By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
There’s a reason teams play a final public exhibition game before the games count in college basketball. As NKU did Wednesday evening, hosting the University of Tennessee-Martin at Truist Arena.
“They were the only team that would come in here and play us,” NKU coach Darrin Horn said with a laugh as the talented Skyhawks from the Ohio Valley Conference showed up with 15 international players on their 16-man roster, 12 of them 6-feet-5 or taller and four taller than 6-9.
But there are plenty of other reasons for the new-look Norse to test themselves as they did in an 83-79 loss on a night like this after graduating all four of their offensive threats a year ago. And in a game when NKU kept falling behind, by as many as a dozen points, and then came roaring back — again and again and again.
Before finally tying it at 77 only to give up an 8-2 run the last 2:28.
“We’ve got a lot of new guys,” Horn said. Guys who haven’t been challenged like they were Wednesday. “And they’re (UTM) a really good team.”
Which is what NKU wanted to figure out: How good were the Norse? And who could lead them.
Which is why experience clearly mattered for Horn. He started one returnee, Australian point guard Ethan Elliott, and four transfer newcomers from LaSalle, Niagara, SMU and East Texas A&M in a tribute to the transfer portal.
With seven international players from four continents (sorry South America and Asia), it seemed like the Norse would be in the forefront of college basketball’s new way of building rosters. And then UTM walked into the building with players from four continents as well (missing Australia and South America) and the tone has been set between these two teams on this night. There’s a new way of building teams.
“Yeah,” Horn said, in three simple words. “It’s market value.” In other words, American players as big and talented as these guys simply cost too much in NIL money. Non-Power-Four programs like NKU and UTM can’t begin to go after those guys enough so here come players from Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Spain, Senegal, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Turkey, China, Madagascar, Estonia, Australia and Georgia (the country, not the state).
Although the single biggest challenge on the night at Truist was for the NKU PA man who handled the names flawlessly (thanks to a pronunciation chart).
But if this game was to tell us where NKU was headed this season, it also offered an insight into where college basketball is going.
As for who’s going to step up for NKU, how about the four perimeter players who contributed 61 points led by slim 6-3 senior Eric Acker, a LaSalle transfer and East New York City product, who fired in a game-high 24 points including three of NKU’s eight three-pointers.
“We’re really excited about Eric,” Horn said. As for 6-2 freshman guard Willie Foster, from Lima, Ohio, “I think he’s got a chance to be as good a defensive player as I’ve ever coached.”
Foster added 13 points, joining 6-6 sophomore guard BJ Davis-Ray, a St. Louis native and SMU transfer who played his high school ball at JSerra in Southern California. Adding 11 more was 6-5 freshman guard Gabrielius Jokubauskas from Lithuania, who with Foster contributed a pair of three-pointers each.
Figuring out a way to get more offense inside will be Horn’s challenge as the Norse did pretty much everything they could think of to get 6-8 Aussie Noah Pagotta, an East Texas A&M transfer, going although the senior did contribute 10 points.
“We have to get better,” Horn said, praising how “we competed.” But the Norse have to shoot it better (25 of 65 for 38.5 percent) shoot it better from three (8 of 27, 29.6 percent) from the line (21 of 32, 65.6 percent) and rebound it better (42-33 edge to UTM) while NKU has to keep at it on defense forcing 23 turnovers for 25 points and totaling 16 steals to UTM’s six).
Freshman Kaan Onat, a 6-5 guard from Istanbul, Turkey, who looks like an NBA veteran, led the Skyhawks with 20 points.
There could have been another reason to get this game in even if it had to be played a bit earlier in the preseason than NKU wanted and at 5:30 in the afternoon to accommodate UTM’s travel schedule. It allowed several hundred of NKU’s regular fans to get their lone glimpse of the Norse for a month – not until they host Central Michigan here in Game 5 of the season Nov. 14. Do the math and that’s four straight road games to open the NKU season.
And without looking, guess which state NKU will play its first two games in. If you said “South Dakota,” you are correct and almost certainly peaked at the schedule.
Could Horn have ever imagined one of his NKU teams would ever play its first two games in South Dakota? Not a chance, he said in so many words. “But we were in the neighborhood.”
Indeed, with NKU taking part in the mid-major focused Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon against Texas-El Paso in Sioux Falls, S.D., Monday, Nov. 2, a 24-hour, eight-game marathon, the Norse decided to hang around the Badlands and head over to Vermillion and play the University of South Dakota Nov. 4 with South Dakota returning the game in 2027.
And then there was the chance to play at Texas A&M on Friday for a nice guarantee. So off to College Station. “I would never agree to three (road) games in five days,” Horn said, except for one reason. And that reason is “financial.” And for mid-majors, that’s often the name of the game.
Then before getting a home game, NKU will stop in St. Louis Nov. 10 for a game against the Billikens with next stop Highland Heights for the Central Michigan home opener.
BOX SCORE
UTM 37 46—83
NKU 31-46—77
TENNESSEE-MARTIN: Vilkas 2-4 9-1 0-04, Khryapa 4-8 1-4 2-3 11, Remagen 0-4, 0-1 2-3 5, Savkov 2-3 1-2 0-0 5, Stuknys 1-4 0-1 0-0 2, Bancevicius 3-4 1-2 0-0 7, Sambe 4-6 9, 0-0, 1-3 9, Bubnys 2-5 2-4 1-2 7, Petkovski 2-6 2-4 2-4 8, Onat 5-9 2-4 8-10 20, Janicic 2-4 1-3 0-0 5; TOTALS: 27-57 10-26 19-28 83.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY: Shortt 2-4 0-1 0-0 4, Pagotto 3-5 0-1 4-6 10, Acker 8-12 3-5 5-7 24, Elliott 1-7 0-2 0-3 2, Davis-Ray 4-16, 1-5 4-5 13, Rakotonanahary 1-1 0-0 0-0 2, Foster 4-9 2-5 3-4 13, Ruiz 0-0 0-0 0-3 0, Tolliver 0-3 0-0 0-0 0, Jokubauskas 2-7 2-6 5-6 11, Apathjang 0-1 0-1 0-0 0, Darbyshire 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 28-65 8-27 21-32 79.