NKU men's basketball wants to peak again in March for another tourney run
The Northern Kentucky men’s basketball team had its ups and downs last season. But in crunch time, the Norse were better than any team in the Horizon League, winning the conference tournament and challenging top seed Houston in an eventual 63-52 loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
As part of a one-bid league to the NCAA tourney, the Norse know the value of peaking late instead of peaking now.
“One of the things we've been able to do here is talk about where we want to get to and what we want to be about, and again that's winning in March,” said NKU head coach Darrin Horn. “We got really close last year (against Houston) but didn’t get over the hump. It was a two-possession game coming out of the last media time out, that's a step in its own right, to legitimately be in the game to win.”
Both NKU basketball teams had press conferences during the school’s media day Thursday at Truist Arena.
NKU Norse basketball: What you need to know for 2023-24 season
The season is around the corner with both teams hosting exhibitions next week and making their regular-season debuts Nov. 6.
NKU senior guard Marques Warrick is ready for another tournament run.
“We came with the right mindset (against Houston),” he said. “We worked our butts off, but on offense we didn't make enough shots. With the guys we have coming back and a couple of transfers, we help the freshmen along, we can definitely get back to that point.”
Horizon League preseason poll: NKU men's basketball picked first, two stars chosen all-league
The NKU men host Mount St. Joseph in an exhibition Wednesday and play at Middle Tennessee State Nov. 6 in the season opener.
The women’s team opens its season with an exhibition at Truist Arena on Nov. 2 against Cedarville, with the regular season home opener on Nov. 6 against Indiana State.
NKU men’s team picked to repeat Horizon title
The NKU men’s team was picked to finish first in the Horizon League. Milwaukee and Wright State were right behind and received double digits in first-place votes.
“No one is handing us the trophy because we're preseason No. 1,” Horn said. “We’ve been not close to preseason No. 1 before and then been in the championship (game) or won it.”
Three returning starters stay
The Norse return three starters, senior guard Marques Warrick, junior guard Sam Vinson and 6-6 senior Trey Robinson. Warrick was first-team all-league in the preseason after averaging 18.8 points per game last year. He has 1,589 points and is 477 away from Drew McDonald’s school record.
Vinson, out of Highlands, averaged 11.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists, and Horn called him one of the most complete players in the country.
Robinson, out of Hamilton High School, averaged seven points per game.
“I think if you go back and look at that Houston game, Trey Robinson was as impactful as anybody on the team,” Horn said. “If you look athletically, Trey Robinson looked like he really belonged in that game. And you know, that's really, really important. Marques has gotten tougher and stronger and more consistent every year. He has become a better defender every year. In a championship game where the shots aren't falling, he goes to the foul line.”
Horn said keeping all three of them in Highland Heights is not something he took for granted given the hundreds of players who enter the transfer portal every offseason.
“In college basketball, to have three guys that could have gone somewhere and got some significant NIL deals and then had a chance to play in Power-Five conferences and none of them left,” Horn said. “And so I think that speaks to what these guys mean to each other, that they feel like there's some work left to do.”
Said Warrick: “I just want to win. That’s the main reason I play, is to win. We have guys returning. We have guys coming in that can help us keep doing that.”
Three transfers will help the rotation
Conversely, the Norse hope to benefit from three transfers who they expect to contribute immediately.
Graduate transfer Michael Bradley takes over at point guard. The 6-foot guard comes from Division II Mercyhurst, and Horn expects him to play the same role that Xavier Rhodes did for last year’s team.
The Norse welcome in two transfer post players who should be offensive threats: Cade Meyer, a 6-foot-8 forward from Horizon League rival Green Bay; and Keeyan Itejere, a 6-9 sophomore from Marquette of the Big East.
Itejere has drawn a lot of attention in the offseason with his athleticism.
“All three of them are great players,” Vinson said. “Great guys who came into the locker room and it's like we've known them for a while. Keenan, great athlete above the rim. Goes and makes plays, a great presence on the defensive end. Michael, super good point guard, super skilled, opens up the floor for more shots for me and (Warrick). And he can get his own shot like that. Cade, just a big presence down low, super talented in the post. And I think all three of them are really going to complement us.”
FAU out, St. Mary’s in
Many Norse fans were looking forward to Florida Atlantic coming to Truist Arena after the Owls from Conference USA advanced to the Final Four last season. NKU went to Florida last season and lost at FAU 67-52 on Dec. 21 before most basketball fans knew who the Owls were.
FAU was scheduled to make the return trip to NKU this season but in September FAU canceled the game and bought out the contract. NKU replaced that game with Saint Mary’s, which is ranked 23rd in the first Associated Press national poll and is an archrival of Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference. NKU will play the Gaels in Moraga, Calif. Dec. 21.
NKU will also play at Cincinnati Nov. 19 in a rematch of the Norse’s 64-51 win at Truist Arena last season, and Middle Tennessee, which is in Conference USA.
“We want a really strong non-conference schedule,” Horn said. “FAU bought us out because they didn't want to play and then got a TV-game opportunity. I told these guys we can get another home game but it's probably not going to be a great game, maybe even a non-Division I (team). They all said ‘No, coach we want to play the best game that we can,’ and that’s how the Saint Mary’s game came about.”
NKU will also travel to Washington in the Pac-12 Conference Nov. 9. NKU played at Washington's Pac-12 rival Washington State last year and learned a lot from a 68-47 loss the Norse weren't happy with.
“We’re going to walk in there being ready to compete,” Vinson said. “I think last year we just came out there and we didn't really compete. So we're going to go out there with that mindset of just competing our butts off (and) play for each other.”
NKU women’s team picked fifth in Horizon League
The NKU women’s team was picked to finish fifth in the league in the preseason poll.
NKU returns five players from last year’s team that went 17-14 and made it to the conference tournament semifinals.
Kailee Davis headlines the returnees as she was selected to the Preseason All-League Second Team. Davis was the second leading scorer for the Norse with 13.3 points per game, knocking down a team-high 52 three-pointers and hitting 80% from the free throw line.
Khamari Mitchell-Steen and Kennedy Igo, key rotational players last season, also return. The Norse have a young roster with five freshmen and Igo the lone senior on the team.
“It’s fun to come to practice every day,” said head coach Camryn (Whitaker) Volz, entering her seventh season. “It's a new challenge. It's new faces. It's a new offense, a lot of new stuff on defense. Just really enjoying the journey that we're on together and getting to know all of these players and their strengths.”
Women’s roster has local talent
All three top returners are guards, and the Norse will rely on three newcomers in the post to balance the lineup, including 6-foot-2 freshman Gabby Razzano from Mason, 6-1 freshman Carter McCray from Oberlin, Ohio, and 5-11 freshman Meadow Tisdale from Bowling Green.
Razzano, one of the top high school post players in Cincinnati last season, is one of several newcomers with local ties. Noelle Hubert from Notre Dame was one of the top shooters in Kentucky. Mya Meredith, a junior guard from Scott High School where she scored over 2,000 points, transferred from Western Kentucky University where she was the Conference USA Freshman of the Year.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: NKU men's basketball not satisfied after losing in NCAA tourney
