By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Good thing Northern Kentucky has an international airport.
How else, in this world of transfers with instant eligibility and globalized explosion of college basketball, would the Norse be able to put together a team?
Now, when you lose nine of your top 11 players from last season, there are answers: You replace them on the roster with nine newcomers from places like New Zealand, Spain and Australia joining a holdover from Madagascar after losing two Lithuanians and one from the Republic of the Congo.
A year ago, NKU fans knew that the guy from Hamilton they could depend on was Ohio’s Trey Robinson, a veteran favorite for his entire career. Now, NKU’s guy from Hamilton is Kael Robinson, a veteran transfer from the Hamilton on the North Island of New Zealand by way of Montana State/Billings and Rocky Mountain College.
Or how the veteran ball-handling guard you could trust to run the team is no longer a familiar face who could ride his bike from his home in Ft. Thomas where the Highlands’ alum, the graduated Sam Vinson, seemed like he was always around this NKU program.
Not anymore. Now it’s 6-foot-3 freshman left-hander Ethan Elliott from Perth, West Australia, the most remote major city in all the world — 2,400 miles from Singapore in one direction, nearly 2,300 miles from Melbourne the other way. And 11,200 miles from Northern Kentucky. That’s more than 20,000 miles from home for these two.
The rest of the Norse far-flung roster reflects this trend with transfers from Cal State-Fullerton, Barton College, Georgetown College and Ranger College (Tex.) joining recruits from Hartford, Conn and Salt Lake City.
Luckily, the two holdover starters are speedy 6-4 senior Dan Ghereznger and 6-8 inside battler LJ Wells, both from of all places, Wisconsin.
And if Monday’s solid 83-72 opening win in an exhibition against Division II Ashland in the first game of the CareSource Invitational doubleheader at the University of Dayton Arena is any indicator, it may take a bit of time – as you’d expect — for these Norse to get used to one another.
“We’re a team playing with nine completely different guys,” NKU Coach Darrin Horn said with a big grin when asked if he knew what expect in the first game with them in an arena with a crowd, officials, the whole deal.
But that time seemed to be the first half here when the Norse fell behind, 33-25, with barely six minutes left to intermission as they were getting beat on the dribble, on the break and in the paint by a tough-minded Ashland team.
And then the Norse seemed to realize who the Division I program was. And how they were supposed to play as they started defending the passing lanes with Horn’s funky matchup zone that gives so many people trouble, then stealing and scoring on a 19-2 run for a 44-35 lead in a game where they’d get to a double-digit lead they maintained for most of the second half.
The nucleus of this team is two holdovers and four newcomers, and while they may be new to one another, that six-man group is not new to college with three seniors and two grad students.
Except for the man they’ve chosen to turn the ball over to – the freshman Elliott, who spent the last couple of years playing semi-pro basketball for the Joondalup Wolves in suburban Perth.
“He’s like having a warm blanket for a point guard,” Horn said. “He makes his teammates better.” Asked for a further description of his new point guard, Horn was clear about Elliott’s game-high 34:02 of playing time coupled with a game-high seven assists and nine points of steady, heady play with zero turnovers: “He’s a gift from God, man.”
And a gift “from Zoom videos from halfway around the world,” Horn said. No home visits for the NKU recruiters with Elliott.
For Elliott, the reason he’s here is as basic as it comes: “I’ve said it from Day One, a sense of family. That’s the way I see this team and why it’s so easy to play for. The fit is there.” . . . what a blessing to be playing in Northern Kentucky.”
They took a chance on him, Elliott said. And now, even though it took him 42 hours to get here when his flight from Sydney was late into Dallas, it doesn’t matter. He’s home. “What a blessing to be playing in Northern Kentucky,” he says.
Two transfers led NKU in scoring – 6-7, 220-pound Kael Robinson, the tough inside scrapper from New Zealand with a three-point shot, and 6-2, 195-pound scorer Donovan Oday, a Texan who’s already played at McNeese State and Cal-State Fullerton.
Kael has the “versatility” NKU needs without a big “big” inside and Oday, who “could turn out to be “as good as any player we’ve had here,” Horn says. “We love his aggressiveness.” And they’re hoping to be able to love his defense. “We’re really challenging him to step up there,” Horn says.
Then there’s Tae Dozier, the Louisville kid by way of Georgetown College, with the slim 6-5, 170-pound frame that allows him to slide through openings that almost don’t seem to be there. He got off 12 shots, hit on seven, in his 22:45 on the way to 16 points.
As for the two returnees, 6-8 senior Wells played like he was 6-8 and that brought a smile to Horn’s face. “Sixteen rebounds,” Horn said. And a spectacular flying blocked shot against a breakaway layup attempt.
Dan Gheresgher showed off the speed that made the 6-4 swing man a pick for second-team All-Horizon League in the preseason although his three-for-10 shooting limited him to seven points.
But it was a spate of missed shots – 10 straight on two possessions – that encouraged the Norse, said Elliott. “You shouldn’t be able to tell,” he said, whether the shot goes in or not. That’s how his coach tells them. “You just keep playing.”
As the Norse did, scrapping for loose balls, diving on the floor and grabbing 39 rebounds to Ashland’s 32.
But don’t ask Horn about the team defense that allowed Ashland 49.1 percent (28 of 57) shooting. “We looked lost at times,” he said, like on their post-trap that gave up four layups when not executed properly. “There were some bright spots but it wasn’t nearly as aggressive as we’d like it,” Horn said.
And as it’ll have to be in road games at No. 18 Tennessee Nov. 8 and at East Tennessee Nov. 12 after a Nov. 3 home opener against UC-Clermont.
