INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Announced by the conference at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, October 18 and voted on by the head coaches, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies were picked seventh in the 2022-23 Horizon League Women's Basketball Preseason Poll.
Collecting eight of the 11 first-place votes and totaling 118 points, the Youngstown State Penguins were tabbed as the favorite.
Posting a record of 24-7 (18-4), John Barnes' Penguins captured their first conference championship in 23 years in 2021-22, splitting it with the co-champion IUPUI Jaguars. Earning the two-seed, Youngstown State was, however, upset at home by the seventh-seeded Golden Grizzlies in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Tournament a year ago.
After the Penguins, the Green Bay Phoenix (106 points), Cleveland State Vikings (102), Northern Kentucky Norse (88) and Milwaukee Panthers (75) rounded out the top-five.
Green Bay and Cleveland State were the only two other schools to receive a first-place nod, tallying two and one, respectively.
IUPIU, who captured the conference tournament championship in 2021-22 and the league's automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament, is projected to finish sixth with 67 points. The Jaguars have the difficult task of replacing 6-foot-2 forward/center Macee Williams, a four-time Horizon League Player of the Year and the program's all-time leading scorer who is now playing professionally in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) with the Phoenix Mercury.
Registering 47 points, Oakland's seventh-place preseason forecast is tied for the program's second-best over the last five seasons, as the Golden Grizzlies were also picked seventh in 2018-19 and peaked at fifth in 2021-22 over that span.
Complete Horizon League Preseason Poll:
1 – Youngstown State Penguins – 118 points (8 first-place votes)
2 – Green Bay Phoenix – 106 (2)
3 – Cleveland State Vikings – 102 (1)
4 – Northern Kentucky Norse – 88
5 – Milwaukee Panthers – 75
6 – IUPUI Jaguars – 67
7 – OAKLAND GOLDEN GRIZZLIES – 47
8 – Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons – 42
9 – Robert Morris Colonials – 42
10 – Wright State Raiders – 26
11 – Detroit Mercy Titans – 11
HORIZON LEAGUE OFFICIAL RELEASE
