New-look NKU on the road to find themselves in first four games away from Highland Heights

By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter

They’ve been together since June, this new NKU Norse men’s basketball team.

And by week’s end, they’ll be off to the unknown, South Dakota to be exact — for a season opener Monday against Texas-El Paso in one of the full 24 hours of games for the Field of 68 nationally streamed event on Youtube highlighting mid-major basketball.

“That’s exciting, a great atmosphere,” NKU coach Darrin Horn said of what will be his second-ever trip to South Dakota. The first came as a TV broadcaster, to the same Sioux Falls where two games will be played that day. “It’s a really cool opportunity.”

What could be even more exciting and cool for Horn, he says, will be finding out what kind of team he has with all the international players and newcomers who will suit up in gold and black for the first time.

That was pretty much the goal in Tuesday’s fast-paced, intense practice at game tempo, pressure and speed that had all three NKU players who spoke to the media expressing the same thought to describe their biggest adjustment to Darrin Horn basketball.

“The speed, the pace, the intensity,” was the way all three described it. The lone freshman recruit, guard Willie Foster from Lima, Ohio, “the best athlete on the team,” Horn says, echoed what senior transfers Noah Pagotto, a6-foot-8-post player from Sydney, Australia, by way of East Texas A&M, and slick guard Eric Acker, a New York City guy by way of LaSalle, described it.

“Hands, hands, hands, hands . . . we’ve got to use our hands.”

College basketball Is a different world — especially for the coaches — these days with the transfer portal and instant eligibility with exploding NIL money for the players.

“Willie, Willie, Willie . . . “

For the ones who stay and the ones who move on. And the new-look teams most every year, which Horn says is the way the game is going to be from now on. “So many new guys, so much teaching the fundamentals, the basics of your offense and defense.”

“Five guys guarding the ball.”

And so much thought of maybe being the next Norse to move on for a million-dollar deal for his fifth year in college basketball, as LJ Wells did in transferring to Louisville for this year. Or Donovan Oday, who after a year at NKU, his third school last year, got a $400,000 deal with Troy.

And don’t think Horn is unhappy about that. They worked hard, improved and turned pro a year earlier than they’d have been allowed to in the pre-NIL/transfer portal days.

“As a coach, you have to assume that you’ll be starting from scratch,” Horn says, making it clear that nothing he says of what’s become “a big topic” is negative even if the topic is drawing a good bit of negative reaction.

“You can’t say you’re in this for the players,” Horn says, if you’re unhappy when they make all the hard work they put in pay off for them. “That hasn’t changed,” he says.

Even if the evaluation market for players “went up 60 percent last year and maybe more this year,” Horn says, “my job is to help them be the best they can be for four years.”

For as long as they’re here — one year, as the case might be for Acker, who played well here at Truist three years ago for Long Island before his transfer to LaSalle. He scored a team-high 24 points in the exhibition game against Tennessee-Martin.

”Our fans are going to love Eric Acker,” Horn says of the 6-3 guard who reflects NKU’s philosophy of “taking only Division I transfers “and guys with positional size,” like the 215-pound Pagotto, who’s an answer, Horn said, to getting pushed around at the rim.

But even with this international roster and coast-to-coast Americans, the Norse look to be a little bit under-resourced especially against a UTEP team moving into the Mountain West as it ups its NIL money from $1 million to $2 million while next Friday’s game at Texas A&M will have NKU going against an SEC team with 50 times the NIL budget for its roster with between $15 million and $17.5 million.

Even the University of South Dakota has a reported $400,000 in NIL money, which is in the NKU ballpark while NKU’s fourth season-opening road game at Saint Louis has them facing another team with more money for a guarantee date with the Billikens, the No. 42 ranked NIL budget that will be 20 times NKU’s.

You gotta’ chase those checks, Horn says, because if you’re nowhere near the dollars, you’re simply not in the game for players who can help you win.

Pagotto likes the thought of heading out and playing those teams regardless of the dollars or the travel. “It’s a great experience,” he says of the weeklong team-bonding excursion, “sounds like fun.”

“As far as the money and playing, it’s still 40 minutes of basketball,” Acker says. “We practice how they practice. We’ll come into that game ready to win, not really focused on money. At the end of the day, we’re not really worried about money, we’re worried about winning.”

And no, four games away from home to start the season is not a record for NKU. In the 2012-2013 season, NKU’s first in Division I, the Norse opened with a four-game tournament in San Diego against San Diego, Tulsa, Siena and Cal State-Northridge followed by separate games at Ohio State and Texas Tech. And yes, the Norse did lose all six, finishing 11-10 the rest of the way for an 11-16 season for coach Dave Bezold.

NKU 2026-27 Schedule Date Time At Opponent Location TV Radio (Home games in bold)

Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X @dweber3440.