2025–26 Horizon League men's basketball season

The 2025–26 Horizon League men's basketball season began with practices in September 2025 and ended with the 2026 Horizon League men's basketball tournament in March 2026. This was 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

On March 30, 2025, Cleveland State head coach Daniyal Robinson was hired as the head coach of North Texas. On April 5, the Vikings hired Missouri assistant Rob Summers, who was an assistant at Cleveland State from 2019 to 2022, as their new head coach. On May 13, IU Indy fired first-year head coach Paul Corsaro after a 10–22 finish. On May 27, the Jaguars announced Division II West Liberty head coach Ben Howlett as his replacement.

Coaches Team Head coach Previous job Season Overallrecord Horizonrecord NCAATournaments Cleveland State Rob Summers Missouri (asst.) 1st 0 Detroit Mercy Mark Montgomery Michigan State (asst.) 2nd 0 Green Bay Doug Gottlieb none 2nd 0 IU Indy Ben Howlett West Liberty 1st 0 Milwaukee Bart Lundy Queens 4th 0 Northern Kentucky Darrin Horn Texas (asst.) 7th 2 Oakland Greg Kampe Toledo (asst.) 42nd 1 Purdue Fort Wayne Jon Coffman IPFW (asst.) 12th 0 Robert Morris Andrew Toole Robert Morris (asst.) 16th 3 Wright State Clint Sargent Wright State (asst.) 2nd 0 Youngstown State Ethan Faulkner Youngstown State (asst.) 2nd 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 Rank Team Points 1 428 (24) 2 384 (7) 3 364 (2) 4 345 (8) 5 287 (1) 6 274 7 221 8 217 (2) 9 176 10 115 11 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

Week Player of the Week School Freshman of the Week School 1 Cris Carroll Youngstown State Michael Cooper Wright State 2 Corey Hadnot II Purdue Fort Wayne Maguire Mitchell IU Indy 3 C.J. O’Hara Green Bay Ethan Elliott Northern Kentucky 4 Brody Robinson Oakland Stevie Elam Milwaukee 5 Brody Robinson (2) Oakland Michael Cooper (2) Wright State 6 Corey Hadnot II (2) Purdue Fort Wayne Tyler Spratt Detroit Mercy 7 Corey Hadnot II (3) Purdue Fort Wayne Josh Dixon Milwaukee 8 Kyler D’Augustino IU Indy Michael Cooper (3) Wright State 9 Isaac Garrett Oakland Kellen Pickett Wright State 10 Solomon Callaghan Wright State Kellen Pickett (2) Wright State 11 Mikale Stevenson Purdue Fort Wayne Kellen Pickett (3) Wright State 12 Dayan Nessah Cleveland State Maguire Mitchell (2) IU Indy 13 Dayan Nessah (2) Cleveland State Tyler Spratt (2) Detroit Mercy 14 DeSean Goode Robert Morris Darius Livingston Robert Morris 15 Ryan Prather Jr. Robert Morris Darius Livingston (2) Robert Morris 16 Orlando Lovejoy Detroit Mercy Darius Livingston (3) Robert Morris 17 Nikolaos Chitikoudis Robert Morris Stevie Elam (2) Milwaukee

School Cleveland State 2 0 Detroit Mercy 1 2 Green Bay 1 0 IU Indy 1 2 Milwaukee 0 3 0 1 Oakland 3 0 4 0 Robert Morris 3 3 Wright State 1 6Youngstown State 1 0

Conference matrix CSU DET GB IUI MKE NKU OAK PFW RMU WSU YSU vs. Cleveland State – 2–0 1–1 1–1 1–1 2–0 1–1 2–0 2–0 1–1 1–1 vs. Detroit Mercy 0–2 – 1–1 0–2 0–2 1–1 1–1 2–0 2–0 1–1 0–2 vs. Green Bay 1–1 1–1 – 0–2 1–1 0–2 1–1 0–2 1–1 2–0 1–1 vs. IU Indy 1–1 2–0 2–0 – 2–0 2–0 1–1 2–0 1–1 2–0 2–0 vs. Milwaukee 1–1 2–0 1–1 0–2 – 2–0 2–0 1–1 1–1 2–0 0–2 vs. Northern Kentucky 0–2 1–1 2–0 0–2 0–2 – 2–0 1–1 1–1 2–0 1–1 vs. Oakland 1–1 1–1 1–1 1–1 0–2 0–2 – 0–2 1–1 2–0 1–1 vs. Purdue Fort Wayne 0–2 0–2 2–0 0–2 1–1 1–1 2–0 – 0–2 2–0 1–1 vs. Robert Morris 0–2 0–2 1–1 1–1 1–1 1–1 1–1 2–0 – 0–2 0–2 vs. Wright State 1–1 1–1 0–2 0–2 0–2 0–2 0–2 0–2 2–0 – 1–1 vs. Youngstown State 1–1 2–0 1–1 0–2 2–0 1–1 1–1 1–1 2–0 1–1 – Total 6–14 12–8 12–8 3–17 8–12 10–10 12–8 11–9 13–7 15–5 8–12

Postseason Horizon League tournament

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

The tournament adopted 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.

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.

NCAA Tournament As the conference champion, Wright State received an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

Seed Region School First Four First round Second round Sweet Sixteen Elite Eight Final Four Championship 14 Midwest Wright State Bye L 73–82 vs. Virginia

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:

+ 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

+ 2026 Horizon LeagueAll-Tournament Team TJ Burch, WSU Michael Cooper, WSU Legend Geeter, DMU Orlando Lovejoy, DMU LJ Wells, NKU Bold denotes MVP

Attendance Average home attendances Note: Figures include conference tournament # Team 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