The Wright State University men’s basketball team is coming off of a season with many things to be proud of. They won 20 games and had several individual achievements.
While they have developed themselves into a NCAA tournament contender, they may have also developed a new rivalry in Northern Kentucky University (NKU).
The NKU Norse is a school out of Highland Heights, Kentucky, about 10 miles from downtown Cincinnati.
These two teams played each other a total of three times last season, including in the Horizon League Tournament. All three games were kept within 10 points, and WSU always hung with the Norse until the final few minutes.
The Norse would go on to win the Horizon league Tournament in their first year of tournament eligibility.
Three tough games and watching the Norse go to the NCAA tournament is more than enough to get the rivalry going, but the fact that NKU is the only current Horizon League team that WSU didn’t beat last year is also a factor. As great as the season was, they couldn’t get past the Norse.
Head Coach, Scott Nagy, offered different reasons as to why NKU feels like a rivalry.
“Conference games are important for us all,” Nagy said. “Obviously, with Northern Kentucky being so close and being a travel partner; as well as with recruiting and everything we do, we just run into them a lot. I think they feel like more of a rival to us than anybody else."
NKU is approximately an hour from WSU, which is the closest of any horizon league team
This matchup should be fun to watch this coming season. They play each other two times during the regular season, with the potential of meeting for a third time in the Horizon League Tournament.
Catch the first game on January 11 at 7 p.m. For the full WSU men's basketball schedule, click here.
