The Northern Kentucky University men’s basketball non-conference schedule is starting to take shape.
Another piece of the puzzle on the schedule was announced on Thursday as NKU will trek across the Ohio River and take on the University of Cincinnati on Nov. 19 at Fifth Third Arena.
The meeting will be the 10th all-time, the Norse taking last season’s meeting 64-51 inside Truist Arena.
The Bearcats are now a member of the Big 12 Conference after playing in the American Athletic Conference and posting a 23-13 record and a quarterfinal appearance in the NIT in the 2022-23 season.
The Nov. 19 matchup is one of several non-conference matchups officially announced by the University. On Tuesday, they announced a road game against another Power Five opponent at Washington on Nov. 9. They’ll host Akron on Dec. 9 and play at Illinois State on Dec. 6.
Other games that haven’t been officially announced by the University, but agreed to are contests with Long Island University, Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, Middle Tennessee State, Eastern Kentucky and Florida Atlantic in the non-conference slate.
Texas A&M Corpus-Christi and Florida Atlantic made the NCAA tournament last season, the Owls making a Cinderella run to the Final Four.
With 20 conference games scheduled in the Horizon, in April 2020, the Division I Council passed legislation that allows men’s basketball programs to schedule up to 28 regular-season games and participate in an multi-team event that has up to three games, or 29 regular-season games while participating in an MTE that has up to two games, for a total of 31 games in either scheduling option.
The MTE the Norse will play in is with LIU and Texas A&M Corpus-Christi at Truist Arena, meaning they have two open dates left for an opponent. These two games will most likely be home games, according to a source.
The Norse are coming off a Horizon League Championship in 2022-23 and earning their fourth bid to the NCAA Tournament in the last seven years. They posted a 22-13 record and return three starters in Marques Warrick, Sam Vinson and Trey Robinson. The rest of the roster saw a lot of turnover with the transfer portal and incoming freshman.
The roster got a chance to gel with a recent trip to Italy in which they got to do some sight-seeing and went 2-0 against overseas competition.