Horizon League Basketball: In-depth look at the Oakland vs. Detroit Mercy rivalry
By Ryan Kay
Detroit Mercy and Oakland are a pair of Horizon League Basketball teams that playing a strong non-conference Schedule has it benefits. This season, these local rivals will have some great conference battles.
26 Miles separates the University of Detroit Mercy and Oakland University. Both teams play in the Horizon conference with Oakland joining the conference in 2013, and UDM being an original member. Oakland and UDM played some tough opponents on the road in non-conference play. The Golden Grizzlies of Oakland traveled to play at Michigan State, UNLV, Xavier, and Georgia.
They lost all four of the road games but gained valuable experience in traveling and playing good competition. The Titans of Detroit Mercy’s first three games were road games as the traveled and played Western Michigan, Temple, and then Butler. They had a fourth road game at California but it was cancelled. Out of their 12 non-conference games, eight of them were road games. When both teams opened conference play, expectations were not high.
The Horizon conference consists of 10 teams and in the Horizon the preseason poll, neither Oakland or UDM were picked to finish in the top three of the conference. The Golden grizzlies were picked to finish 4th but just one point ahead of 5th place Green Bay. The Titans were picked last and it appeared that the pre-season poll had little to no optimism for UDM. However, pre-season polls are just that, pre-season polls, not valid scientific research used to predict the outcome of conference play. Both teams showed early on in conference play that they were both ready to compete.
Oakland started Horizon league play with a convincing road victory at Cleveland State with a 12-point victory. Two days later, they were on the road again and beat Youngstown State by a final score of 76-74. It wasn’t impressive that they beat both CSU and YSU to begin conference play but it should be noted that they won their first two conference games on the road. What really got people’s attention was when they hosted Northern Kentucky who was picked 2nd in the Horizon preseason poll.
In a hard-fought game, Oakland went to their star player Xavier Hill-Mais who had a season-high 32 points as the Golden Grizzlies came from 10 points down to beat the Norse of Northern Kentucky by the same score as their previous game 76-74. 76 looked like it was beginning to be their lucky number and the Oakland 76ers has a nice ring to it. Oakland had begun league play 3-0 and tied for first place prior to their game this past Saturday against Wright State.
Detroit Mercy began Horizon conference play with a 12-point road victory against Youngstown State. They had a quick two-day turn around as they traveled to play at Cleveland State when they won by double digits again on the road by a final score of 73-61. The big test would come as they would host pre-season Horizon poll preseason favorite Wright State. The Titans would not only win but win by a convincing 21-point victory with the final scored ending up being 79-58. The head coach’s son, Freshman Antoine Davis tied a program record with 10 3-pointers and finished with a career-high 48 points in the victory. UDM started conference play 3-0 and tied with Oakland for first place prior to their game this past Saturday against Northern Kentucky.
What is clear that the Titans and Golden Grizzlies will be competitive in league play with each team being led by two conference superstars. Oakland’s Xavier Hill-Mais is averaging currently 22.1 points per game along with averaging just over 6 rebounds and 2 assists per game. He has scored 30 or more points in 4 games thus far this season. If Oakland has a chance of competing for a conference championship, Hill-Mais needs to continue to play at a 1st team All-Horizon pace.
Antoine Davis has made one thing clear, he not only is cementing a spot on the All-Horizon 1st team but he has a legit chance of being named the Horizon League Player of the Year. His season averages of 27.3 points per game and 3.3 assists per game doesn’t even begin to tell how dominant he has been. Besides his 48-point performance against Wright State, he has scored 42 in a win against Loyola Maryland, 32 points at Western Michigan, 30 points at Temple, and he most recently scored 33 points against Northern Kentucky. If the Titans want to prove all of those who picked them to finish last in the conference, he must be the catalyst for their success.
Both Oakland and UDM lost this past Saturday to go to 3-1 in conference play and both are currently tied for 2nd place. The two teams first face each other on January 19th at UDM and it should be an exciting game. Both teams were both being labeled as having a “rebuilding” year but that doesn’t seem to be the case thus far. In order to make it to the NCAA tournament, either team like many mid-major teams must win their conference tournament. Only time will tell but their first match-up between these two teams should be an exciting game.