This was going to be a post for next week, but wouldn’t you know it? All kinds of things are have popped up to make it absolutely impossible to hold off that long.

Also, you’ll be forgiven if there’s a lot of references to former Oakland players in this edition. But that’s kind of the way things went this time around.

So, without any further ado, let’s get the ball rolling!

It’s that time of the year when the NBA Summer League is on the cusp of kicking off. And as you would expect, the Horizon League was certainly not shut out of being represented. However, some of the landing spots were a bit surprising for some.

For example, ex-Cleveland State player Tristan Enaruna spent last season with the Boston Celtics’ G-League affiliate Maine. Because of that, most of us expected that he’d spend another Summer League as part of the Celtics rotation. So, imagine our surprise when their roster came out and Enaruna wasn’t on it.

But fear not, Viking fans. This summer, at least on paper, Enaruna has returned to Cleveland, as the Cavs picked him up for their Summer League squad. Though he’ll technically be in Las Vegas, he did spend some time back in town, even having a chat with CSU head coach Rob Summers while there.

— Cleveland State Men’s Basketball 🏀 (@csu_basketball) July 6, 2025

Enaruna isn’t the only ex-Horizon Leaguer whose summer spot is different from where they ended the regular season. Jamal Cain, who spent last season with the New Orleans Pelicans, is spending the summer with the Minnesota Timberwolves, marking one of three former Golden Grizzlies in the NBA Summer League. Trey Townsend, who left Oakland for a season at Arizona, will be with New Orleans. And Micah Parrish, who spent two seasons with the Grizz before stints with San Diego State and Ohio State, is on the Bulls roster.

Milwaukee’s Pat Baldwin, Jr. will also be making a return appearance to the Summer League. After being waived by the Spurs, the ex-Panther signed a two-way contract with the Los Angeles Clippers, and that is carrying over into the summer, where he’s expected to get some more action.

Kendrick Nunn has clearly earned himself some time off. The former Oakland star recently came off yet another outstanding season with Panathinaikos, being named Euroleague MVP, earning the Alphonso Ford EuroLeague Top Scorer Trophy, and inking a three-year deal to keep him in Greece until 2028.

You wouldn’t think England would have been a spot for Nunn to pick for vacation, but when you get an invitation to spend time in the paddock of the F1 powerhouse team McLaren, along with getting treated like a VIP the whole weekend at Silverstone that was capped off by the running of the British Grand Prix, you’re not going to say no.

And yes, that is Lando Norris getting a photo op with Nunn. Norris, who’s in a neck-and-neck race at the top of the F1 standings with his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, took the win at Silverstone to stay in the championship hunt.

I’m not saying that having Nunn spend the weekend as a VIP guest helped Norris in any way. But I’m also not not saying it, either.

Since ending his college career as one of the most prolific three-point shooters in NCAA history (along with being the only player to never attempt a two-point shot) Oakland’s Max Hooper has worked his way through the coaching ranks after a brief professional career. First, he started at prep school Brewster Academy, then moved to the Los Angeles Lakers, spending two years there as a coaching associate.

Now, Hooper’s moving up again, this time to the head coaching chair in the G League.

After his stint with the Lakers, Hooper landed in Dallas, where he began as an assistant video coordinator for the Mavericks, which led to a promotion to the head video coordinator role. As head coach of the Mavs’ G League affiliate, the Texas Legends, he’ll take over for Jordan Sears, who, per Marc Stein, will be rejoining the Mavs coaching staff.

Last year, IU Indy was the first team in the Horizon League to release its full non-conference schedule. With the transition to Ben Howlett as the new Jaguars head coach coming so late in the spring, however, it seemed as if they wouldn’t be first up to put out the schedule this year.

We should have known better.

It was all there for everyone to see. As quickly as Howlett has been to put together and entirely new roster at IU Indy, it only made sense that the Jags would also work at light speed to lock down the entire non-conference schedule, which they put out earlier this week.

The only bad news here is that IU Indy, unlike in years past, will not be kicking off the entire college basketball season with its annual Readers Become Leaders day game at Corteva Coliseum. That game, which will be against IU Columbus this season, will take place on November 11^th.

Instead, the Jaguars will kick the 2025-26 season off in Columbus (Ohio, that is) against Ohio State, then return home to play LIU on November 6^th and travel crosstown to play Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse on November 8^th.

A few other notable dates include a trip to Colorado Springs to play in an MTE, facing off against host Air Force and Alabama State, and a journey to the desert at the end of the non-conference slate to play Grand Canyon, who recently made the move to the Mountain West a year earlier than scheduled.

The never-ending discussion of whether or not to expand the NCAA Tournament may finally reach a head (if it hasn’t already, depending on when you’re reading this) with the Division I men’s basketball committee looking into voting on how many bids should be added. According to Pat Forde, the decision could lead to the number of tourney teams increasing to 72 or even 76.

For years, it’s been pretty clear that nobody’s been asking for expansion, except maybe the power conferences. And even in those cases, the draw of a mediocre high-major team getting a tournament bid had a negligible effect on attendance and ratings. Fox’s College Basketball Crown event, which catered almost exclusively to this middling bunch, should have proven that.

But no. The committee behind the tournament seems intent on fixing the obviously not-broken thing. And contrary to what Seth Davis thinks, the increase in bids to mid-major conferences will be minimal, if at all, as the selection committee has championed the lower ranks of the power conferences over superior mid-major teams.

What does this mean for the Horizon League? As far as the NCAA Tournament is concerned, likely nothing, primarily because even the best teams in recent history have fallen short of in the rankings used by the selection committee to warrant consideration for an automatic bid. This could, however, reopen the possibility of the NIT calling, as that tourney will likely look at re-working its bid structure. The NCAA Tournament, at least in the eyes of the Horizon League, will still be looked upon as the Holy Grail for just one team a year, as it has for years. And expansion may shuffle things around a bit for other schools, but the for HL, it should be business as usual.