DeKALB – Northern Illinois athletic director Sean Frazier has some lofty hopes for crowds for the Huskies basketball programs this season.
Lofty might be an understatement.
The men’s basketball team is coming off its best season in two decades, and the women’s team is entering its second season under coach Lisa Carlsen and the optimistic Frazier said Huskies basketball is heading in the right direction and hopes more fans get on board for the 2016-17 season.
He pointed to the crowds that show up for the basketball games between DeKalb and Sycamore High School – which frequently bring a large crowd, around 4,000 or so, when they play annually at the NIU Convocation Center.
“Success for me would be a sold out arena,” Frazier said. “When I go in there and see the amount of people who are at a DeKalb-Sycamore high school game – I live in the community, my daughter goes to DeKalb High School. When I come to the DeKalb-Sycamore game and I walk into that stadium, that’s what I would want for our men’s and women’s programs.”
If there is a sellout this season at the NIU Convocation Center (capacity: 9,100), it would be a monumental achievement for Frazier and NIU.
Last season, the season-high attendance for men’s basketball was 3,457 during a 80-79 win over Akron on Feb. 14. They averaged 1,470 during 19 home games last season – going an impressive 18-1.
The record for attendance for men’s basketball is 8,041 in the opener against DePaul on Nov. 23, 2002.
One of the major obstacles for Frazier has been the lack of Power 5 schools coming to the Convo Center. This season, the only Power 5 school on the schedule for the men’s team is when it travels to Minnesota on Dec. 11. Last season, the Huskies played at Missouri and at Ohio State.
Frazier admits he didn’t get close to scheduling any other Power 5 schools and said the Huskies are likely a year or two away and, he hopes to build up a better resume with home-and-home meetings with other quality Group of 5 teams – also saying they probably won’t dip down to play Division II and D-III schools. This season the Huskies play one D-II school (Illinois-Springfield) and two NAIA programs (Roosevelt and Olivet Nazarene).
However, he said they are getting close to setting up a possible meeting with a Power 5 team in a Chicago-area venue – whether that’s the United Center, Sears Centre or another arena.
“Very close,” said Frazier, who wants both a men and women’s game as part of the deal. “As in, we’re going to finish some things up and when I sign the contract, we’ll make it happen. I don’t know if next year will happen because of schedules, but that is in our immediate future.”
As for as what’s happening on the court, the men’s team is coming off a 21-win season that ended in the eight-team Vegas 16 tournament, the first postseason appearance for the Huskies since 1995-96. NIU coach Mark Montgomery, who is in his sixth year, brings back a bevy of talented sophomores – including Marshawn Wilson (11.0 points a game), Levi Bradley (6.7), Jaylen Key (5.6) and Laytwan Porter (4.9) – and seniors Marin Maric (11.9 points, 8.4 rebounds a game) and Aaric Armstead (10.9).
The Huskies also bring back senior guard Dontel Highsmith, who has missed more than two seasons because of an ACL injury.
“I know our offense is getting better because we scored over 73 points a game (last year) and I remember Year 2 (2012-13) we had that 4-point (half) at Eastern and that 5-point (half) at Dayton, so we can finally forget about that,” Montgomery laughed at media day Wednesday.
For Carlsen and the women’s team, they return their top six scorers in Ally Lehman (13.5), Kelly Smith (10.7), Mikayla Voigt (10.7), Courtney Woods (10.3), Cassidy Glenn (9.3) and Jazmine Harris (8.0). Carlsen, who was hired on June 30, 2015, said having a full offseason with the team has been highly beneficial.
“I think that’s a huge part of it,” said Carlsen, who went 11-19 last season. “The sport of collegiate basketball is a 12-month sport. It’s something we have access to our kids consistently and I think that consistent access makes it that much easier to transform the group into what you want them to look like.”