Northern Kentucky Norse WBB 2024-25 Preview

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Photo courtesy of Northern Kentucky Athletics

Lady Norse begin a new era

A new era in NKU women’s basketball begins this season after Jeff Hans was named the new head coach of the Lady Norse in April 2024, replacing former head coach Camryn Volz who was not retained.

Hans arrives on campus after making the short trek across the Licking River and looks to carry the momentum established during his tenure at Thomas More University and instill it in the Lady Norse program. During a 13-year run at TMU, Hans amassed an overall record of 339-42 (.889), which included eight conference regular season titles, eight conference tournament titles, two Division II National Titles and one NAIA National Title and two NAIA National Runners-Up.

Hans however is no stranger to the Lady Norse program, serving as a graduate assistant during the 2001-02 season and as an assistant alongside legendary head coach Nancy Winstel from 2008-2011. That familiarity with NKU and the prior success of women’s basketball, should allow his transition to be a smooth one.

“When you take over a new position there is always a transition period, and this situation is no different. But my experience with NKU as an assistant as well as being in the Northern Kentucky area has made the transition easier.”

The Lady Norse finished the 2023-24 season 11-20 overall and 8-12 in the Horizon League. Heading into the 2024-25 season, NKU will miss the production of departing Horizon League Freshman of the Year Carter McCray who chose to continue her career at Wisconsin and Khamari Mitchell-Steen who took her talents to Florida Gulf Coast.

Regardless of those losses, the Lady Norse will return a solid core with seniors Kailee Davis, Macey Blevins, and Kalissa Lacy – all three opting to remain on campus in lieu of the coaching change and according to Hans “will be relied on early in the season to lead the team.” 

Davis returns for what she hopes to be an injury free season after missing seven games last season due to an ankle injury. Despite the missed time, she still managed to average 10.2 points a game and shoot just shy of 40% from beyond the arc.

Blevins was a solid addition to the Norse after transferring from Western Kentucky University. During her first season she averaged 12.9 points per game and shot 44% from the field.

Lacy, another transfer from Eastern Kentucky University averaged 4.3 points per game and 2.1 rebounds per game her first season with the Norse.

Noelle Hubert will bring additional experience to this season’s squad after completing her freshman season averaging 5.4 points per game while shooting 35% from the field and 34% from 3-pt range coming off the bench.

Hans did not waste any time leveraging the transfer portal himself as he secured commitments from Junior Abby Wolterman and grad student Jaci Jones, who both played for fellow Horizon League member IUPUI last season. Wolterman played in all thirty of the Jaguars games last season and averaged 8.9 points per game and 5.2 rebounds per game. Jones played in twenty-seven games for the Jags while averaging 3.2 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.

Halle Idowu, a 5-11 grad student guard/forward from Calumet, IL will also be joining the team after spending the last two seasons at Northeastern University in Boston. Idowu averaged 2.2 point and 2.7 rebounds per game.

Key contributors this season with be junior Allision Basye who started eight games last season and averaged 4.0 points and shot 39.8% from the field. Gabby Razzano, a 6-2 sophomore appeared in twenty-eight games last season and shot 61% from the field 37.5% from behind the arc and should see extended minutes this season.

Sophomore Madison French and senior Paige Hodgson will add depth and experience to the bench along with transfer Mya Meredith. Meredith missed the entire 2023-24 season with a knee injury and looks to get back on the court this season. Per Hans, “getting Mya healthy is important for our team. Her experience and ability to make plays will definitely help take the pressure off the others.”   

Anna Hamilton, a freshman out of Hebron, KY opted to honor her commitment to the Lady Norse under the prior coaching staff. Hamilton was a two-sport athlete at Conner High School in nearby Hebron, KY playing both basketball and volleyball and will bring both toughness and leadership.

Kamora Morgan, a 6-0 freshman from Oshawa, Ontario, Canada will provide the Norse with athleticism that will help the team push the pace this season. Morgan averaged 11.7 points per game and 5.3 rebounds last season at Fort Erie International Academy. Additionally, she was chosen to represent her home country as a member of Team Canada in the U18 Nationals this past summer.

With a mix of experience and newness, Hans sees an extremely competitive group each day in practice. “The buy in so far has been really good. Our team is working to be better each day on the court. We are also trying to develop our chemistry with each other and that will take a little time.” 

When asked what stands out most to him early on in preseason practices, Hans states “their ‘want to’ has been very good and hopefully that will continue as this team lays the groundwork for the future of NKU women’s basketball.”

Key Early Season Games

The Lady Norse will open the season at home against defending C-USA champion Middle Tennessee State on November 4th followed by a trip down I-75 a few days later to take face state power Kentucky on November 7th.

NKU will take on a pair of Mid-American Conference foes with games at Toledo on November 17th and against Ball State at Truist Arena on December 15th.

Road games at Marshall, at Southern Indiana and at Bradley conclude the month of November.

The Lady Norse will close out the non-conference portion of their schedule in San Diego as they take part in an MTE with games against host UC-San Diego and LaSalle a few days before the Christmas Holiday.

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