Purdue Fort Wayne is poised to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
For the first time since Butler made the national championship game in 2011, a Horizon League team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season. Oakland and long-time head coach Greg Kampe finally broke through their postseason drought to win both the Horizon League regular-season and conference tournament titles before upsetting Kentucky in the Big Dance. Looking ahead to 2024-25, another Horizon program could follow Oakland’s footsteps for its own breakthrough year.
Purdue Fort Wayne and Youngstown State are prime candidates. The Mastodons are hunting their NCAA Tournament appearance, and with two all-conference players returning from last season, this might be the year for Jon Coffman’s perimeter-oriented group to make a run. As for the Penguins, they have been knocking on the door lately with five straight winning seasons but are also still in search of the first Big Dance appearance in school history.
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If not YSU or PFW, recent Horizon representatives like Northern Kentucky, Milwaukee, Oakland, Wright State, and Cleveland State are all set to be in the mix again as well. Three more programs (Green Bay, IU Indy and Detroit Mercy) are hoping for strong first seasons from their new head coaches.
Projected Order of Finish
1. Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons
As noted, PFW has yet to make an NCAA Tournament appearance in its 23-year Division I tenure. If there is a time to do it, though, it might be now. The Mastodons finished in the middle of the Horizon last season but posted their fourth-best KenPom finish since joining D-I. Now, they return over 80 percent of their minutes and scoring while much of their league competition weathers major turnover.
Purdue Fort Wayne started four players 6-4 or shorter last season, but they made up for the lack of size with tremendous talent. Rasheed Bello (14.9 ppg, 4.3 apg) and Jalen Jackson (15.7 ppg, 41.0 3P%), most notably, were all-conference selections and will battle each other for the Horizon’s Player of the Year award. Quinton Morton-Robertson (13.0 ppg, 40.4 3P%) is one of only 12 returning D-I players to hit 100 or more 3s last season, while Corey Hadnot (6.2 ppg) looks to build on an all-freshman selection.
The frontcourt returns pieces as well. Eric Mulder (6.4 ppg, 7.4 rpg) started every game last season and ranked in the top 30 nationally in effective field goal percentage and offensive rebounding rate, while 6-8 Maximus Nelson (6.3 ppg, 37.6 3P%, 62 3PM) supplies the team’s best combination of size and shooting. The biggest blow this offseason was losing Anthony Roberts, PFW’s all-defensive small-ball 4. In his place, transfers Trey Lewis (1.8 ppg at Loyola Chicago) and Chandler Cuthrell (4.9 ppg at UTSA) could determine the Mastodons’ ceiling.
With so much returning from a near top-150 team, this could be Purdue Fort Wayne’s best team ever — and its best chance to date at its first NCAA Tournament appearance.
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