After a week off, Norse Report's weekly newsletter is back!

We took a much needed week off last week, and now we are back with tons of updates!

Feb 12, 2021

Four weeks ago I was at Disneyworld, riding rides - eating good food, escaping the world for a little bit. As I was waiting in line for yet another ride, I happened to look down at my phone and I saw something that was truly unbelievable: NKU had just lost their second straight game to IUPUI, falling to 3-5 in the conference. This was the lowest moment for me as an NKU fan since the 2015-16 season, and a moment that I had been dreading for awhile. Luckily - it would not last. NKU would go on to rattle off systematic sweeps of Robert Morris, UIC and Milwaukee. That’s right - 6 straight wins, bringing us to 9-5 in the conference, heading into the biggest series of the season against Green Bay.

This week’s newsletter is packed full of information. Here’s some of what you’ll see:

Recap: NKU vs. Milwaukee
Preview: NKU vs. Green Bay
Watching the Horizon: News from around the league

Let’s get into it!

RECAP: NKU Norse take two from Milwaukee Panthers

The Norse travled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where they faced off against the Milwaukee Panthers for a 2 game set.

The Norse came out firing in the first game, shooting 18 of 37 from three-point range and winning by 14. This apparently led to some controversy, as reportedly one of the Milwaukee Panthers’ assistant coaches had some fun and talked some smack to Trevon Faulkner before the first game. This lead Trevon to play the Saturday night game with a huge chip on his shoulder, which resulted in his 21 point, 5 rebound, 2 steal performance. Tensions were high all game, and it led to this little altercation in the second half:

Marques Warrick for HLFOTY... Just give it to him @NorseReport

Here's the video: Personal Fouls on: NKU - Djoko MKE - Te'Jon Lucas Technical Fouls on: NKU - Djoko MKE - Lucas MKE - Wilbourn MKE - Courtney Brown JR. Ejections: MKE - Wilbourn MKE - Courtney Brown JR.

The Norse also saw big performances last weekend out of the following players:

Power Ranking Battle Royale!!

John Parker of the Horizone Roundtable has been writing his power rankings for a couple of years now, and we’ve been writing our own for the same amount of time - so it really made sense for us to market our rankings together and let fans decide whose they tend to agree with more. John’s are more qualitative and forward-thinking, while Chris’ are more quantitative and based on history and how a team is currently trending. Neither approach is better than the other - but we do believe that both approaches will be good for fans to see!

As you can see from the above table, there actually is not that much of a difference between Chris and John’s rankings this week, which has made our working relationship with the Horizon Roundtable very pleasant! We’ll see if this holds for next week….

Horizon League Player of the Year Watch

Every week, Chris crunches the numbers in his Horizon League Player of the Year prediction metric, a formula that takes the aggragate data of previous winners and attempts to predict which players are most likely to win this year’s award. Here are the results:

Here is a link to the articles by John and Chris:

John’s rankings: https://horizoneroundtable.com/2021/02/09/horizon-league-power-rankings-week-11/
Chris’ rankings & POY Metric: https://horizoneroundtable.com/2021/02/09/the-standings-love-cleveland-state-but-does-the-math/

Finally, here’s how the Horizon League seeding shakes out after last week. As of now, NKU has the 1st round bye into the quarter final:

Marques Warrick for HLFOTY... Just give it to him @NorseReport

#HLWBB Matchups as of now: 6. NKU vs 11. UIC 7. YSU vs 10. PFW 8. CSU vs 9. RMU BYEs:* 1. WSU vs lowest remaining seed 2. MKE vs 2nd-lowest remaining seed 3. GB vs 3rd-lowest remaining seed 4. OU vs IUPUI** *Each round re-seeds. ** D. Mercy cancelled season, 4/5 now get a bye.

Horizon League @HorizonLeague

Following this weekend's #HLMBB and #HLWBB games, check out the current seeds for the 2021 Horizon League Basketball Championships. Go to https://t.co/kyaTeDEfxG for all the information on this year's championships as team's look to #REACHtheHORIZON in Indianapolis. https://t.co/8bisxg1EWP

Preview: NKU Norse heading back to Wisconsin for 2-part bout vs. Green Bay Phoenix

Wondering what to look for this weekend against the Green Bay Phoenix? Never fear, we’ve got you covered! This week on Matchup Zone, we were joined by Jim Sarow from Phear the Phoenix who told us everything we need to know about his team!

Record: 6-14, 6-10 in Horizon, 8th in standings, 7th in seeding
Per Game Leaders:
- Points: 17.7, Amari Davis
- Rebounds: 4.1, PJ Pipes
- Assists: 3.8, Lucas Stieber
- Steals: 1.6, Amari Davis
- Blocks: 0.6, Emmanuel Ansong
- Turnovers: 2.0, PJ Pipes
Other players to watch: Josh Jefferson, Terrance Thomson, Japannah Kellog, Paris Taylor and Ryan Claflin

ESPN Matchup Predictor: NKU: 60.7% chance of winning

On the Horizon

What was being talked about on the Horizon this week?

Tweet of the Week

Matt from HRT @horizoneMatt

Imagine having such ridiculous balls and confidence about your athletics department at the mid major level to deny credentials to the most thorough media source covering your league ESPECIALLY when you’re the only team out of 12 to deny it. Who are you fooling?

Shoutout to Matt Dudek from Horizone Roundtable for having our back this week, and standing up for us when we were denied a media credential yet again by NKU.

Team/League Updates:

RECRUITING NEWS: SAM VINSON IS STILL GOOD

Jeremy Rauch @FOX19Jeremy

Highlands trailed Conner by 19 in the 2nd half. No lead is safe with @sam_vinson3 on the court. Do it call it a comeback -- a great one. @fthhsathletics @bluebirdhoops @lukemuller71 @ConnerHoops @FOX19 @NKUNorseMBB

That’s it for this week, folks! Be sure to share this newsletter and leave a comment if you have something to say.. We love hearing from you guys, too!

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