By Woodrow Carroll
Entering the Saturday, Jan. 14 home men’s basketball game with the Toledo University, the Northern Illinois University men’s team was in good position to end a rather bizarre jinx for want of a better word.
The game with the Toledo Rockets presented Northern Illinois with a shot at winning back-to-back home games for the first time since the 2019-2020 season. Northern Illinois defeated Mid-American Conference foes Ball State and Akron, back-to-back, on the road last season. Playing at home in the Convocation Center in DeKalb, however, has been another story, and, not so pleasant one for Northern Illinois..During the 2019-2020 campaign, Northern Illinois put together a six-game winning streak, a mix of victories both home and away. The Huskies were 18-13 overall and were set to make waves in the MAC Tournament and beyond. Then came the pandemic and the season abruptly ended. Life has not been the same since.
In spite that the Huskies’ leading scorer, Keshawn Williams, went down with an injury in the January 7 game with Buffalo, Northern Illinois rolled over the visiting Central Michigan, 73-54, Tuesday, Jan. 10, prior to facing Toledo. Suddenly, there were grounds for optimism that the Huskies might win two straight games at home, and, that Northern Illinois might become a factor in the Mid-American Conference race!
If Northern Illinois fans were pleased by the team’s showing against Central Michigan, the same could not be said by the Northern Illinois faithful after the game with Toledo.
The first couple of minutes against Toledo was uneventful. Then the Rockets exploded!
Over a five-minute stretch, Toledo, 11-6 overall and 2-2 in the MAC, reeled off 17 straight points. The visitors’ advantage went from 17-14 to 34-14. The game was out of hand!
Northern Illinois, 5-12 overall and 1-3 in the MAC) actually outscored Toledo, 44-43, in the second half of what turned out to be an easy 84-67 Rockets’ victory.
Back to the drawing board. The Northern Illinois men were on the road this week at Miami (Ohio) Tuesday and at and Eastern Michigan, Saturday, Jan. 21. The next shot at winning at home will be Tuesday, Jan. 24 and Saturday, Jan. 28 with Kent State and Ball State.
Whether at home, or on the road, the Huskies will play Tuesday-Saturday and strictly MAC games, until a regular-season ending game against Eastern Michigan, Friday March 3, in DeKalb.
• By the time conference schedules start for most college basketball programs, plans for an undefeated season are over. With a balanced conference schedule most likely followed by a conference tournament, expectations are low for an unblemished record entering the Big Show each March.
A look at the Big Ten reveals that every team in the Conference already has fallen at least once at the hands of a conference foe. In the MAC, only two weeks into Conference play, Kent State, 4-0, is the lone undefeated team.
In 1976, Indiana, 32-0, was undefeated as the NCAA tournament champion, and, the Hoosiers remain the last unbeaten D-I college team.
Oddly enough, there was a time when winning the national championship with an undefeated team was possible.
San Francisco University, with Bill Russell at center, won it all with a 29-0 record in 1956, the first of seven undefeated teams. The following season, North Carolina, 32-0, defeated Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain in three overtimes in the championship game.
Four undefeated championships went to UCLA, in 1964, 1967, 1972, and 1973. Finally was Bobby Knight’s 1975-1976 32-0 Indiana squad.