Let's Look Back at the Single Biggest Recruiting Day In Program History (MBB)
Let's Take a Look at the Sequence of Events that led to the BIGGEST single announcement day in NKU Men's Basketball History (at least recently)
Article by: Kyle Craven
Graphics by: Kyle Craven
First let me start off my apologizing in a sense. I know you guys got PUMMELED with emails from this site over the past 24 hours. It was never meant to be this way. The plan was not for these updates to be emailed out individually, rather I wrote ONE SINGULAR article on Monday morning after finding out about these commitments. Did I post this? No. I saved it to the drafts. I was asked by sources NOT to share anything about it — and I didn’t. In return I only asked one thing. “Can I plan on posting my Trey Robinson article [on Tuesday], or will this news come out?” If the news was going to come out about recruits, I wouldn’t want Trey’s article to be overshadowed. He deserves better than that. “You should be good to post” I was told.
I posted Trey’s article and felt good about that. Then, the dominoes started to fall when the HoriZone Roundtable writer Larry Wical broke a significant story about 5 potential targets the Norse could very likely be closing in on, getting three correct. Whether it was because of his article OR it was the plan all along (though it directly contradicted what I was told would happen), the announcements began FLOWING on Tuesday morning. So as to not miss out on the buzz, I felt like I had to break the article into 3 parts to keep up with the news. So you guys got BLASTED with emails. MY BAD!! Forgive me?
So here’s the plan for this week. You’re getting ONE MORE email (this one) and I am pushing back the article that I had scheduled for Thursday, so it’ll now go out NEXT Thursday, April 27th. Let’s move on, shall we?
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LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL TABLE. That’s what we’re here for, folks!
That’s right, Norse faithful. Your patience has been rewarded. NKU has landed three new SLAM DUNK players to go along with a (in my opinion) a SUPER underrated incoming Freshman class. The Norse lost a lot of production when Chris Brandon, Trevon Faulkner and Xavier Rhodes walked off the court for the final time. They lost a ton of potential when 6 players entered the transfer portal. But just a little over a month after their season ended, the Norse are reloaded and in a position to really compete in this league again. Let’s meet the players who will help them get there.
MICHAEL BRADLEY
A graduate senior, Michael Bradley is going to come in and provide IMMEDIATE juice to the squad. Despite just narrowly missing on Rasheed Bello, the Norse landed a commitment from a player who shot incredibly well from the field last year and the free throw line. He also takes care of the ball. His +3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio last year is exactly what the Norse will be looking forward to capitalizing on. We have scorers aplenty, we just needed someone to get them the ball. Last year, the Norse were graced by (per game) 7 points, 3.6 assists, (nearly) 2.0 assist to turnover ratio, 2 steals, and shooting percentages of 41/34/56 from Xavier Rhodes. Obviously some of these stats are better than others but one thing that could not be denied was how badly the Norse needed Xavier in those games. His leadership, game management, emotional and intellectual intelligence — all of those intangibles added to his value on and off the court for the Norse. I think 9/10 Norse fans would take a Xavier Rhodes back if given the chance. How did Michael’s numbers last year compare to Xavier’s numbers in his last year at the DII level? Let’s take a look:
Obviously I am not making the erroneous claim that we are simply replacing Xavier with a carbon copy - both players are clearly different. I think what I would say is that there is a lot of subjectivity to how a player’s production can translate to the “next level”. Just because a player landed at a DII school out of high school certainly does not mean they are “unworthy” of DI competition, many times it just means they were slept on out of high school.
CADE MEYER
What’s that? Another player transferring from one Horizon League team to another?? This time, the Norse — to use my good friend Chris Hart’s word against him now — “POACHING” a player from an in-conference rival. Cade Meyer, the 2021-22 Horizon All-Freshman teammate of Sam Vinson entered the portal about 4 weeks ago. Since then, we have seen the Norse, Ball State and Stetson emerge as key players in the race for Cade’s services next year. After visiting this weekend, Cade decided to commit to the Norse.
So who are the Norse getting? By the numbers, the Norse are bringing in a guy who produce statistically right away. Cade’s FG% is impressive enough, but even more impressive is his 61% 2-pt field goal percentage. “Man he must LIVE inside the paint.” Why, yes he does!
Meyer’s tape is great, too. The young man has great footwork inside often times finishing in the most non-traditional of ways. I don’t want to get accused of making unfair comparisons, but his footwork on the block really reminds me a lot of Drew McDonald. And when you look at his numbers, you realize we aren’t getting a direct replacement for what we are losing, rather we are getting a player who possesses a certain skillset that we haven’t seen from an NKU big man for years. I have made the argument for a long time, defending our style of play as a “volume shooting” three point team but that’s just because we have not had a dynamic offensively creative big man. Adding Cade Meyer to the rotation will put the Norse in a position to add an entire layer to their offense that really hasn’t existed under this coaching staff.
KEEYAN ITEJERE
If there was a polar opposite to being “slept on” out of high school, it would be the 6’9” forward Keeyan Itejere. Hailing from Grace Christian School and growing up in Knightdale, N.C. Itejere is no stranger to the spotlight. In high school, Itejere was an all-around impact player, averaging 11 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 assists per game under DeShannon Morris. The obvious draw to a player like Itejere is his potential. He’s a 3-star recruit, NARROWLY missing out on a 0.9000 composite score from the recruiting and scouting consortium 247 Sports.
While there isn’t much to go off of based on his stats in college (not alot of minutes under his belt), the fact remains that this will be the highest ranked player the Norse have EVER gotten (2 spots outside of the top 200), especially from a “big man” perspective. The relationship with Shaka Smart seems to have really paid off for Coach Horn (and his staff) as well, as our sources have told us that Coach Smart recommended Northern Kentucky to Itejere personally. Itjere had originally committed to the University of Texas to play for Smart, but quickly de-commited and changed signed his LOI for Marquette shortly after Smart was hired there.
And Norse fans, if you needed a reason to get a little excited about this — take a quick look with me:
