Speaker 1: Wlw RNL carry or Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet.
Speaker 1: I'm Lance count Hey, thanks for hanging out tonight. Let's
Speaker 1: talk some hoops. Truest Arena the site for a Horizon
Speaker 1: League showdown tomorrow night. They're Red Hot Norse hosting Oakland.
Speaker 1: Bring a stuffed toy for a postgame Teddy Bear toss
Speaker 1: and could beat for prizes. It's done in partnership with
Speaker 1: Meyer and Toys for Tot's always a cool scene. The
Speaker 1: Norse of nine and three overall, one in one in
Speaker 1: league play. They are undefeated seven to zero at home
Speaker 1: going into the weekend.
Speaker 2: I saw that. How about that?
Speaker 1: I love stats going into the weekend, the Norse with
Speaker 1: the only team in the country with three players that
Speaker 1: had scored at least one hundred and seventy points this year.
Speaker 1: How about that? For more on the Norse, lets Norse up.
Speaker 1: Welcome in their head coach friend of the show. We
Speaker 1: love talking with them. That would be Darren Horne.
Speaker 2: How are you doing great? Lance? Thanks for having me man.
Speaker 1: Thanks for catching up with me tonight. I look today,
Speaker 1: you guys are averaging almost eighty six points a game.
Speaker 1: That's eleven more points per game than any team you've had. There,
Speaker 1: what's gotten into your offen this year?
Speaker 2: Better players. We just we just got more guys that
Speaker 2: not only can score the ball lance, but I think
Speaker 2: are are willing passers that have basketball lot cue to
Speaker 2: make the right next play. We're just we're getting a
Speaker 2: lot more easy shots. Now. The other thing about that is,
Speaker 2: you know we're still top You know it changes every day,
Speaker 2: but as of Sunday night, top ten in the country,
Speaker 2: and turnover percentage is still top fifteen and steals percentage,
Speaker 2: so our defense is leading to a lot of transition,
Speaker 2: which is easy baskets.
Speaker 1: LJ wells ten games this year with at least ten
Speaker 1: points in five boards. That's top ten in the country.
Speaker 1: I've heard you refer to him when talking with Jim
Speaker 1: and Rick on the post game as a grown man game.
Speaker 1: It really is. And he's a finisher for you guys,
Speaker 1: isn't he.
Speaker 2: He really has been. And I'm so proud of LJ
Speaker 2: because the real truth is that he hasn't been that
Speaker 2: his whole career. Right, We've seen flashes, but we haven't
Speaker 2: seen this kind of consistency or just some games slat
Speaker 2: out dominance from him. And just so proud of the
Speaker 2: growth he's made and the commitment that he's made to
Speaker 2: playing so aggressively and really impacting winning with his presence
Speaker 2: on the interior. And again, I think a big part
Speaker 2: of our offensive success is because he's playing the five
Speaker 2: for us. But this is a guy that can pop
Speaker 2: out on the floor and handle the ball and make
Speaker 2: reads and make the right passes and knock down some
Speaker 2: shots as well.
Speaker 1: In the Saturday whin, you had five guys score at
Speaker 1: least twelve points and record a steal that never been
Speaker 1: done in your Division one era, and you kind of
Speaker 1: alluded to it. It's not a one man show. I
Speaker 1: think you've got four guys averaging between thirteen and eighteen points.
Speaker 1: There's contributions coming from all different directions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've been really balanced, Lance, you know, And you
Speaker 2: know we were talking about as a staff today, we've
Speaker 2: got four guys that if they got twenty pointys something
Speaker 2: given night wouldn't wouldn't really be that big a deal, right,
Speaker 2: you know, So when you go into game with that,
Speaker 2: and then maybe maybe a fifth and Tatosher, who's been outstanding,
Speaker 2: you know, when you go into a game with that,
Speaker 2: I do think it's been harder for teams to focus
Speaker 2: on one guy. You know, there's been a lot of
Speaker 2: that in the past where we're actually very interested for
Speaker 2: the game tomorrow and some other games are important league play,
Speaker 2: where teams have really tried to focus on taking out
Speaker 2: a Marquis Warwick or a Trey Robinson or and Sam Vincent.
Speaker 2: That's that's much harder to do with this team because
Speaker 2: of the balance that we have.
Speaker 1: I noticed you had forty four in the paint against
Speaker 1: Bellerman Saturday. You had forty in the paint against Cleveland State.
Speaker 1: I was reading your former player, David Wassler covers you
Speaker 1: guys for North's Illustrated, and he referred to it as
Speaker 1: a paint first mindset. You guys can pound that area,
Speaker 1: can't you.
Speaker 2: Well, well, we're trying to write, you know, we want
Speaker 2: to do that and transition on post speeds and then
Speaker 2: and then even inside out on our threes. And one
Speaker 2: of the things that's leading to is is better offensive
Speaker 2: rebounding as well. So a lot of times ends up
Speaker 2: on paid points putbacks.
Speaker 1: Also, you're eleven games in. Through those eleven, have you
Speaker 1: gotten a I would assume a better feel of of
Speaker 1: combos and subs and getting guys on the court who
Speaker 1: give you what you need in that moment.
Speaker 2: You know, I think we're getting there, and we're getting
Speaker 2: there a little stoner maybe than we have in years past.
Speaker 2: You know, still learning some stuff in terms of, you know,
Speaker 2: where strengths and weaknesses are with certain combinations in the game.
Speaker 2: But the biggest thing is we've had pretty good consistency
Speaker 2: from individuals. You know. I think Donovan Rackett Nahari, who
Speaker 2: we just called Donny R because his last name is
Speaker 2: so hard to pronounce, you know, it's been a good
Speaker 2: example of that. He's a guy that's come in. I
Speaker 2: think he's shooting like eighty percent from the field because
Speaker 2: he's happy to just run the floor and finish drop
Speaker 2: offs and get offensive rebound put back. And he's really
Speaker 2: impacted winning for us, you know, in the seventh and
Speaker 2: eighth MA roll and so I think, you know, all
Speaker 2: of those things are starting to add up when we're
Speaker 2: getting a good feel for rotations and putting gods in
Speaker 2: the best possible situations for them to be successful.
Speaker 1: You get Oakland tomorrow night at home for the showdown.
Speaker 1: They're led by their wily veteran Greg Camp, who's in
Speaker 1: is what forty second year, they're averaging eighty four a game.
Speaker 1: They've dropped ninety eight on Toledo one hundred and one
Speaker 1: and Purdue for Wayne, ninety five on Montana. They put
Speaker 1: points on the board.
Speaker 2: As well, So it's really interesting. And you know, over
Speaker 2: his career that's been can't steal right, like their teams
Speaker 2: are going to score for sure. In the last few years,
Speaker 2: he's gone to his zone of his own that has
Speaker 2: made them better defensively and more focused on pounding the
Speaker 2: ball inside. But this team is playing extremely fast. He
Speaker 2: got a couple of really dynamic guards and they still
Speaker 2: have good size and physicality on the interior. So really
Speaker 2: going to be the challenge for us to not only
Speaker 2: slow them down, but to handle their their size and
Speaker 2: their physicality around the basket.
Speaker 1: I noticed this earlier today. I don't want to leave
Speaker 1: it out. It's it's not x's and o's, but it's
Speaker 1: off the court. It's really cool. Your team has partnered
Speaker 1: with Seven Hills Church and your players delivered gifts to
Speaker 1: local schools today. What what a cool way to give
Speaker 1: back to the community.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, our guys have really done a good
Speaker 2: job of that this year. I think this is maybe
Speaker 2: our third project partnering with Seven Hills. He's done such
Speaker 2: a phenomenal job of serving the community and to be
Speaker 2: able to give back the kids and help them have
Speaker 2: a good Christmas with a couple of elementary schools this morning.
Speaker 2: It's it's, you know, something that's important to us. You know,
Speaker 2: the Northern Kentucky community means so much to us and
Speaker 2: is really the reason we have a program and and
Speaker 2: and why our guys want to be a part of
Speaker 2: it is because the Norse nation and to be able
Speaker 2: to give back in our area means a lot. And
Speaker 2: quite honestly, Lance and in today's college basketball world where
Speaker 2: you know, these guys are still in full scholarship and
Speaker 2: don't have any expenses but getting checks every month, and
Speaker 2: you know, a good reminder for them to uh have
Speaker 2: appreciation for how great, thankful they are to be playing
Speaker 2: college basketball at a winning program and getting paid and
Speaker 2: be reminded, especially in this time of the year, the
Speaker 2: holiday season, right how important it is. I think others
Speaker 2: can get back very.
Speaker 1: Well, said absolutely. I hesitate to look ahead. I know
Speaker 1: you don't want to do that, but Sunday, another home game,
Speaker 1: you get Chris Mack in College of Charleston. We talked
Speaker 1: to it and it's a noon tip. We talked about
Speaker 1: this back in the preseason. But remind me, how did
Speaker 1: that game come about? Did you you match up with
Speaker 1: Chris Mack and Charleston?
Speaker 2: You know, it was a game that neither one of
Speaker 2: us wanted to play. We were desperate to finish our schedules.
Speaker 2: I don't think either one really wanted to play a
Speaker 2: program of our qualities. But I think Chris got talked
Speaker 2: into it because you thought, well, at least the next
Speaker 2: year when I come home, I could just stay home
Speaker 2: for Christmas, right, So, uh, you know, we put the
Speaker 2: game right before Christmas, and you know, if I could
Speaker 2: ran for a second, Lance, you know, when you talk
Speaker 2: about attendance, you know, you always hear things like, well,
Speaker 2: you're not fun to watch, and we're averaging eighty five
Speaker 2: points a game, and well if we were just winning, coach,
Speaker 2: and you know, we're notine in three and you know,
Speaker 2: possession away from being ten and two, and well, you know,
Speaker 2: it's just your schedule is better. And you know this
Speaker 2: week we've got you know, one of the other premiere
Speaker 2: programs in our league coming in, and I think one
Speaker 2: of the premiere mid majors in all of college basketball.
Speaker 2: When you talk about success over the last twenty years
Speaker 2: and the resources and what they put into it and
Speaker 2: nil and all those things. I mean, Charleston is really
Speaker 2: the kind of program that all of us are are
Speaker 2: are striving to be. And so we've checked all the boxes,
Speaker 2: and man, we need truus areno as full as possible
Speaker 2: for both of those games to really help our guys.
Speaker 2: And what's going to be two really good basketball games
Speaker 2: to watch.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow night Oakland Sunday, College of Charleston. Tickets nkunors dot com.
Speaker 1: It is always great here in your voice. Always enjoy
Speaker 1: our conversations. You know you're welcome anytime, and best of
Speaker 1: luck tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: Thanks, I mean, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thanks coach. There you go, Darren Horne, head coach of
Speaker 1: the Norse. Norse and up they're red hot, nine and three,
Speaker 1: one in one in late play seven and oh at
Speaker 1: home and would like the benefit of the home crowd
Speaker 1: tomorrow night as they try to get to eight and
Speaker 1: oh at home in a showdown versus Oakland. So one
Speaker 1: team averaging eighty nearly eighty six points a game at
Speaker 1: Oakland averaging eighty four points a game. Holy cal wonder
Speaker 1: what the over under total on that game is. Later on,
Speaker 1: after the eight o'clock news, we'll talk with Richard Patino
Speaker 1: in advance of the Musketeers opening Big East play tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: But more coming up next of your reaction appreciation, Foreign
Speaker 1: memory shared of the four new Reds Hall of Famers
Speaker 1: as we roll on with RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented
Speaker 1: by Kelsey Chevrolet seven hundred WLW the.
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