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No. 18 Gonzaga entertains road-weary Northern Illinois on Monday

jim meehan, the spokesman-review, spokane, wash.
·4 min read

Dec. 12—In basketball and lyrical terms, Northern Illinois has been everywhere, man, the Huskies have been everywhere.

They're on the tail end of eight straight away/neutral-site games accounting for roughly 16,000 travel miles. Their next stop probably won't be the most hospitable.

The Huskies visit No. 18 Gonzaga, which owns the nation's longest active home winning streak at 70, on Monday. Since 1985, only Arizona with 71 straight from 1987-92, has had a longer streak.

NIU's last trip to the state of Washington went great. The Huskies knocked off Washington in last year's season opener. NIU's recent trip to the Inland Northwest didn't go as well. Ten days ago, the Huskies (3-6) suffered their most lopsided defeat of the season, 84-47, to Idaho in Moscow.

Gonzaga has piled up road miles, too, with trips to Frisco, Texas (exhibition loss to Tennessee), to San Diego (64-63 win over Michigan State), to Austin (93-74 loss to Texas), to Portland (2-1 in three games in the PK85) and South Dakota (64-63 loss to Baylor).

The Zags (7-3) have one more long nonconference trip remaining when they face No. 8 Alabama, which is sure to climb when the new AP poll is released Monday after winning at No. 1 Houston on Saturday in Birmingham.

Gonzaga has built some momentum since stumbling against Baylor with home wins over Kent State and Washington. The Zags would like to continue that trend against Northern Illinois as they navigate Finals Week with an eye on Saturday's showdown.

GU will be heavy favorites against the Huskies, whose wins have come against Division II Purdue Northwest, Long Island (1-7) and Eastern Illinois (2-9). Northern Illinois, minus four players due to injury/illness, dropped its season opener to D-II Illinois Springfield.

Still, the Huskies possess a par of high-scoring guards and an aggressive defense that forces 14.7 turnovers per game. The Zags, at times in an arduous nonconference schedule, have had issues with turnovers and containing opposing backcourts.

They've improved in both categories, including limiting turnovers to average of 11.7 over the last six games. They were solid defensively against Baylor's and Kent State's talented starting guards.

"They (the Huskies) have some really aggressive, quick guards that get after you," said assistant coach Brian Michaelson, mentioning a common trait of GU opponents this season. "Obviously Baylor had that, Kent State had that.

"They have some guards that can really shoot the ball. That's how they get you spread out and then they have an ability to take you off the ball. They play a deep rotation so we're going to have to be really dialed into personnel. Defensively, the mix it up, but they've had long stretches of pressure and picking up full court, so obviously we're going to have to handle the ball and take great care of it."

Mid-American Conference preseason favorite Kent State threatened to end Gonzaga's home-court winning streak, but the Zags closed with an 11-0 for a 73-66 victory last Monday. Northern Illinois, under second-year coach Rashon Burno, was picked 12th (last) in the preseason poll after last year's 9-21 campaign, 6-14 in the MAC (tied for ninth).

Junior guard Keshawn Williams (17.4 points) and sophomore David Coit (14) account for a large chunk of NIU's 69.4 points per game. Williams, who played at Tulsa as a freshman, ranks seventh in the MAC in scoring. The 5-foot-11 Coit averaged 30.6 points last season at Atlantic Cape Community College in New Jersey.

Zarique Nutter, a 6-6 sophomore wing, contributes 12.5 points and 5.4 boards. He had 18 points and 15 boards in a loss to Georgia Tech. Nine different players have made at least one start for the Huskies, who visit VCU on Saturday before finally returning to home to face Albany on Dec. 20.

Northern Illinois is 3-33 all-time against ranked opponents with the most recent victory in January, 2019, against No. 14 Buffalo in coach Nate Oats' final season. Oats has directed Alabama to a 165-80 record in the last three-plus seasons, including a 91-82 victory over the Zags in last year's Battle in Seattle.