Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball to play at NKU for second time in 3 seasons

The Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati men's basketball programs will meet once again for a cross-river rivalry battle on Tuesday, Nov. 19, inside Truist Arena. The last meeting in Highland Heights was one Norse Nation will remember forever as NKU knocked off the Bearcats , 64-51, in front of a record crowd of 8,503 fans on Nov. 16, 2022.

The game is part of an agreement made when UC used NKU's Truist Arena during its season-long Fifth Third Arena renovation in 2017-18.

Northern Kentucky is looking to return to the top of the Horizon League and earn the program's fifth bid to the NCAA Tournament in the past eight years. The Norse advanced to the Horizon League semifinals in 2023-24 and will return a strong core that includes Sam Vinson , Trey Robinson , LJ Wells , Keeyan Itejere , Randall Pettus II and Hubertas Pivorius , amongst others. The Norse have also added talent in both the transfer portal and from the high school ranks.

The Norse are led by head coach Darrin Horn , in his sixth season patrolling the NKU sideline. Under his leadership, NKU has advanced to at least the Horizon semifinal in all five of his seasons in Highland Heights and his teams have posted a record of 98-56 (.636) overall. He enters the 2024-25 campaign just two wins away from 100 for his NKU career.

Cincinnati is coming off a 22-15 campaign in 2023-24. The Bearcats advanced to the quarterfinals of both the Big 12 Championships and the NIT Tournament.

The matchup will be the 11th overall between Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati and the fourth since 2018. NKU is 1-0 at home and 0-10 on the road in the all-time series. The two sides will now have played four times over the past six seasons to go with seven battles from 1981 through 1988.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball to play at NKU for second time in 3 seasons