Q&A Oct. 22

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Welcome to the latest edition of the HuskieWire.com Q&A.

Every Thursday, I'll answer your NIU and MAC-related questions right here. Do you have a question about NIU or the MAC? E-mail your questions to me at jsahly@daily-chronicle.com and I'll answer them next Thursday.

Here are this week's questions and answers:

Fernando O. asked: How does Xavier Silas and Tony Nixon look?

John Sahly: I have a few perspectives on Silas. I saw him play a few times during his freshman year at Colorado (my senior year in college) and saw a player who attacks the basket, can shoot and rebound and was learning how to play defense. After watching him at yesterday's scrimmage, I don't think that perspective has changed, except he's improved his defense.

As for Tony Nixon, I don't have anything close to a full evaluation yet. But, based off yesterday's scrimmage, he can definitely shoot and, like all freshmen, his defense will be a work-in-progress.

What are your expectations for the Huskies in men's basketball this season?

I'll have a post on this in our blog on Friday, but I'm putting the Huskies at second in the MAC West. They have the talent to win a division that was awful last year and should be up for grabs again this year.

Who do you feel will be the difference maker this year, other than Silas?

I don't think you can forget about Jake Anderson, who made a few impressive plays on defense yesterday, and Mike DiNunno, who has grown at least an inch and threw down a memorable dunk before the scrimmage.

Will Antone Christian be redshirted this year?

Way too early to tell at this point.

Who do you expect to be starting five at the start of the season?

I wrote a blog post on this over the summer and I'm sticking with it to this point. You can read it here.

Will you do any video interviews with players or coaches? Like you did for football. If you do, I think you should interview Todd Townsend. It would be nice to hear his perspective on the Huskies since he is new to the team and played for Marquette and was the director of basketball operations there too

I do plan on doing some video interviews. Right now it's just a matter of finding a place in the Convo that has adequate lighting and where the audio will be the player or coach talking and not a bunch of basketballs bouncing off the floor. Todd Townsend has an excellent sense of humor, by the way.

Richard asked: After taking several bone jarring hits in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s loss to Toledo, what is the health status of QB Chandler Harnish. Is he able to practice fully and will he be able to lead the Huskies this week vs Miami Ohio? Obviously his health is crucial to the success and MAC title hopes of the Huskies.

JS: The decision on Harnish will likely be made today, but practice is closed and it appears we'll find out on Saturday which of the three quarterbacks (Harnish, DeMarcus Grady and Ryan Morris) NIU goes with.