(03-19-2024 06:07 PM)Rawdog10 Wrote: The MAC isn’t a multi-bid conference. So we’d have to win the MAC tournament to get in. Never getting an at-large. NIU has been a cellar dweller in the MAC for decades (?), so the chance of winning the MAC tournament are extremely remote. NIU does not support basketball and probably never will. We’re a football school and should focus on that. You really can’t have both.
No disrespect intended Rawdog, but I would guess you may have been a fan just prior to joining The Dog Pound in 2004. As a result it's no surprise you think of NIU as "a football school." NIU is a mid-major and post-season basketball for mid-majors is an entirely different animal than post-season (P6) football.
Bill Mallory's Huskies went to the Cal Bowl in 1983, Jerry Pettibone's 1989 crew (9-2 as an independent) got screwed with very few bowls available. Since your time the ever-expanding number of bowls has played a part in the Huskies making a bowl game in 04, 06, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 21, and 23.
However, John McDougal's 1981-82 team was the first modern-era men's basketball NCAA qualifier, Jim Molinari used Jim Rosborough's recruits to make it in 1990-91 as an at-large, and Brian Hammel's 1993-94 squad also earned a berth. So prior to what you knew, Huskie fans used to believe we were "a basketball school" and the MAC was better known for hoops long before MACtion became a thing. Beginning to doubt I'll be lucky enough to be around, but success in most things is circular so what goes around comes around. Some day the Huskies will dance again. Go H-u-s-k-i-e-s!
/
Will NIU ever be in the Big Dance again?
