The Northern Kentucky University men’s basketball team won an important road matchup at Robert Morris Wednesday night.
The victory earned them at least the No. 5 seed and a first round bye in the Horizon League conference tournament with a potential for as high as the No. 3 seed, depending how things shake out in the league’s final set of regular season games on Saturday.
If the Norse want to make it simple, win at Wright State on Saturday at 7 p.m., claim at least the No. 4 seed and a home postseason game against No. 5 seed Wright State on Thursday, March 7 at Truist Arena. If the Norse win and Green Bay loses to Milwaukee on Saturday, NKU would then earn the No. 3 seed and host their quarterfinal matchup on March 7 against the winner of the No. 6 and No. 11 seed first round matchup that would take place on Tuesday, March 5. Milwaukee is locked in as the No. 6 seed while Detroit is currently the No. 11 seed.
Losing on Saturday to the Raiders means a No. 5 seed and a return trip to Dayton to face Wright State on March 7. That’s clear cut. Wright State can be no higher than the No. 4 with a victory and no lower than No. 5 with a loss. The Raiders won the first meeting between the two, 85-78 on Feb. 4 in Highland Heights.
NKU is the hottest team in the league right now along with Youngstown State, both having won three in a row. The Norse just capped off a February in which they went 6-2 to climb up the Horizon League standings. NKU is 17-13 overall and 12-7 in conference play.
As for the rest of the league, Oakland is locked in as the No. 1 seed. Youngstown State clinches the No. 2 seed with a Green Bay loss on Saturday. A Green Bay victory earns them the No. 2 seed and moves Youngstown State to the No. 3.
The four and five seeds have already been clarified above while Milwaukee is locked into the No. 6 seed. Cleveland State is the highly likely No. 7 seed, Purdue-Fort Wayne the most likely No. 8. Robert Morris is the No. 9 seed while IUPUI has the upper hand on Detroit for the No. 10 seed.
If the postseason started today, here would be the first round matchups on March 5:
No. 11 Detroit at No. 6 Milwaukee
No. 10 IUPUI at No. 7 Cleveland State
No. 9 Robert Morris at No. 8 Purdue-Fort Wayne
Quarterfinal matchups on March 7:
Robert Morris/Purdue-Fort Wayne winner at No. 1 Oakland
Cleveland State/IUPUI winner at No. 2 Youngstown State
Detroit/Milwaukee winner at No. 3 Green Bay
No. 5 Northern Kentucky at No. 4 Wright State
The semifinals and championship game will be played on Monday, March 11 and Tuesday, March 12 in Indianapolis at Indiana Farmers Coliseum.
The conference tournament winner gets an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. NKU has won the conference tournament four times since 2017, earning NCAA tournament berths in ’17, 2019, 2020 (canceled due to COVID) and 2023.
Saturday’s schedule:
IUPUI at Cleveland State, 6 p.m.
Green Bay at Milwaukee, 6 p.m.
Detroit at Oakland, 6 p.m.
Robert Morris at Purdue-Fort Wayne, 7 p.m.
Northern Kentucky at Wright State, 7 p.m.