NKU Hoops Has some Job Openings
Weeks ago we were dancing into March, now we are portaling our way into April
Photo by: Kyle Craven
Article by: Kyle Craven
Well, this is awkward. Just last week we wrote and published an article about NKU’s immediate future. In that newsletter, titled “Maybe it's too Soon”, we mentioned the fact that, despite the Norse losing 3 big time contributors to graduation, loyal Norse fans should not fret, as we had an array of talent returning to campus to help us defend the Horizon League Crown in 2023-24. Merely hours after that article published, the Norse lost Zay Mason to the transfer portal. Later that same day, the Norse would lose Alahn Sumler to the portal. Not even a quarter of a lunar cycle later and the Norse were sitting at five total portal losses (Pivorius, Evans and Hupmann added their names). But the real blow would be delivered around 4pm on Tuesday, March 28th. A player that many Norse fans, myself included speculated would play a HUGE role next season, a guy that we know the coaching staff was/is big on (no pun intended) — Imanuel Zorgvol — would add his name to the portal. While Norse fans were merely grazed with the news of the five previous portal losses, the Iman loss felt like the uppercut that was being set up by those five jabs. So where do we go from here?
In our prior newsletter, as we alluded to up above, we mentioned the 3 graduates that the Norse are losing. Those graduates were probably 3 of the 6 most high volume players in terms of overall usage. As mentioned in the article, they accounted for nearly 40% of Norse minutes last season. The good news is that with these 6 transfers, the loss of production year-over-year doesn’t change too drastically. But here’s the bad news: there was going to be opportunity, and the hope — the expectation — was that someone, any one of those 6 players was going to help to fill that void. Zay Mason was a guard that this publication felt very good about 2 years ago and he’s now in the portal. Alahn Sumler and Hubie Pivorius looked prime to spell ‘Ques and Sam next season as a ‘lights out’ shooting duo — or perhaps even pair themselves with one or the other to provide the Norse with interesting “dribble-handoff” partners on the wings — but both are now in the portal. Evans and Hupmann were both walk-ons so I am extremely happy for the both of them that they’re presumably going to get the chance to have their school paid for. No hard feelings there. Then we land on Iman Zorgvol. He’s the Norse player that many of us pegged to be THE GUY outside of next year’s “Big 3” (Sam, Ques and Trey) to step in and fill the shoes of Chris Brandon. We were cautiously optimistic about what the big man perhaps had to offer in an expanded role. Iman played in 32 of the 35 games the Norse had this season, and some of his efficiency stats were off the charts! The Norse boasted a 109.6 offensive rating and a 91.4 defensive rating with Iman on the court. (Those rating are calculated as points per 100 possessions, so essentially it’s saying that the Norse would score 109 points per 100 and only give up 91 points per 100 with Iman on the court. For context: the number 1 offensive rating in college basketball this year was 138 and the number 1 defensive rating in college basketball was 84). So yeah. Super bummer.
So where does that leave us? What do the Norse need? We’ll elaborate.
NOW HIRING: SENIOR ASSET MANAGER
Also known to some as a point guard, a floor general, a distributor, an assist machine — or simply, a dude to get us into the offense. Can we please find us one of these? I know many of us feel that Sam Vinson could be a capable fill-in for this role, and personally I am confident that he could be a more than adequate starting point guard. However, I tend to agree with most that the Norse seem to be at their best when Sam and Marques Warrick are occupying the wings with Trey Robinson working the baseline and/or the post area “triangle” and setting screens. Many of us would certainly feel a lot more comfortable about next season if we could fill Xavier Rhodes’ shoes with another Graduate Transfer in a similar way that Rhodes filled the shoes of 2021-22 Norse PG Bryson Langdon after he graduated.
IDEAL CANDIDATE: RASHEED BELLO || 6’0” || PG || UW-Parkside
You know who we love? If you read the line above, then you already know that we have our eyes, ears and every other sensory organ focused on the likes of Rasheed Bello, the 6’0” Point Guard out of Division II’s University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Rasheed helped the Rangers last season with 17.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game this season. ‘Sheed shot 46% from the field, 43% from 3 and 76% from the free throw line.
He would provide the Norse with immediate production as a floor general and *hopefully* help them replace Rhodes’ team best 8.1 assists per 100 possessions from last season. Rasheed’s Rangers finished last season with a 21-9 (14-4) record and ended up receiving an “at-large” bid for the DII NCAA Tournament.
NOW HIRING: DIRECTOR OF ACQUISITIONS
You might call them a “big man” but truthfully they are so much more. A Director of Acquisitions is someone who scoops up nearly every rebound in their orbit and impacts shot making on both ends of the court. Norse fans have truly been spoiled since 2018 and beyond by dominating size and strength down low. While Jalen Billups, Drew McDonald, Adrian Nelson and Chris Brandon were not going to tower over anyone with dominating size, each of these players punched well above their weight class in terms of what they left on the court. For instance, though none of them exceeded 6’8” in height, almost all of them show up in the top 10-20 all-time Norse on the following lists:
Rebounds (Drew - #1, Adrian - #6, Jalen - #13)
Field Goal Percentage (Brandon - #1, Nelson #3, Billups - #4)
Blocks (Nelson - #4, Drew - #15, Brandon - #20 (50 blocks in only TWO NKU seasons)
The point is, Norse fans have been spoiled by excellent “BIG MAN” play. Each of these 4 guys over the last decade have been stalwarts down low, pound for pound matching and exceeding their competition. The Norse have a history of having smaller “bigs” that play with an effort level well above their size. All of this has led Norse fans to eagerly anticipate an expanded role for Imanuel Zorgvol, the towering 7’0” center who saw action in 32 of 35 games this season, 10 of which he played 10 or more minutes. Norse fans were excited to see if Iman could actually continue his trend of 18.0 points, 19.7 rebounds and 4.6 blocks per 100 possessions. Unfortunately, Norse fans will have to wait to see where Iman decides to transfer, if he does, as he entered his name into the dreaded TRANSFER PORTAL around 4pm on Tuesday, March 28th.
[TWEET]
IDEAL CANDIDATE: DIEONTE MILES || 7’0” || Center || XAVIER
Dieonte Miles, the 7’0” Center from Xavier, just a few miles north of campus played his High School seasons at Walton Verona, just a few miles south of campus. Don’t let the counting stats fool you, while Miles may have logged only 1.1 points and 1.3 rebounds per game, the 3rd year player only logged 78 minutes on the season, prompting him to want to leave.
It’s been reported by Rick Broering at Muskie Report that Dieonte is seeking more playing time, an opportunity he would certainly have at Northern. Translated over 100 possessions, Miles boasted a defensive rating of 105.2. While it’s nearly impossible to dissect the stats of someone who did not even log 100 minutes in a season, one thing you cannot teach is size and the N. Kentucky native has plenty of it.
He would provide likely provide the Norse with immediate production as an anchor down low and *hopefully* help them replace Brandon’s team best 21.4 rebounds per 100 possessions from last season, in addition to the sheer size gap that Zorgvol’s transfer will leave behind. Dieonte and the Muskies made it all the way to the Sweet 16 last season before being defeated by Darrin Horn’s former team, a well-rounded Texas Longhorns. They also finished 2nd in the Big East Conference Tournament, losing to Darrin Horn’s former boss, Shaka Smart and his Marquette Golden Eagles.
Miles has two years of eligibility left.
NOW HIRING: LOSS PREVENTION SPECIALIST
This one is much more nuanced and indisputably subjective. What does a “loss prevention specialist” do in relation to basketball? Simply put, they prevent losses. This would be a person who IMPACTS WINNING no matter where they go. The box score may not show their worth in total. They are the glue that holds the organization together. They provide leadership, grit, toughness, versatility no job is beneath them, and most importantly, winning just seems to follow them where ever they go. The Norse have had their fair share of these types of players. My mind drifts to the likes of Jalen Tate, Dantez Walton. These are guys who just did the dirty work and helped the Norse collect dubs.
IDEAL CANDIDATE: BRYCE BUTLER || 6’5” || Guard || W. LIBERTY (DII)
Enter Bryce Butler, standout guard for West Liberty in Latrobe, PA. Butler averaged around 23 points per game on 59% shooting and 44% from 3. He also averaged roughly 8 rebounds per game, 4 assists per game, a little over 1 steal per game and roughly 0.6 blocks per game.
If those stats don’t jump out at you and slaps you in the face then what lies beneath the surface will certainly win you over. Butler has only fouled out in 7 games in his 4 year career, just twice this season — so you can count on him to be on the court. Which is a good sign because the man is a WINNER. His West Liberty Hill Toppers finished off a 33 win season (20-2 in conference) by just narrowly losing in the National Championship against #1 ranked Nova Southeastern University. The Toppers went 29-3 the prior season and as a matter of fact the team is 107-16 (72-11) in his 4 years there. Flat out winner. He’s hit the transfer portal and already gaining some interest from different teams and coaches. As a matter of fact, I won’t say who, and it doesn’t necessarily mean anything but one of NKU’s coaches already follows him on Twitter.
WHY YOU SHOULD WORK HERE
PLAYING TIME. Let’s face it, times have changed. Gone are the days of “eat s*** and earn your place” we are the younger generation and we want to maximize our career trajectory as fast as possible. So what matters to us? Well, first of all — we want to matter. Nobody want to go work somewhere where they are a nameless face in a sea of other nameless faces. We want to matter to an organization and we want to impact the day to day. At NKU, transfers can expect one thing: OPPORTUNITY. And lots of it! The Norse are losing nearly 50% of their allocated minutes during the 2022-23 season to either graduation or the transfer portal. It’s safe to say that there are probably 3 starting roles claimed for next season (Marques Warrick, Sam Vinson and Trey Robinson) but incoming players can rest assured that the Norse are likely to have an open competition for the remaining 2 starter roles and the 2-4 regulars off the bench. If you come to Northern, you’ll get your chance to shine. You just gotta put in the work.
WINNING CULTURE. Not many places can boast a conference tournament championship every other year, but at Northern Kentucky that’s just about what you’re going to get since 2017. In fact, the Norse have either won the regular season conference championship OR conference tournament championship every single year but two (2021 and 2022) — putting themselves in a position to compete on the national stage in 5 out of the last 7 postseasons1. In a 1-bid league, literally all you can ask for is to be part of a team that’s getting the job done in late February and March, and the Norse are always in that mix. Come check out the banners hanging in Truist if you don’t believe me.
FACILITIES. Speaking of “Truist”, that would be our basketball gym. Wait, sorry gym isn’t really a good representation of what we have going on here. Let’s try this — “Speaking of Truist, that would be our 9,400 seat, state of the art, stunningly gorgeous, basketball Mecca that is undoubtedly not just the best arena in the Horizon League, but in all of mid-major basketball. This arena rivals many high major programs. And as mentioned before, the beautiful court is accented perfectly by the 5 Horizon League Championship banners from the last 7 seasons hanging in the rafters for all to see.
NKU has a lot to offer. And the coaches are definitely out there grinding to keep our good name synonymous with “winning”. If you think you might be interested in spending the next 1-4 years doing nothing but playing winning basketball, please apply within. Videos can be tweeted to @NorseReport on Twitter where we will almost certainly give you a RT and some hype.
(*The 2020 NCAA Tournament was cancelled due to COVID but the Norse punched their March Madness ticket approximately 12 hours before things started being cancelled).
Nice article, Kyle. I am hoping Horn reach out to Miles. He fills an immediate need with uncertainty left with Tchilombo and Wells.
We definitely need a point guard to complement Vinson unless a freshman really steps.