It’s been a while since I last wrote. Not that I could help it, though. God blessed with me with six wisdom teeth and believe it or not, your teeth are an integral part of doing anything, whether it be chewing or writing an article.
The bad news: The Norse didn’t beat any schools they were supposed to beat last week. The good news: they still hold the lead in East, and are just a half game out of the overall lead. NKU took out its loss on Great Lakes Valley Conference cellar-dweller Missouri-S ‘ T, 84-53.
The bottom line is it’s difficult to win on the road in any conference. It really doesn’t matter if it’s a sub-par Missouri-St. Louis team or if it’s nationally-ranked Drury. If you don’t bring your “A” game on the road in the GLVC, the Heartland Conference or the Big East it’s going to be hard to succed on neutral floors in March. The Norse were hardly impressive, losing their first game as a nationally ranked team in four years.
Interesting final six week schedule
The powers-that-be in the scheduling department of the GLVC created quite the finale for the Norse. At this point in the season, it’s almost unheard of in conference play to have five consecutive home games, then be on the road for the three weeks leading up to the GLVC tournament. The Norse also have an exceptionally early senior night Feb. 16 before finishing out their final four games on the road. And those final four, besides being on the road, are against teams with above .500 records in conference and overall.
The Norse’s strength and mettle will certainly be tested and more importantly, conference tournament seedings will begin to shake themselves out.
Gagai continues to play impressively
Gagai has made the most of his opportunity here at NKU. The sharp-shooting transfer from West Virginia is leading the team in scoring, 3-point percentage and free throw percentage despite not starting a single game. He helps lead a balanced Norse scoring attack while playing only 22 minutes a game.
Gagai needs to continue to be one of the best sixth-men in Division II if the Norse plan to survive a brutal stretch of away games at KWU, Lewis, Bellarmine and UW-Parkside.
This is further proof that, while Bezold and Ken Shields had different methods of getting people to Highland Heights, the results are still the same. Look for NKU to be consistently present in the Division II Top 25 poll as the GLVC tournament approaches.
