Northern Illinois Huskies Men's Basketball Preview

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With youth comes uncertainty, inevitable inconsistency and sacrifice.  With experience and leadership comes elevated expectations and excitement.  The Northern Illinois men's basketball team is about to embark on a journey that it hopes will highlight the latter intangibles.

The 2009-10 Huskies, under the tutelage of third-year head coach Ricardo Patton, will field a roster with seven upperclassmen, just one year after seeing a combined 11 freshmen and sophomores play more minutes than even they may have expected.  What those players gained, even through some painful losses, was invaluable experience - experience that those following Mid-American Conference men's basketball predict will pay off this season.

One year after finishing tied for fifth in the MAC-West, the Huskies were picked second in the division in the 2009-10 preseason media poll, released by the conference office last week.  Sporting News went one step further, selecting NIU to capture the West Division title.

Patton has been around college basketball long enough to acknowledge that preseason predictions are just that - an "expert" opinion.  Even so, he recognizes that the culture and expectations surrounding the Huskie program are changing for the right reasons.

"I'm excited about this group, because our guys have worked hard, and have gotten better," said NIU head coach Ricardo Patton.  "We had a lot of young guys play a lot of minutes last season, and I think that helped them realize what it takes to compete and be successful at this level.  That is going to bode well for us going forward. 

"Our biggest challenge we will face will be taking much better care of the basketball than we did a year ago, and limiting our mistakes.  Most teams that struggle make too many mistakes, and make them repeatedly.  Most of them are also poor free throw shooting teams and have lapses on the defensive end - those things certainly applied to us last season.  Our field goal defense must improve significantly this year.  We have to take more pride in forcing our opponents to shoot a lesser percentage from the field, and not be our own worst enemy."

Loyal Huskie fans will be familiar with the rotation seen out on the court this season - NIU returns 13 letterwinners, including four starters, from the 2008-09 squad.  One of those contributors is guard Darion "Jake" Anderson, who returns for his junior campaign after collecting second-team All-MAC honors last season.  Anderson, who led the Huskies in both scoring (16.9 ppg) and rebounding (5.4 rpg) last season, was selected to the preseason All-MAC West team for the second-consecutive year.

Along with Anderson, NIU's projected starting lineup includes sophomore guard Mike DiNunno (11.9 ppg, 2.6 apg), a finalist for the 2009 MAC Freshman of the Year honor, and junior center Sean Kowal, who led the MAC in field goal percentage (.551) while posting 15 double-digit scoring outputs last season.

After sitting out the 2008-09 campaign to satisfy NCAA transfer rules, Colorado transfer Xavier Silas will make his much anticipated debut in a Huskie uniform this season.  The 6-foot-5, 198-pound Silas averaged double figures in scoring during both of his years playing in the Big XII Conference, and served as one of NIU's team captains last season as a redshirt.

"Xavier is a guy that knows how to score, and can cause match-up problems for smaller guys that are guarding him," said Patton.  "He is going to compliment our returning players.  For most transfers, it takes a pretty significant adjustment period to get back into game mode; but I think because he worked so hard in his redshirt year and last summer, Xavier will be ready a lot quicker than a lot of other guys would be in his situation."

The lone member of Patton's 2009-10 recruiting class is freshman Tony Nixon, who led Seton Academy (South Holland, Ill.) to a Class 2A state championship last March.  He immediately steps in as one of NIU's most dangerous outside shooters, and should be the beneficiary of plenty of open looks in drive-and-kick situations. 

"We only lost one senior, so wanted to add someone that could help us fill a specialty role, and I think we landed a pretty special player in Tony Nixon," said Patton.  "He's entering his college career fresh off a state championship, so he knows how to win.  I like Tony's size, and he can really shoot the basketball.  For that reason, teams are going to have to guard him when he's on the perimeter." 

For Patton and his team, the beginning of the 2009-10 journey isn't far away.  The Huskies open their non-conference schedule next Friday (Nov. 13) at Northwestern, jumpstarting a daunting preseason slate that includes four NCAA Tournament teams.  NIU will also travel to Champaign on Nov. 17 to face Illinois for the first time in school history.

Courtesy of NIU Sports Information