Thurs., Jan. 31 - Johnson City, Tenn.
Mountain States Health Alliance Athletics Center (14,000)
NKU (6-11, 4-5) at East Tennessee State (6-16, 4-5), 7 p.m.
NKU Radio: WCVX 1050 AM
•Jim Kelch (play-by-play) & Steve Moeller (color)
Series Record: ETSU leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: ETSU 49, NKU 44 (1-7-13)
NORSE NOTES (FIVE STARTERS & ONE)
1• NKU is 6-11 overall (4-5 A-Sun) after posting a 64-53 win over Kennesaw State on Saturday night.
2•
Eshaunte Jones poured in 25 points to lead NKU past Kennesaw State. Two nights earlier, Jones scored a career-high 26 points during a 63-46 win over Mercer. He was named A-Sun Player of the Week on Tuesday.
3• NKU junior guard
Chad Jackson's second-half dunk against Kennesaw State was featured on ESPN Sportcenter's Top 10 Plays at No. 10.
4• NKU is looking for its third straight victory.
5• The Norse are 3-6 on the road this season.
+1• NKU is 0-1 all-time against East Tennessee State.
JACKSON JAM-TASTIC ON ESPN: NKU junior guard
Chad Jackson became an instant celebrity Saturday night when he made ESPN Sportscenter's Top 10 Plays with his two-handed dunk of an offensive rebound. Jackson is the first NKU athlete to ever be featured on the ESPN nightly roundup of top plays around the nation.
Jackson finished with 10 points and eight rebounds in Saturday's win.
STRETCH ON THE BOARDS: NKU senior forward Ernest “Stretch” Watson grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds against Kennesaw State. He leads NKU in rebounding at 5.8 per game and has one double-double this season.
THE BEAR FACTS: Eshaunte Jones was selected as the Atlantic Sun Conference's Player of the Week on Tuesday. He averaged 25.5 points per game as NKU posted wins against Mercer (63-46) and Kennesaw State (64-53). Jones also buried 10 shots from 3-point range in those two victories and made 52.6 percent of his trey attempts.
Jones poured in a career-high 26 points during a 63-46 win over Mercer on Thursday. He finished 6-for-8 from 3-point range and also grabbed six rebounds as the Norse knocked off the A-Sun preseason favorite.
Jones is the first basketball player in NKU history to receive the A-Sun Player of the Week honor. He averages a team-leading 15.2 points per game, which is No. 7 in the A-Sun. Jones' 3.1 treys per game are No. 2 in the conference stats.
DEFENSE WINS: NKU is No. 2 in the A-Sun in 3-point shooting defense at .309. The Norse are No. 3 in overall field-goal percentage defense at .427.
NOT BAD FOR A BEGINNER: At the midway point of the A-Sun season, NKU leads the conference in attendance with an average home crowd of 3,056 per game. Mercer is No. 2 with an average of 2,522.
IN CASE SOMEONE ASKS: In its first season of Division I play, NKU has six victories going into Thursday night and has been very competitive. Several notable schools that reclassified from Division II to Division I in the past had instant success, the best example being Old Dominion during the 1976-77 season. Old Dominion finished with a 25-4 record and advanced to the NIT in its first season of Division I play.
The Monarchs, in fact, came within three points of winning the East Coast Athletic Conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament that season. Syracuse rallied past Old Dominion, 67-64, to earn the NCAA berth in 1977. In those years, teams did not have to wait out a four-year transition period for NCAA Tournament play. In the first round of the NIT, Villanova outlasted Old Dominion, 71-68, in overtime.
During the 1982-83 season, small-college power Alabama State made the reclassification and finished 22-6 in its Division I debut. The Hornets, who were not eligible for the NCAA Tournament due to new requirements for transitioning to Division I, earned a trip to the NIT and lost to Ole Miss in the first round, 87-75.
At the other end of the reclassification spectrum was Savannah State, which went 0-28 in its first year of Division I play in 2004-05. In 2007-08, the New Jersey Institute of Technology posted an 0-29 record in its second year of Division I competition. The Highlanders were 5-24 the previous season.
THE LAST TIME AGAINST ETSU: Earlier this season on Jan. 7, NKU dropped a 49-44 decision despite holding East Tennessee State without a field goal for the final 9:17 of the game. NKU had a chance to tie it with 13 seconds left, trailing 47-44. The Norse had the ball on their own baseline, but freshman
Nate Snodgrass' lob attempt to a wide open
Ernest Watson went over his head, and ETSU's Jarvis Jones made two free throws with 11 seconds left to seal the victory.
POINTS AT A PREMIUM: East Tennessee State became the first visiting team to hold NKU below 50 points in The Bank of Kentucky Center. Prior to that game, the last time NKU had scored less than 50 points at home was on Feb. 9, 1985, when the Norse posted a 42-40 victory over Thomas More in Regents Hall.
BEZOLD IN JANUARY: NKU head coach
Dave Bezold owns a 52-28 record in the month of January during his career. Bezold is 167-90 in nine seasons at NKU and he is three wins shy of reaching 170 victories faster than any other Norse head coach.
