First MAC team ever to have 5 twenty loss seasons in a row. MAC has been around for 63 years and NIU does something no MAC team has ever done.
I think I speak for all Huskie fans.....When does football start?
Well, we do play more games now. Back in the 60's and 70's, schools played 24 games and they were done unless they were one of the 24 NCAA teams or the 16 (I think) NIT teams. It was hard to lose 20 when a losing team only got to play 24 games. Now we are playing 31 plus at least one conference tournament game.
Were talking under .400 ball over 5 years. With all the high school talent in Chicago, NIU can't make it work in hoops. Northern Illinois is a great football program for the MAC. Despite the basketball program they are great for the MAC because of football. NIU has to be looking for a long term solution at coach. Patton came from the Big 12 and has been a major bust.
It's also Patton's 5th 20-loss season, one being his last at Colorado. He is 0-4 in the MAC tourney, making NIU the only school without a victory in the tourney during his tenure in DeKalb. Just a brutal hire by Jim Phillips.
Waiting to hear the announcement about his firing has been by far the most exciting part of this season. It could be any hour now!
Where's Allen Rayhorn when you need him?
(03-09-2011 12:31 AM)niuliger09 Wrote: [ -> ]He is 0-4 in the MAC tourney, making NIU the only school without a victory in the tourney during his tenure in DeKalb.
Wow, that's a really stark statistic. Four years, no tourney wins?
(03-08-2011 11:17 PM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote: [ -> ]First MAC team ever to have 5 twenty loss seasons in a row. MAC has been around for 63 years and NIU does something no MAC team has ever done.
No other team has ever done it more than three times in a row (UB, UT, CMU) although Toledo has a current streak of 3. I did a little research and found some interesting results. Every team in the MAC has lost 20 games in the last decade except for Kent (1978) and Miami (1989).
Buffalo and NIU have lost 20 games 9 times each. The directional Michigan schools all tied for 3rd with 8 each. The rest of the schools are lagging far behind with Toledo (4), BG and Ohio (3), Ball State, Kent St and Akron (2), and Miami (1). Ball State hadn't done it until 2007 but they had two in a row in the wake of the RT mess.
When researching this I came across a fact that really shocked me. Central has only had 2 seasons above .500 in the last 23 years. The first five seasons of this streak were under Charlie Coles and Keith Dambrot.
(03-09-2011 10:03 AM)Redwingtom Wrote: [ -> ]Where's Allen Rayhorn when you need him?
Now there's name that's a blast from the past.
How about Kenny Battle? The guy was an absolute star and NIU was going places with him. Then the AD made an idiotic move by firing the coach (who coaxed Battle to sign with the Huskies rather than a high-major team).
The result? Battle transfers to Illinois and makes it to the Final Four. NIU pretty much falls off the basketball map.
With regard to the bad basketball played in Mount Pleasant over the past two decades: I'm sure glad my stay at CMU occurred during the mid-70s!!!
Finally, a record for futility not involving EMU!
(03-09-2011 01:06 PM)Okie Chippewa Wrote: [ -> ]With regard to the bad basketball played in Mount Pleasant over the past two decades: I'm sure glad my stay at CMU occurred during the mid-70s!!!
When I got to Ohio, Central, Miami and Toledo battled it out for the top spot nearly every year. That all ended when Jeff Tropf and his pornstar mustache graduated.
(03-08-2011 11:54 PM)Big_Man Wrote: [ -> ]I think I speak for all Huskie fans.....When does football start?
Thankfully baseball has!
Wow, I didn't realize NIU was THAT bad. Yikes!
I still say that with the right leadership, NIU can be a basketball powerhouse in the MAC. They are located in a hotbed of preps talent, have one of the nicer facilities in the MAC, and are 20-30 minutes away from the western suburbs of Chicago. NIU gets pretty decent media coverage in the Chicago market, far better than any MAC school gets from urban media.
Remember how many years NIU toiled with bad football, then it turned around and they’ve been competitive almost every year. I think if the Huskies can get the right coach, all of the other pieces are in place.
It took two last second shots by Akron to give us game one in our three game streak but we have a shot at number four next year- although it will be with two different coaches. I don't think we'll get the consecutive twenty loss record though. Next year and the year after look MUCH brighter.
(03-10-2011 08:39 AM)FlashFan Wrote: [ -> ]I still say that with the right leadership, NIU can be a basketball powerhouse in the MAC. They are located in a hotbed of preps talent, have one of the nicer facilities in the MAC, and are 20-30 minutes away from the western suburbs of Chicago. NIU gets pretty decent media coverage in the Chicago market, far better than any MAC school gets from urban media.
NIU has been saying this for 50 years.
But outside of some recent football success, and specifically in regards to our MAC years and all athletics, what you posted above has not led to MAC titles or even moderate success within conference.
How much longer will NIU parrot the above before they act like it's true? Or, maybe this whole "proximity to Chicago" is a line of BS fed to us dummy fans, who are just
waiting for the next state champion track star or a 4 star Public League running back to commit to NIU, stay and play for 4 year, and lead NIU to a couple banners.
We'd be better off tricking star athletes from outside the Midwest to sign with us without a campus visit. This is how the tennis team had some success in the MCC years ago - play awesome tennis in Newfoundland, come to NIU because we are close to Chicago!
(03-08-2011 11:17 PM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote: [ -> ]First MAC team ever to have 5 twenty loss seasons in a row. MAC has been around for 63 years and NIU does something no MAC team has ever done.
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Come on. Don't get overly dramatic. I would bet you that every MAC team has fired at least one head coach. It's not just NIU.
Well, if what I saw on the MAC website is accurate, NIU's long nightmare is almost over. Said Patton will not return.
There is hope, NIU fans.
(03-10-2011 01:06 PM)MileHighBronco Wrote: [ -> ]Well, if what I saw on the MAC website is accurate, NIU's long nightmare is almost over. Said Patton will not return.
There is hope, NIU fans.
Yes. He is gone. Of course we still have to pay him sme $300,000+ for next year but now we can start over.