One famous Norse myth, The Tale of Utgarda-Loki, involves a pair of gods, Thor and Loki, and Thor’s servant Thialfi, undertaking a journey to the land of the giants. Upon their arrival at the castle of the giant king, they were mocked for their small stature, so they challenged the giants to a series of competitions to prove themselves.
The visitors were defeated in each trial of speed, strength, endurance, and even drinking prowess. However, the next morning, the king admitted that he had rigged the events with magic. For example Thialfi, who fancied himself the fastest runner in the world, had actually lost his race to thought itself, not a giant opponent. Thor had been wrestling against aging, while Loki attempted an eating contest against fire. The fact that each had come close to victory against unbeatable adversaries was, in reality, a stunning show of their powers.
Norse mythology is packed full of lessons, but so is Norse reality.
Northern Kentucky’s women’s basketball team went on its own voyage to the land of the giants during this year’s non-conference schedule, playing ranked Louisville and Ohio State programs. They lost both games decisively, but led in the second half each time out, a rare feat for a smaller program.
“We showed signs in games of, ‘hey, we can play for 15 minutes, we can play for 20 minutes,’” NKU coach Jeff Hans recalled.
Outside observers probably couldn’t be blamed for dismissing that signal. After all, NKU was 11-21 last season, Hans’ first leading the Norse after returning to the school where he previously had separate stints as a grad assistant, and then as an assistant coach. That 2024-25 team had its successes, including a star turn for Halle Idowu in her final year after four of relative anonymity at Toledo and Northeastern, an all-freshman team nod for Kamora Morgan, and a massive upset of Cleveland State.
By contemporary standards, Northern Kentucky followed that up with a quiet offseason. While programs across the Horizon League snared established conference stars and former high-major players through the transfer portal, NKU largely stuck to the traditional avenues of high school and junior college talent. They then began their present schedule 3-11 and, other than their show of strength in the land of the giants, there was little to suggest that this year would be much different than last for the Norse.
The ancients also came up with a tale covering that situation, that of Fenrir, a monstrous, but initially underestimated, wolf. After several failed attempts at taming and then restraining Fenrir, he eventually played a pivotal role in Ragnarok, the end times.
Hans wasn’t similarly prophesized, though his 339-42 record, along with a trio of national titles at two different levels, while at Thomas More College from 2011-24 is about as close as it gets in any practical sense.
Perhaps, then, it was a matter of inevitability that Northern Kentucky would eventually become a dangerous beast in the Horizon League. Still, the pace of that transformation has been staggering.
The Norse have won five consecutive conference games, and now find themselves squarely in the thick of a group of serious title contenders chasing first-place Green Bay. What’s more, three of those five victories have come in the home gyms of others in that pack, Purdue Fort Wayne, Youngstown State, and Robert Morris.
Beating the Mastodons on December 29th could have been written off as a fluke. NKU was on a five-game skid entering the contest, hadn’t yet shown a ton of outward signs of what was to follow, and trailed by 17 points early in the third quarter. A 16-3 run brought things back within reach, and a buzzer-beating Taysha Rushton three difficult enough to make the SportsCenter Top 10 forced overtime.
But when Northern Kentucky swept a road trip to YSU and RMU on Thursday and Saturday, added to the other evidence, the reality became obvious: the Norse are here.
“In the last 12 days, 13 days, we’ve got five wins, three of them on the road against everybody that was higher than us in the standings with PFW, and then these two this weekend,” Hans said. “So we’ve caught some people now, and we’re putting ourselves in position here to hopefully make a run at the end of January and into February.”
Reverse-engineering precisely how it all came together so abruptly is likely a fool’s errand, though a returning core of Morgan, all-around threat Mya Meredith, versatile big Abby Wolterman, and sharpshooter Noelle Hubert was a strong starting point.
Rushton has been a crucial addition. The graduate student from Midland, TX played NAIA ball for four years at Concordia (NE) before moving home to Division II’s Texas Permian Basin in 2024-25. She decidedly flew under the radar as a lower-division player, but has starred everywhere she’s been, and offers an important dimension to a growing team.
On Saturday at Robert Morris, she hit two threes in the first 90 seconds of the game to give NKU a lead it would never relinquish. Meredith made it 9-0 shortly after, forcing a Colonials timeout before the announced 213 fans were all in their red and blue UPMC Events Center seats.
“When [Rushton] made that first one, I didn’t know if she shot it, to be honest with you,” Hans admitted. “I was looking back at the staff about something, and they get up and start clapping. So that’s how she is.”
The point guard eventually scored 19 points on 5-for-8 shooting from deep, along with four made free throws.
“That last [three] I probably wish she wouldn’t have taken there at the very end,” Hans added. “But that’s confidence she has in herself. That’s confidence we had in her when we brought her here. And it kind of feeds. Everybody else got going off of that. We had, what, nine threes in the first half. So everybody kind of fed off of what Taysha was able to start for us.”
Veteran confidence is particularly important on a team like Northern Kentucky. The Norse’s lead attractions right now are a pair of true freshmen, guard Karina Bystry and forward Maddie Moody, an obvious anomaly in a climate of veteran-laden, portal-infused rosters.
The duo has claimed five of the Horizon League’s nine Freshman of the Week awards this season (including the two most recent honors), and includes NKU’s top two scorers. Moody, a graduate of Archbishop Alter High School outside of Dayton, is also the squad’s leader in rebounds and blocked shots.
“We ask them to do a lot for freshmen in today’s world,” Hans said. “But they’ve stepped up to the plate every time. That’s just how they’ve played all year long. And with both of them out there, we don’t hesitate running stuff for them, and just trying to get the ball in their hands as much as possible.”
The team’s success has truly been a group effort, though.
Ten Norse average at least ten minutes per game (only Milwaukee has more players earning that much time, among conference members), and the result has been a flexible group that can play several different ways.
Against Robert Morris, Rushton, Meredith, and Bystry pulled a lot of the weight. NKU’s lead that afternoon bulged to 35-18 in the second quarter, before the Colonials began chipping away. Towards the end of the third period, the advantage was down to just 50-48, when Bystry hit a corner three out of a timeout to temporarily hold off the rally. A bit later, RMU got within 56-55, but the rookie’s eight fourth quarter free throws – her 13 total makes at the line set a new HL freshman record, and were most of her game-high 24 points – helped lock down the victory.
“She really stepped it up and just shot it with confidence, got to the rim with confidence,” Hans noted.
Two days earlier, things looked completely different.
Youngstown State boasts one of the circuit’s best front lines, including last season’s Horizon League Freshman of the Year, Sophia Gregory, along with Sarah Baker and Paulina Hernandez. However, the three Norse players who did the most interior work on Thursday, Moody, Wolterman, and freshman Jamaya Thomas, outscored the Penguins’ trio 30-20, and outrebounded them 20-17.
Neither team shot the ball well, as the sides combined for a brutal 7-for-49 effort from behind the arc, but NKU won the day by playing straight into the teeth of another contender.
Take away the perimeter, and the Norse can work in the paint with the best. Shift into a zone to keep everything outside, and they’ll gladly shoot over it. Get a top player or two in foul trouble, and someone else will step up.
“That’s one thing that we’ve been able to do here lately, our bench has been so crucial in everything we’ve done,” Hans said. “Step in, if somebody’s not playing very well or needs a little bit of a break, the bench comes in and we don’t drop off.”
To locate the ancient runes that expanded his already-formidable powers, the Norse god Odin had to pierce his side with a spear while hanging from Yggdrasil, an immense and sacred tree, for nine days.
Northern Kentucky’s quest for discovery – the process of identifying the extent of the HL’s surprise team’s powers – probably won’t be quite that torturous in the near future, as the black and gold will almost certainly be favored in its next three games. By the time rematches with Purdue Fort Wayne and Cleveland State arrive at the end of January, NKU could very realistically be in sole possession of second place, and on the verge of locking down a second-round home game in March’s conference tournament.
“We’re playing better, but we’ve got to be more consistent and keep doing some things,” Hans observed. “So hopefully that can continue.”
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