It was shortly after Northern Illinois had dismantled Idaho State 92-52 on Dec. 17 that junior Mike Hidden was asked if his 16-point performance and fellow junior Brian Molis` nine-point game were a sign of things to come after this season.
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Hidden matter-of-factly replied, ”We`ll worry about next year after the NCAA tournament.”
Mind you, this was just the sixth game of the season, which put the Huskies at 5-1. Thursday night, they routed Valparaiso 72-42 to improve to 19-2 with a Mid-Continent Conference-leading 10-1 mark.
Talk of NIU receiving an NCAA invitation, regardless of whether it wins the conference tournament at Wisconsin-Green Bay in March, is picking up steam.
”We`re going to get two (conference) teams in the NCAA, mark my words,” Western Illinois coach Jack Margenthaler said last Monday night, following Northern`s 59-57 victory over the Leathernecks in De Kalb. ”If we don`t, it`s a huge travesty.”
”I don`t talk about the NCAA to my players,” said Northern coach Jim Molinari. ”Every game we win could help us, but we talk about winning the conference.”
Northern can take a huge step toward securing an NCAA bid in the next week. To do so, however, the Huskies must get past a tough Eastern Illinois on Monday, a tougher Green Bay on Saturday and an even tougher 15th-ranked Nebraska next Monday-all on the road.
”If we win one of those games I would be very pleased, and I mean that,” said Molinari. ”Eastern will be difficult, Green Bay very difficult and Nebraska . . . impossible.”
Not that the road has been unkind to NIU, which has won a school-record eight straight away from Evans Field House. And if the Huskies pull out two of three, or even all three on the road, it will be their defense that is the difference.
In their last six games, the Huskies have limited opponents to 29.8-percent shooting from the field (96 of 322).