21 Teams in the Projected Field: 55. High Point, 56. UC San Diego, 58. Akron, 59. McNeese, 60. UNC Wilmington, 61. Wright State, 62. Western Kentucky, 63. Furman, 64. Montana State, 65. Yale, 66. Central Arkansas, 67. Old Dominion, 68. Vermont, 69. Howard, 70. Queens, 71. South Dakota State, 72. American, 73. Bethune-Cookman, 74. Iona, 75. Tennessee State, 76. Long Island
Biggest Development: Wright State’s Hottest Start Ever?
The Wright State Raiders won their season opener against Air Force in blowout fashion, 102-71. Dominic Pangonis almost could not miss en route to his 30 points, needing just 10 field-goal attempts and seven free-throw attempts to get there.
They followed it up with a similarly sized 97-71 beatdown of Florida Atlantic on Friday. The starting five shot a combined 24-for-30 (80.0 percent) from inside the arc in a game that was over in a hurry.
Neither result was much of a needle-mover. The home win over AFA will certainly be a Quad 4 result when NET rankings come out. The home win over FAU figures to land somewhere near the border between Quad 3 and Quad 4.
But after two games against D-I competition, Wright State is 2-0 with a plus-57 point differential—which is the furthest thing from par for the course.
In their previous 39 seasons as a D-I program, they started out 0-2 against D-I foes twice as many times (14) as they started 2-0 (seven). And prior to this, Wright State never had a point differential north of 30 through two games.
Could this be a breakthrough year for a team that, as a No. 14 seed, gave Virginia a run for its money in the first round of the 2026 NCAA tournament?
The Raiders certainly look like the cream of the Horizon League crop thus far.
