In 2019-20, in Darrin Horn’s first season as Northern Kentucky University head men’s basketball coach, the Norse won the Horizon League Tournament and, with it, secured a bid to the 2020 NCAA Tournament.
Alas, due to a once-in-a-generation, global pandemic, there was no 2020 NCAA Tournament.
“We were different than a lot of teams (that year). It wasn’t like we were projected (to make the NCAA tourney). We had won the (Horizon League) Tournament and earned a bid,” Horn said. “You win (a right to play in the NCAA Tournament) and it gets, basically, taken from you. In a lot of senses, it’s like it never happened.”
For Horn, the Tates Creek High School alumnus, that prologue made what NKU did Tuesday night especially meaningful. Boosted by a larcenous defensive effort that yielded 14 steals, Northern Kentucky (22-12) outlasted Cleveland State 63-61 to claim the Horizon League Tournament championship for the fourth time since 2016-17.
“It’s great on a lot of levels,” Horn says of NKU’s return to the NCAA tourney.
If you like a heavy dose of “homegrown Kentucky” in your NCAA Tournament teams, Northern is for you. The three leading scorers for the Norse were all prominent high school stars in the commonwealth.
Henry Clay alumnus Marques Warrick is NKU’s main offensive threat (19.1 ppg, 39.1 percent three-pointers). A First Team All-Stater as a high schooler here in Lexington, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Warrick showed up in college as a capable “basket getter.”
However, in the victory over Cleveland State, Warrick showed how three seasons of college coaching have helped him develop into more than just a scorer. On a night when Warrick’s jumper was not falling (he shot 3-of-12), he still led the Norse with 18 points because he got to the foul line 13 times, making 11. Warrick also contributed six rebounds and three steals.
“I’ve probably coached ‘Ques as hard as any player I have ever had, definitely any great player that I have had,” Horn says. “All he does is keep responding, keep growing and keep getting better. He’s gone from being a really gifted scorer to a complete player that is an absolute weapon.”
A season ago, when Northern Kentucky suffered an excruciating 72-71 come-from-ahead loss to Wright State in the Horizon League tourney finals, ex-Fort Thomas Highlands star Sam Vinson played like what he was — a freshman in his first conference tournament championship game.
The 2021 Kentucky State Tournament MVP after leading Highlands to the title, Vinson had twice as many turnovers (four) as points (two) in 37 minutes of playing time against Wright State.
On Tuesday against Cleveland State, the 6-5, 205-pound sophomore showed what a difference a year of college experience makes. Vinson hit six of 12 shots and finished with 16 points, five rebounds, two assists and three steals.
“As well as he played overall, he had a stretch late last year where he looked like a freshman,” Horn said of Vinson. “This year, the way he played vs. Cleveland State, he’s done that for us down the stretch.”
Around the NKU program, the nickname for Vinson (11.7 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 2.9 assists) is “Sammy Burrow,” a reference to an even-higher-profile Cincinnati-area athlete. Like Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, “Sam’s got an ‘It factor,’” Horn says.
After the disappointment of losing in last year’s league tourney finals, former Mercer County star Trevon Faulkner made the decision to return to NKU as a super-senior in 2022-23. Once he did so, Faulkner (8.6 ppg, 2.8 rpg) also accepted a radically different role. Kentucky’s 2018 Mr. Basketball gave up the NKU starting spot he had long held and came off the bench this season.
“For him, a guy who was basically a four-year starter before that, to accept the role of coming off the bench because it was going to be best for our team, it just speaks volumes to who he is as a person and a competitor,” Horn says. “Trevon came back because he wanted to win a championship with these guys.”
Next week will be the first time Horn, who turned 50 last Christmas Eve, has coached in the NCAA Tournament as a head man since he led Western Kentucky on a Cinderella run to the Sweet 16 in 2008.
At a time when Northern Kentucky University has undergone an abrupt presidential transition and, according to published reports, has run a budget deficit in excess of $24 million, Horn says an NCAA Tournament trip is a needed campus-wide boost.
“I’m just happy for our school,” Horn says. “Quite honestly, our school could use a little shot in the arm right now.”
In ESPN.com’s March 8 “bracketology,” Joe Lunardi projects NKU as a No. 16 seed slated to face South Region top-seed Alabama in the NCAA Tournament round of 64.
“No idea. Don’t care,” Horn said when asked what seed he expected the Norse to be assigned. “We’re just gonna strap it up and be ready to play.”
After what happened to Northern Kentucky in 2020, playing anybody, anywhere, in the NCAA Tournament will be an unmitigated joy.
“Barring a world-wide pandemic in the next 48 hours, our guys are going to get to play in the NCAA Tournament,” Horn said. “That is really awesome.”
