Slightly OT: NKU joins Horizon League

[MdWIldcat55]

This is a pretty strong move and could be a step toward giving the Commonwealth another relevant basketball program someday. The Horizon League produces teams that are competitive on the first weekend of the tourney fairly often. Valpo took Maryland to the wire this year, as I recall. I've been in Northern's arena and it is pretty impressive for that level -- hell, I'd take it over the O-Dome. New coach was an assistant at Alabama. I'd like to see them do well and start to build another strong program in Kentucky.

 

[BigRedMachineBigBlueNation]

NKU has ways to go in basketball, (fan attendance isn't great) but we have the facilities for it for sure.

 

[WildcatfaninOhio]

My daughter will be a senior this year at Wright State in Dayton Ohio. Wright State of course is also in the Horizon League. And Wright State will also play UK at Rupp this coming season. Hoping I get to take her to the game at Rupp and also to a game at NKU.

 

[sjjones]

It will be interesting to see if the recruiting and attendance picks up when NKU is eligible for the tournament. They still have one more year to go.

I would not be surprised if 5-10 years from now, Northern is consistently the third most successful D-1 team in the state. Remember there are 400,000 people that live in Boone/Kenton/Campbell counties, and another 1.5 million+ right across the river.

 

[wcc31]

John Brannen is their new coach. He's from Alexandria, KY, and was all-state at Newport Central Catholic, outside shooting 6'8" wing in the John Pelphrey mold. Started out his career at Morehead with Dick Fick before transferring to Marshall where he played under Billy Donovan and averaged 20ppg. He worked under Travis Ford at EKU and then Bama under Anthony Grant.

Good guy from a really nice family. Hopefully, he can get NKU's program going. Their new arena is supposedly pretty nice and NKy/Cincy is a decent recruiting ground. The only problem is that ugly campus.