If one thing has been true of Horizon League women’s basketball over the last several seasons, it’s that there is never much separation within its standings. Though the HoriZone Roundtable staff has voted Green Bay as the championship favorite – should that prediction play out, it will be the Phoenix’s fourth consecutive crown – last season’s runner-up, Youngstown State, is right behind and certainly a credible threat to turn the tables. That scenario repeats itself in several other places throughout our poll. For example, just two voting points separate fourth-place Cleveland State and sixth-place IU Indianapolis.

Though the transfer portal remains a gnawing, persistent presence all over the mid-major world, observers of the now-12 teams in Horizon League women’s basketball shouldn’t be blamed if they find things extremely familiar right now. Sure, 11 of the 15 players on the HL’s most recent all-conference teams have departed since the spring, but graduation, not the deep pockets of larger schools, was the culprit in all but three of those cases. Meanwhile, most of the water in the next wave of talent poised to take its place at the top of the conference is produced by student-athletes who have already been around for a year or two – even if a couple have switched schools somewhere along their journey.

YouTube video by Nothing But Net with Debbie Antonelli

Maybe Milwaukee is just getting its close losses over and done with early this year…