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Horizon Connection

Men Picked Fifth, Women Third

10/23/03
by John C. Thomas
The 2003-04 Horizon League Preseason Men's Basketball Poll was released today, and for the second straight year Loyola was picked to finish fifth in the nine-team league by coaches, sports information directors and the media. The Ramblers finished behind UIC, UWM, Butler and Detroit in this season's voting. The Loyola women's squad was predicted to finish third, behind UWGB and UWM.

It's no surprise that UIC was predicted to top the league in 2003-04. The Flames have the ability to start an experienced senior at every position. The Flames' 6'3" forward Cedrick Banks was voted Preseason Player of the Year, and longtime running mate Martel Bailey joined him on the Preseason First Team. UIC received 32 of the 35 first place votes cast in this year's poll.

Although UWM lost clutch scoring star Clay Tucker from a 24-9 team that came within a bucket of upsetting Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament, the Panthers return First-Teamer Dylan Page and a slew of talented and experienced players.

Butler is coming off its best season in school history. But the loss of inside-outside combo Joel Cornette and Brandon Miller resulted in a third place prediction from Horizon League voters.

Perry Watson's Detroit Titans were tabbed for a fourth place finish for the second year in a row by prognosticators, in spite of the loss of 2003 Player of the Year Willie Green and top rebounder Terrel Riggs.

And then there's Loyola.

The Ramblers managed to cobble together a 15-16 season in 2002-03 in spite of a road-heavy schedule and suspensions, ineligibility or injuries to several top players. And in the early analysis of the 2003-04 team, the same conditions appear to apply.

For the second year in a row, Loyola will play only 11 regular season home games. The difference this year is that three, not one, major players are rumored to be ineligible to start the season. The court leadership of David Bailey and Kevin Clancy are gone. And the sideline leadership and recruiting ability of assistant coach Scott Spinelli is missing.

On the plus side, the Ramblers have pretty good replacements for the missing elements-- Kevin Clancy will be replaced very capably by Louis Smith, and David Bailey will be replaced by a very talented point in Terrance Whiters. Spinelli's replacement is Jeff Dunlap, who brings experience from the SEC since his last stint at Loyola.

The biggest "X" factor for the Ramblers could be in the form of freshman recruit Majak Kou, a 6'5" string bean from Canada that can shoot the lights out from long range and dart through traffic like a bicycle messenger. I believe that by the end of the season Kou will be as much of a pleasant surprise to Rambler fans as Paul McMillan was last season.

Rounding out the bottom spots in the Horizon League preseason poll are Wright State picked for sixth, UWGB at seventh, Youngstown State at eighth, and Cleveland State bringing up the rear. I believe that all these teams will be slightly tougher than they were last season, and the gap between the league's fourth place team and last place team will be much closer than in the past few years.

On the women's side, conference juggernaut UWGB was picked to finish on top again this year. The Phoenix women had one of the best seasons ever by any Horizon League hoops team, finishing the year with a national ranking, a 28-4 record, and a loss to a #1 seed in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In spite of Green Bay's dominance over the past two seasons, UWM was picked a close second in this year's preseason predictions.

Loyola returns four of its top six scorers under coach Mary Helen Walker, highlighted by Preseason First-Teamer Ciara Henderson. Henderson, a 5'8" junior sharp-shooting guard from Kentucky, led the Ramblers with 13.0 ppg last season. The Loyola women were picked to finish third, above contenders Cleveland State (fourth), UIC (fifth), and Detroit (sixth). Butler, Youngstown State, and Wright State rounded out the voting.