DAYTON/INDIANAPOLIS – For the third consecutive season, the Wright State men’s basketball team has been picked atop the Horizon League preseason poll, with the Raiders receiving 37 of the 44 total first place votes ahead of the 2020-21 season. Additionally, redshirt senior Loudon Love has been chosen as the league’s Preseason Player of the Year and a First Team preseason selection.
The Raiders earned 517 total votes in the preseason poll, while a pair of other teams split the remaining seven first-place votes. Youngstown State, who was picked to finish second in the poll with 423 total votes, received three first-place votes, while Northern Kentucky received four first-place votes, but was slotted third in the preseason poll after receiving 413 total votes.
Love, who was also named the 2019-20 Horizon League Player of the Year back in March, finished the last year averaging just shy of a double-double for the season at 15.9 points per game and 9.7 rebounds per contest, turning in double digit scoring performances in 21 of his 26 regular season games played, including 17 in league play. He finished with 11 double-double performances last season, including eight in league play. His efforts also earned him a spot on the Lou Henson All-America Team for the second consecutive season.
Love begins the 2020-21 campaign just 26 rebounds shy of becoming program’s all-time leading rebounder and surpassing Bill Edwards’ 907 total boards. Offensively, Love became the 33rd member of Wright State’s 1,000 Point Club last year and enters this season with 1,393 career points, which is No. 15 on Wright State’s all-time scoring list.
The Raiders won 25 games in 2019-20, setting the new program standard for most wins in a regular season in the Division I Era, and won 15 Horizon League games, also a new program-best, on the way to Wright State’s first outright Horizon League regular season title in program history. Additionally, the team’s six road Horizon League victories were the most in program history and the Raiders were a perfect 9-0 at home in league play on the way to a 14-2 overall home mark at the Nutter Center.
Head coach Scott Nagy, who earned his third consecutive Horizon League Coach of the Year honor last spring, sees 10 returning players on this year’s squad, including the additions of Andre Harris and Tim Finke, each of whom redshirted in 2019-20, and also added three freshmen – Alex Huibregtse, Brandon Noel and Andrew Welage – to the Wright State roster.
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2020-21 #HLMBB Preseason Poll Results
Pl. School (1st-place) – Votes
1. Wright State (37) – 517
2. Youngstown State (3) – 423
3. Northern Kentucky (4) – 413
4. Robert Morris – 345
5. UIC – 312
6. Oakland – 288
7. Cleveland State – 283
8. Green Bay – 253
9. Detroit Mercy – 185
10. Milwaukee – 172
11. Purdue Fort Wayne – 127
12. IUPUI – 114
#HLMBB Preseason Player of the Year
Loudon Love, Wright State
Preseason All-Horizon League First Team (alphabetical order by school)
Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy
Amari Davis, Green Bay
Marcus Burk, IUPUI
Loudon Love, Wright State
Darius Quisenberry, Youngstown State
Preseason All-Horizon League Second Team (alphabetical order by school)
Algevon Eichelberger, Cleveland State
Te’Jon Lucas, Milwaukee
Rashad Williams, Oakland
AJ Bramah, Robert Morris
Naz Bohannon, Youngstown State
COURTESY THE HORIZON LEAGUE AND WRIGHT STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
