By Woodrow Carroll
The Northern Illinois University men’s basketball program, a once promising season is suddenly spinning out of control. Keep in mind that six games into the 2023-2024 campaign, the Huskies were 5-1 and the promise of good things to come, in the form of a strong run in the MAC (Mid-American Conference) and a shot at an NCAA Tournament berth, were there.
The Huskies opened the season with a not unexpected 92-70 loss at Marquette. Then came a five-game winning streak that raised the hopes of Huskies’ backers. Most rewarding of all during that streak may have been road victories over Georgia State and Arkansas-Little Rock on back to back nights.
Since that hot start, Northern Illinois was 1-9. Suddenly, the team that was viewed as a strong contender in the MAC race, is now 6-10 with question, what went wrong?
Last Saturday’s game against MAC foe Bowling Green has typified the Huskies’ struggles of late. Down 43-32 after 20 minutes, Northern Illinois never really recovered and lost 83-72. Four games into the Conference race, the Huskies were 0-4 in the MAC and in trouble.
Rashon Burno is in his third season guiding the fortunes of the NIU men’s basketball program. Burno’s first head coaching job was in 2007 when he was hired as head coach at Marmion Academy in Aurora. While you are at it, if you are looking for symbolism, you might be mindful of that George Ireland, the man who guided Chicago Loyola to the 1963 NCAA championship, coached at Marmion before he took the reins of the Loyola Ramblers.
The fast start by the Huskies had fans thinking of a winning campaign in DeKalb. Two years ago Northern Illinois was 9-21 in Burno’s first year in DeKalb. Then came last season’s 13-18 team. So you can imaging how this season’s strong early run by the Huskies raised expectations. Now there is work to be done by Northern Illinois to get back on track
It depends on how you look at it. However, Northern Illinois has qualified for the NCAA tournament more often than Northwestern University.
In 1982, under John McDougal Northern Illinois reached the NCAA Tournament. Jim Molinari was the Huskies’ taskmaster in 1991 when Northern Illinois reached the Big Show, and, Brian Hammel was there when NIU made its third and most recent NCAA appearance in 1996.
•Northwestern has made only two appearances in the NCAA tournament. However, while Northern Illinois has gone down to defeat in each of its opening games, Northwestern has two NCAA tournament victories to its credit.
Northwestern made it first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2017. The Wildcats downed Vanderbilt before falling to Gonzaga. It was only last Spring that Northwestern made its second NCAA tournament showing. After dispensing with Boise State, the Wildcats were ousted by UCLA. The Wildcats, despite only two appearances in the NCAA Turnament, have managed a couple of victories while NIU seeks its first tournament victory!
•Heading into this week’s action, Akron, with an overall record of 12-6, is the MAC team with the best overall record. Akron may have a fine team. However, you can be assured that the MAC will have a single team in the men’s tournament which means teams must win the MAC tournament to play in the final tournament. The Big Ten will have multiple teams in the NCAA final tournament.
•Perhaps the biggest surprise so far this season has been the showing of the Wisconsin Badgers, 13-3 overall and 5-0 in the Big Ten and ranked No. 11 in the most recent poll.
Obviously not a bad team, Wisconsin has sneaked up on the opposition in the minds of many. Remember how Purdue garnered all the attention? And, Northwestern with its upset of Purdue made the headlines? And, let’s not overlook Illinois with its potential. Yet, Wisconsin was undefeated in the Big Ten while every other Big Ten team has suffered two or more defeats in conference play.
Illinois and Northwestern, entering the middle of the week, each was 3-2 in the Big Ten and 10-4 overall.
As for Wisconsin keep in mind that the Badgers are now the target as the team at the top of the standings. The knock-off-the-leader mentality operates and look for it to catch up with Wisconsin.