A 65-37 setback to Minnesota was the last time the NIU men’s basketball team lost. At the time, Christmas was still 24 days away.

Ten straight victories later, the Huskies find themselves with one of the best records in college basketball with an 11-1 mark, including 4-0 in the Mid-Continent Conference.

“I’m extremely surprised. I never dreamed we’d be 11 and one,” admitted Huskies head coach Jim Molinari.

“Once in a while you get off to an exceptional start and that’s what happened. We play hard, but we played hard last year; the difference is we’re a little more confident this year, our skills are continuing to develop and we have more depth.”

Included in those 11 victories are the two wins that gave NIU its first in-season tournament title since 1971-72.

The Huskies, thanks largely to Donald Whiteside’s 18 points, drilled Alcorn State 75-53 in early December to advance to the championship game of the Southwest Texas State Coca-Cola Jowers Jamboree.

In the title game, Donnell Thomas’ 22 points and 12 rebounds led NIU to a 69-53 championship game victory over host Southwest Texas State.

“The tournament in Texas was a great start for us, because when we beat Alcorn State and Southwest Texas on their home court we developed some confidence,” Molinari said. “The encouraging thing for me was also that it was the first thing that this group of seniors ever won in terms of a championship.”

NIU then returned home for the last time in 1990 and clobbered Idaho State 92-52. “We came back and played well: we showed that we could come back and not be satisfied (with the tourney title),” Molinari said.

NIU went back on the road for matches against Rice and Chicago State to close out 1990. “Rice was a key game. We went there riding a four-game winning streak,” Molinari said of the contest that ended with NIU on top 76-66. “This was a game they (Rice) really wanted and we were able to go on the road, and we had some confidence from the Texas tournament, and we played extremely well.”

Against Chicago State, the Huskies staggered against the hapless Cougars but pulled out an 84-60 win behind Andrew Wells’ 20 points. “We really didn’t play well, maybe because a lot of our players were going home and it’s hard to concentrate,” Molinari said.

The Huskies then opened 1991 at Chick Evans Field House on Jan. 2 and handled the UIC Flames 65-45 in front of 4,402 fans. NIU handed UIC only its third loss in 11 games. “We came back and worked really hard for the UIC game. All the pressure was on us; it was our first conference game,” Molinari said. “I think this game was one we had to have. It was close early but then we had a great defensive stand.”

It was back to the road for the Huskies who topped Northern Iowa 75-64 and Western Illinois 69-68. Thomas led NIU in both games with 22 and 19 points, respectively.

“We played extremely well (against NI). In the second half we can’t play much better than we did offensively: we shot 75 percent and that was the key.

“At Western we struggled and they got hot and hit some three-point shots. But I was proud of our team: we showed a lot of character in coming back to win,” Molinari said.

In their last outing, Thursday against Valparaiso in the fieldhouse, 1,293 fans watched NIU win 79-55.

“Against Valpo we came back and that was a difficult game for us. We started out really slowly and then came back in the second half to win,” Molinari said. Thomas again was high-point man for NIU with 16 points. The “D-Train” also pulled down seven rebounds to lead the Huskies.

NIU’s surprising 11-1 mark going into Tuesday’s highly anticipated match at the fieldhouse against DePaul is largely due to two factors, according to Molinari.

“Overall our defense has been pretty constant, and you have to play good defense to win on the road,” said Molinari, “and we have seniors who are giving us great leadership.”

But Molinari wants NIU fans to know that the Huskies’ sizzling start is more of an exception than a rule.

“What we’re going through in college basketball doesn’t happen very often. You usually don’t win 10 of 11 games and have only four home games,” Molinari said. “But that’s a credit to our young men. We may not do this at Northern again for a long time.”