Boise State 80, Northern Illinois 51: Or, HUMANITARIAN BOWL PRECURSOR

by Matt Sussman on Nov 30, 2010 12:08 AM CST

I still have no empirical proof that all the bowls (tied together by the Underworld Bowl Federation) will agree to put NIU and Boise in the same bowl game for my pure enjoyment, but at least they played in basketball in DeKalb. But it was all Broncos. In fact, it was so much Broncos ... Xavier Silas only finished with nine points. I know!

Bryan Hall had 10 for the Huskies in just 19 minutes to lead the MACsters, but once BSU went up by 12 points with 7:37 left in the first half, they never relented a double-digit lead. The Broncs shot 57.1 percent, the Huskies 30.2. There you go.

That's gotta suck to be Boise State basketball. I mean ... anytime you have a great football school, hoops gets overshadowed. At least Auburn's hoops team is atrocious this year ... but Boise basketball is 6-0 in the early season against weak competition. But they are pummeling everyone. I don't think Idaho is ready for another dream season just yet. They're still getting over this nightmare.

But back to NIU hoops: this is just about what I expected out of this team when Silas had a C-minus game. And, look, college kids are going to have these types of nights. There's really nobody else on the team that can step up and dump 20 into the rim. But they have to figure out how to make sure that games like these don't get out of hand. They need higher percentage shots — the guards were trying to create things, and it looked like the tall guys weren't involved enough.

NIU is demoted to 2-3, and their next game is Sunday (11/2) at 1-4 DePaul.

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NIU hoops - "nothing to see here, folks, just move along"

Worst thing that ever happened to the NIU hoops program was the opening of the Convocation Center arena – the place is a morgue. They should have stayed in the old fieldhouse, which could be a rocking venue with a mere 2,000 spectators on hand.

by marksstc on Nov 30, 2010 10:06 AM CST reply actions

They had to build the convo center.

Just to compete with the rest of the conference. Now, if you really want to know what went wrong with the program, you might want to look at the hiring and tenure of Ricardo Patton.

Complete disaster in every way possible.

Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid.

- John Wayne

by Tackle Box on Nov 30, 2010 11:41 AM CST up reply actions

A nice venue/ A nothing coach

NIU’s hoops has gone “nowhere” for quite some time now.
Enter Rob Judson from Illinois…..quite honestly, I was pumped about his arrival. His performance was less than inspiring.
Enter Ricardo Patton from the Rockeis….same old story.
I see this as Patton’s last season at NIU…….where does that leave the program? quite honestly, I don’t know……BUT please , don’t lay it off on the Convo

by BigDHuskie on Nov 30, 2010 9:05 PM CST reply actions

It is a nice arena

…but every time I go to a game there, it almost feels like NIU is the visiting team. I realize the coaching and recruiting have been terrible, but even with bad teams in the past, the field house was a great place to watch a game and feel some enthusiasm from the crowd. The convo may not be the problem, but it sure ain’t the solution, either.

by marksstc on Dec 2, 2010 4:50 PM CST up reply actions