HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – A four-game road swing for the Northern Kentucky men's basketball team opens with a Friday-night matchup against Detroit Mercy, with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m. on Dick Vitale Court at Calihan Hall.
 
Game Information
Northern Kentucky University Norse (9-5 Overall, 1-1 Horizon League)
University of Detroit Mercy Titans (2-12 Overall, 0-1 Horizon League)
Friday, Jan. 3 – 7:00 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN3 with Jeremy Otto (PxP) and Earl Cureton (Color)
Radio: ESPN1530 with Jim Kelch (PxP) and Rick Broering (Color)
Stats: Live Stats
 
Fast Break Points
• NKU suffered a 73-59 setback against Green Bay Monday night.
• NKU heads to the Motor City where it opens a four-game road swing against Detroit Mercy. The Norse are 8-1 all-time against the Titans, with all nine meetings coming as members of the Horizon League. NKU is also 4-0 against UDM at Calihan Hall.
• Friday's matchup with the Titans opens a four-game road trip for the Norse, who also have seven of their next nine being contested away from BB&T Arena.
• The Norse were picked to finish second in the Horizon League, receiving 295 points and five first-place votes. Wright State was picked first with 350 points and 28 first-place votes.
• NKU has been the most dominant team in the Horizon League over the last three seasons, amassing a 47-16 mark against league foes while winning four of the combined six league championships (regular season and tournament).
• Since the start of the 2016-17 season, NKU is a combined 81-35 (.698), has won the Horizon League regular season twice (2018, 2019) and league tourney twice (2017, 2019), and has played in both the NCAA Tournament (2017, 2019) or NIT (2018) every year. No other team in DI history has registered this level of accomplishments in its first three years with active status.
• NKU is coming off of its second trip to the NCAA Tournament in the last three years, where it fell 72-57 to No. 3 Texas Tech, which finished as the national runner-up.
• NKU has been stingy on the defensive end, holding teams to 65.7 points per game, and makes its hay with the nation's 11th-best 3-point field-goal shooting defense, limiting foes to just 26.6 percent.
• The Norse have ripped off 116 steals so far, a total that ranks 40th in the nation. The team's 8.3 steals per game also rank 62nd.
• Offensively, the Norse are letting it rain from long range this year. The team ranks 21st in the country in 3-point field-goal attempts (380) and 40th in made threes (124).
• NKU is in the first year of the Darrin Horn era, as the Kentucky native is just the sixth head coach in the 49th season of the program. In his 10th year as a head coach, Horn has a career record of 180-116.
• G Tyler Sharpe, a Preseason All-Horizon League Second-Team honoree, recently had three-straight 30-point performances, culminating in 31 points against Milwaukee. In the three-game span, Sharpe made 50 percent (29-of-58) of his field goals, 52 percent (17-of-33) of his threes and 95 percent (19-of-20) of his free throws.
• Sharpe is second on the team in scoring, pouring in 16.3 ppg and has made 37 threes on the season, which ranks 50th in the country.
• Though only in his third season as a Norse, Sharpe moved into the top-50 all-time scorers at NKU with his 18-point showing at Missouri. He now ranks 33rd with 941 points as a Norse.
• After missing 10 games with a hand injury, G Jalen Tate returned against Green Bay and scored a team-best 11 points on 5-for-10 shooting. He's averaging 9.0 points and 5.5 assists per game.
• F Dantez Walton is averaging a team-best 18.4 ppg on the strength of 54 percent shooting, which includes 42 percent from 3-point range.
• In his last seven games against DI foes, Walton is averaging 24.9 points while shooting 59 percent from the floor and 52 percent from behind the arc.
• Walton has 871 career points, No. 38 all-time at NKU.
• G Trevon Faulkner is one of four returning starters for NKU this year. The sophomore guard is averaging 12.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
• G Bryson Langdon has started the last 11 games for Northern Kentucky and averaged 4.0 assists in the outings.
• F Adrian Nelson has started the last two games for NKU, the first starts of his career, and averaged 5.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game across the two contests.
 
Last Time Out
Green Bay opened the game on a 10-0 run and never trailed in a 73-59 victory over Northern Kentucky. NKU allowed GB to shoot 47 percent for the game, including 41 percent from 3-point range, while making just 37 percent of its own shots and a mere 19 percent of its threes. Eleven Norse played and each scored in the game. Tate, who made his return after missing the previous 10 games with a hand injury, led NKU with 11 points on 5-for-10 shooting. Faulkner was the only other Norse in double figures with 10.
 
Scouting Detroit Mercy
Detroit Mercy enters with a 2-12 record, but has played eight true road games (0-8) and two neutral-site contests (1-1). The team's two wins have come against UC Irvine and SIU-Edwardsville. The Titans have one of the nation's worst defenses, giving up 80.7 ppg (338th in nation) while allowing opponents to convert 47.4 percent from the field (332nd) and 36.3 percent from 3-point range (309th). Offensively, Detroit Mercy averages 67.3 ppg behind the nation's third-leading scorer in sophomore Antoine Davis. Davis is averaging 25.6 ppg behind 37 percent field-goal shooting and 31 percent from three. Justin Miller is second on the team in scoring at 9.1 ppg, and  he combines with Chris Brandon as Detroit Mercy's leading rebounders at 5.6 rpg. The Titans are one of the nation's top free-throw shooting teams, converting 79.8 percent to rank fifth.
 
Series Stuff
In a series that's been fully contested as members of the Horizon League, Northern Kentucky owns an 8-1 all-time record with the lone setback for the Norse coming in the second meeting of the 2015-16 campaign (NKU's first in the league). Since then, the Norse have won seven straight in the series. Northern Kentucky is also 4-0 all-time at Calihan Hall, averaging 80.8 points on UDM's home court.