Northern Illinois down 18-4 at the half!!!

[Bravesfan]

Just for kicks, here is NIU's list of games played this year:

Fri, Nov 9 at Nebraska Omaha L 64-77 -- -- --
Tue, Nov 13 at Valparaiso L 46-69 -- -- --
Sun, Nov 18 Judson Coll. W 72-54 -- -- --
Sat, Nov 24 Loyola Chicago L 46-53 -- -- --
Tue, Nov 27 Ill. Chicago L 46-58 -- -- --
Sat, Dec 1 at Dayton L 43-60 -- -- --
Wed, Dec 5 SIU Edwardsville W 65-54 -- -- --
Fri, Dec 7 at Wis. Milwaukee L 73-80 -- -- --
Sun, Dec 16 at DePaul L 64-69 -- -- --
Wed, Dec 19 at Seattle L 48-75 -- -- --
Sat, Dec 22 at Washington L 57-67 -- -- --
Sat, Dec 29 Massachusetts L 59-64 -- -- --
Wed, Jan 9 at Miami (OH) W 72-61 -- -- --
Sat, Jan 12 Akron L 53-68 -- -- --
Wed, Jan 16 at Ohio L 63-81 -- -- --
Sat, Jan 19 W. Michigan L 34-71 -- -- --
Wed, Jan 23 at Cent. Michigan W 74-61 -- -- --
Sat, Jan 26 at East. Michigan L 25-42 -- -- --


Note one of their four wins came against a non-Division I school in Judson College. And though they have been scoring more points of late (note all the sub 50 point games earlier in the season), the two games surrounding their recent win over the same Central Michigan team we beat earlier in the year are REALLY ugly to say the least! Today notwithstanding, NIU actually accomplished their two MAC wins on the road. This bodes well for NIU as the majority of their remaining games are at home, at least for 3 or 4 more wins.

[tornado]

In a battle of a couple teams in the basement of the MAC...
NIU had yet another horrid offensive game last night losing 57-41 to Bowling Green -
another team that struggles offensively & shoots very poorly, who had won only 3 of their prior 12 games - and had previously not won at all on the road..
Only two NIU players made more than a single basket, and their starters combined for 10-34, and they hit 27% overall.
NIU's home attendance last night was just 708, the smallest home crowd in over a year and one of the 2 smallest home crowds of Mark Montgomery's teniure there..
The fans unfortunately are bailing by the busloads....

as offensively challenged as some of Molinari's teams were - there are a whole lot of NIU fans who want to can Montgomery now,
and maybe go after Molinari now & try to entice him away from his "minimal-wage job" at WIU!

[Mikovio]

Actually until that game NIU was 3-5 and positioned for a 5 seed and bye in the MAC Tournament (The top 5 get byes w/ Toledo ineligible). They have one of the youngest teams in the country and their shooting has just been wildly inconsistent, with the famous 1-for-30 something night followed up by a shocking win over Kent State.

Patton ran the program into the ground and if it weren't for future NBA player Xavier Silas his records would have been even worse than this. The Montgomery hire looks good on paper and I think most fair minded fans know you need to give him a couple more years. AD Compher is far more concerned about football anyway, and won't keep Montgomery on a short leash.

[tornado]

....you make it sound like they're doing well..........
but that's like ISU saying they are only a couple games out of 2nd when they would actually have to vault past 7 teams to get there and are really in 9th place..

Because - NIU's current 3-6 is just a game better than the only team with a worse record in the entire conference, and would BE last place if they were in the other division...
BUT - the bottom of the MAC is so bad that NIU has been able to rack a grand total of just 3 wins since the first week in December - by beating three teams that equally horrid as they are.

[Mikovio]

They're certainly not doing well, but they weren't in the "basement." Obviously, the MAC (especially the MAC West) is bad so they're given opportunities to play themselves into the middle of the pack, as bad as they are.

You can spin it either way. They're a game ahead of the last place teams. But they're also 3rd in their division and in position for the 6 or 7 seed because 2 of the teams they're tied with they beat.