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| Northern Illinois center Ante Dzepina grabs the ball in a victory against Eastern Michigan. (Scott Walstrom - NIU Media Services) |
DeKALB – Whether it will serve as a wake-up call or not remains to be seen, but the film from this past Wednesday's 99-84 home loss to Ohio didn't lie to Northern Illinois.
"I think showing the film and just stating the facts and I think our guys realized it after the game," NIU coach Ricardo Patton said. "Sometimes that happens and there's no rhyme or reason why a team will come out and not play as hard as they need to play. Certainly it's strange when that hasn't been our m.o."
Patton hopes his Huskies (8-10, 4-2 MAC West) will show a better effort and end a two-game slideagainst Buffalo (10-7, 3-3 MAC East) at noon today at the Convocation Center in the first half of an NIU "Cram the Convo" doubleheader. The NIU women (8-11, 2-5 MAC West) play Kent State (12-7, 5-2 MAC East) at 2:30 p.m.
"I think this team has shown the ability to be pretty resilient and to bounce back," Patton said. "It's not the first time where we've had a discouraging outcome of a game."
One player in particular the Huskies would like to see bounce back is sophomore guard Mike DiNunno.
After a blistering start to MAC play that coincided with NIU's best conference start in school history, DiNunno has struggled of late with distributing the basketball (six assists in his past three games compared to 17 in the two prior games) and shot selection (2 of 10 on three-pointers against Ohio).
"It's not just him but all of our guys, they've got to do more communicating on the floor," Patton said. "It's one thing to talk in the huddle, another thing to talk in the locker room, but there needs to be communication when they're in the fight. That's not just Mike DiNunno. That's everybody."
Like the Huskies, the Bulls started conference play on a hot streak, winning three in a row. But Buffalo has lost three straight, including a home loss Thursday against Ball State.
Although it still is too early in the conference season to call any game a must-win, today's winner gets to at least keep pace with the MAC leaders while the loser still will be looking for its first win in the divisional crossover games. NIU might need today's game a little more considering the Huskies go on the road for the next two against East stalwarts Akron and Kent State.
"[Buffalo is] coming off two losses as well and there's no question they want to get back to their winning ways," Patton said. "That's no different than us."
