NIU men's basketball schedule released

See the NIU men's basketball schedule here.

Northern Illinois men's basketball coach Ricardo Patton will quickly discover his new-look team's capabilities as the Huskies, who released their full-season schedule Monday, begin the 2010-11 season at home against Northwestern on Nov. 12. NIU travels to two 2010 NCAA Tournament qualifiers – Temple (Dec. 18) and Missouri (Dec. 27) – during non-conference play.

"I just think those are games where they will quickly identify what our strengths and our weaknesses are," Patton said. "(The Northwestern game is) a good fan game. It's the type of schedule that fans want us to play. More importantly, I think it's a schedule that will prepare us for our conference."

Northwestern hasn't played at NIU since 1981-82. The schedule has more "local flavor," as Patton said, with trips to in-state rivals Bradley (Nov. 16), DePaul (Dec. 2) and Southern Illinois (Dec. 22) and a home matchup with Illinois-Chicago (Dec. 14).

NIU will play at Iowa State, where former Huskie Jake Anderson transferred this summer, on Jan. 3 before starting its Mid-American Conference schedule with a home slate against Ball State on Jan. 8.

The Huskies lost three of their top four scorers – leading scorer Xavier Silas (19.7 ppg) returns for his senior season after testing the NBA Draft waters – all to reasons other than graduation.

NIU lost Anderson, guard Mike DiNunno (transfer to Eastern Kentucky), and center Sean Kowal was released from his scholarship earlier this month after a summerlong dispute with the university so he could transfer to a school that offers master's degree in theology.

Patton said the tough early schedule should help the Huskies' five newcomers – junior college transfers Tim Toler (6-foot-7 forward) and Cameron Madlock (6-foot-9) and freshmen Aksel Bolin (6-foot-7 wing), Kyree Jones (6-foot-2 guard) and Nate Rucker (6-foot-6 post) – get their feet wet.

"I think if you were to compare it to anyone in our conference, there's no one playing any better non-conference schedule than we are," Patton said. "I think it's the type of schedule fans want us to play. But more importantly, I think it's a schedule that will prepare us for our conference."

The Huskies then play six of their next nine games on the road before hosting four straight games in February, including an ESPNU BracketBusters game against a yet-to-be-announced opponent on Feb. 19.

The MAC Tournament first round will be played March 7 at campus sites and will continue March 9-11 in Cleveland.

"It's not how you start out, it's how you end up," Patton said. "We know February and March, those are the months you really have to be playing your best basketball."

DePaul will make a return visit to DeKalb next season, and Patton hopes teams like Missouri will return the favor down the road.

"I think at some point the Convocation Center is an arena that is worthy of having some of those teams come to our place in the future," Patton said. "I think we have to kind of bite the bullet at first, but I think eventually we'll get teams like that to come here and play."

– Jeremy Werner