right time. Last season, the Golden Grizzlies played well early in the year. That extended into conference play, with Oakland getting out to a 10-3 start in Horizon League play.

Nine minutes and 52 seconds. That’s how much time stood between the Detroit Mercy men’s basketball team and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. They had just taken their largest lead in the Horizon League men’s title game at 49-37 over Wright State, and they had all the momentum inside the Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis on their side. Becoming an automatic qualifier for the Big Dance was well within reach. Until it wasn’t. Thanks to a comeback 66-63 win, it was the Raiders that went on to represent the Horizon League in the tournament instead, giving Virginia all they could handle in the first round.

Transitioning to a new conference can be challenging for a program as it begins to adjust to new teams, players and coaches from around the league. For Northern Illinois University, it’s more than just a leap to another conference within the NCAA — it's a culture change. A new coach, an overhauled roster and a new conference affiliation outside of the Mid-American Conference headline the start of NIU men’s basketball’s 2026-27 season. Although NIU was a member of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference during the 1994-95 season, the Horizon League has changed drastically since its inception in 2001.

The 2025-26 season proved to be a sophomore slump for head coach Ethan Faulkner in his second go-around as the head coach for YSU, going from a solid 21-13 record in 2024-25 to a tough 15-17 record last year. It was a surprise to many fans and critics alike since the Penguins had a group full of seniors and grad students on the squad, but Faulkner wants his group to turn things around as he enters his third season as the man in charge at Youngstown. However, one good thing from last season was YSU's stifling defense, which allowed them to be second in the Horizon League behind Robert Morris in opponent points per game (73.1).

Last year proved to be a pair of wild swings that we clearly weren't expecting, with Milwaukee, our pick to win the Horizon League, severely hampered with injuries and Wright State, which we picked near to the bottom, winning both the regular season and conference tournament titles. Shows what we knew then. One lesson that we took away was that the Raiders shouldn't be underestimated again, and this year, the HoriZone Roundtable staff has selected them as the preseason pick to win the Horizon League. Green Bay, which also outstripped expectations in 2025-26, was rewarded with a better outlook from us, as the Phoenix were picked second.

The current landscape of collegiate athletics essentially dictates that in a conference like the Horizon League, the best players now probably won't be the best players the next year, primarily because of all the transfers. The Horizon League continues to be no exception. But what's also true is that the holdovers from the previous year, all of whom were on the cusp of the all-league teams, will make their way to those accolades eventually. And this, too, is true for our preseason All-Horizon League teams. However, in our case, we had two exceptions to those rules, with one of those being a very recent returnee.

The 2025-26 season was another winning year for the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons, but it was also a season that left plenty of questions heading into the offseason. The Mastodons finished 17-15 overall and 11-9 in Horizon League play, earning the No. 6 seed in the Horizon League Championship. It marked the program's fifth consecutive winning season, continuing a stretch of consistency under head coach Jon Coffman. The season got off to a difficult start, with the 'Dons dropping four of their first five games, including road losses at Grand Canyon, Ohio State and Western Michigan.

Get more from HoriZone Roundtable on Patreon. Creating Podcasts and Content. Support HoriZone Roundtable and get exclusive access to their work.

Get more from HoriZone Roundtable on Patreon. Creating Podcasts and Content. Support HoriZone Roundtable and get exclusive access to their work.

Get more from HoriZone Roundtable on Patreon. Creating Podcasts and Content. Support HoriZone Roundtable and get exclusive access to their work.

Get more from HoriZone Roundtable on Patreon. Creating Podcasts and Content. Support HoriZone Roundtable and get exclusive access to their work.