Huskie Preview

Saturday the Falcons continue their tour through the Western Division with a trip to the MAC's loneliest outpost, DeKalb, Illinois.

Any conversation has to start with the idea that the Huskies are just not having a very good season. According to the RPI they are ranked #330 in the nation, and there are only about 340 D1 basketball teams. Even if you think the RPI is all jacked up, (like, it is underranking them by 10% and they are actually only the 300th team in the country), the basic point still stands.

They were smoked at home by CMU (apparently prompting Coach Patton to apologize to fans).

They are 6-12 against a very soft schedule. (On the other hand, they only won six games last season). In fact, they have not beaten a team with an RPI of 242, such as Chicago State or Indiana State. In other words, none of their wins are against teams even as good as Bowling Green. They have only beaten two MAC teams, the similarly challenged UT and EMU squards.

You could go on and on, but here is the place to click to get a better idea.

They have lost three times at home already. Statistically, it is hard to see exactly what the cause of their problem is (much like it was difficult to figure out how OU was doing as well as it was). They have a sub-par offense and a sub-par defense, but not SO sub-par that they should be this bad.

The biggest fear appears to be that Bowling Green will be able to pound the inside against them, and that NIU has a thin frontline corps. They have a 6'11" guy, but he apparently struggles to be aggressive and gets in foul trouble (sounds a little like Kevin Netter).

Oh, and NIU is the worst foul-shooting team in the MAC, which makes them a nice match up for us.

Anyway, this is a road game against a team that really needs a win, and there are no sure things on the road. Still, this is the kind of game a good team should just win. It would be really nice to see us show that we are at the point of development where we can swagger a little, get our first three game winning streak of the season, etc.

To do that, I just think we have to play our game. Get the ball inside, play killer D, take care of the ball, and score enough to win. Also, avoid those long droughts that have hurt us thus far on the road.