It’s time.
Time to renew the rivalry game for Northern Kentucky’s two basketball-playing colleges.
Time for the NKU-Thomas More series to start up again, preferably in these pre-Christmas holidays the same as when the rivalry started.
Time for Thomas More to make a first official game trip to 18-year-old Truist Arena, the large and public people-funded, 9,200-seat home of NKU. And when and if the Thomas More series is re-instated, a one-day home for all fans of Northern Kentucky college basketball.
In a week when NKU, now 8-3, is playing two Kentucky Catholic colleges – Brescia out of Owensboro, in a 92-53 win Tuesday, and Bellarmine in Louisville Saturday — how much better if we were looking forward to a TMU-NKU showdown?
And TMU? The 4-2 Saints play Louisville-based Boyce College, a Southern Baptist school prepping students for the ministry, Thursday, and GMAC opponent Ashland here Saturday.
We know, the argument is that NKU has everything to lose in such a matchup of schools just 8.1 miles and 11 minutes apart. But history tells us that an established Thomas More program didn’t hesitate to take brand-new NKU up on a pre-Christmas game for the Kentucky Post Long Rifle Trophy in the Norse’s second season in Highland Heights in 1972.
Thomas More won that first Dec. 23 game, 92-74, at Regents Hall. But it didn’t take NKU long to get even, winning 106-101 in overtime the very next year. The teams split two games the next season, so it was 2-2 after three seasons.
And while NKU won seven of the next 10 in close games when both schools also were managing wins over Xavier in equally tight contests, the series moved away from the pre-Christmas holiday scheduling – and from the close contests after 1987 with a 20-point NKU win, 99-79, in 1988 a sign of things to come.
In the 15 games starting in 1987-88, all won by an NKU program migrating to Division I and from the Great Lakes Valley Conference to the Atlantic Sun and then the Horizon – all NKU wins – it was basically no contest with the Norse winning by an average margin of 31.5 points. And yeah, we know TMU hasn’t won since that 61-52 victory in 1981.
But that’s no longer the case for an NKU program that made it to the NAIA Final Four in 2022 and had the teams played that year, or the year before, Thomas More All-American Ryan Batte would have been the best player on the floor for both teams.
Take this year, for example. NKU handled the GMAC’s Ashland, 83-72, in a hard-fought preseason exhibition at the University of Dayton. That same Ashland split two games with Thomas More last season. The way the Saints’ program has improved, this would not have been a bad matchup for at least the last half-dozen years.
And as a veteran of two of these neighborhood rivalries, I couldn’t endorse them more. Helping NKU start basketball all those years ago, it was obvious that getting TMU to come to the then brand-new Regents Hall was the best thing NKU basketball had going for itself. The same for TMU.
And then on moving to my alma mater Xavier and learning that Cincinnati basketball coach Gale Catlett was considering ending the XU series because he wanted Cincinnati to be a national program and a then-sagging Xavier wasn’t helping, nor were the on-court antics of some Musketeer fans, it took a quick response.
First, I got The Enquirer to agree to sponsor a “Crosstown Shootout” with the likes of Skyline Chili jumping on board for what would be a real civic undertaking in Cincinnati. And with Catlett leaving for West Virginia and new coach Ed Badger positive about the XU series, along with the rest of the UC Athletic Department, the “Crosstown Shootout” took off.
It’s now recognized as one of the handful of top rivalries in college basketball, draws national TV for every game and has done immense good for both programs, even when UC is upset, as it was last week. But more than that, it’s really good for Cincinnati.
As will a resumption of the NKU-TMU rivalry be for Northern Kentucky. And for Truist Arena, where Thomas More’s lone appearance was an exhibition game in 2018 in an 84-47 loss, something that won’t happen with the way TMU Coach Justin Ray has his program going. And since he and NKU Coach Darrin Horn do not recruit the same players, there’s not really that downside for Division I NKU.
This is one of those win-win deals no matter who wins or loses. Just having the game is a win for both. And for the rest of us.
Good news from UK basketball
Speaking of NKU Coach Horn, and looking for good news about UK basketball right now, how about the way that Walker Horn, son of Coach Horn and a walk-on for the UK Wildcats the last couple of seasons, scored his first points in a UK uniform with a three-pointer against Tennessee Tech that set off joyous celebrations for his teammates and the Rupp Arena crowd. A 6-foot-3 senior guard, Horn played basketball for two seasons at Covington Catholic before graduating from Austin (Tex.) Westlake High School.
NKY Sports Hall of Fame December inductees announced
Four new Hall of Famers will be welcomed into the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame next Wednesday, Dec. 17, at The Gardens in Park Hills at the monthly 1 p.m. meeting. They are Highlands’ 48-year all-sports statistician Dan Hamberg, bowling entrepreneur and pioneer Glenn Schmidt Jr., Highlands’ tennis great Todd Clements and owner-sponsor Vance Wiegand of Covington’s Egelston-Maynard Sporting Goods. The public is invited and there is no charge.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X @dweber3440.