With a 9-21 season leaving an awfully bitter taste in the mouths of Huskie fans, it is safe to say that expectations across the board were not met. 

As a dedicated basketball fan, and Huskie myself, here’s a closer look on the three biggest things that went wrong during the men’s basketball 2025-2026 season. 

Poor shooting efficiency  

The most glaring problem was the inability to shoot the basketball. The Huskies finished the season shooting just 41% from the field, 31% from beyond the arc and a rather concerning 66% from the free throw line. For a team that is clearly lacking size – with just two active players in the rotation over 6-foot-5 – an emphasis on shooting efficiency should have been the first course of action in the beginning of the season and beyond. 

While these shooting statistics may seem like the run of the mill “basketball nerd” stats, NIU was outshot in 23 of its 30 games, only winning four games in which they found themselves in this predicament – Central Michigan, UMass ,Georgia State  and Buffalo . 

Tight rotation taking a toll 

Shooting struggles went far beyond simple gym mechanics for this Huskie team though, roster management played a key feature in allowing such issues to become a reality. Former head coach Rashon Burno relied on a tight seven player rotation, who accounted for 5,055 of the 6,000 total minutes played in the entire season – a whopping 84.25%. 

Burno’s old rotation surely had its strong suits, showing flashes of defensive success including an 11-steal 76-59 win against the Loyola Ramblers and a 20-point victory against the University of Louisiana Monroe , forcing 13 turnovers. Despite this, defensive successes proved not to be enough to bring wins back to the Convocation center.

The lack of rotational flexibility coach Burno executed seemed to be a problematic decision to say the least. Allowing the same players – despite their raw talent and potential – to repeat the same offensive mistakes with minimal modifications was simply poor coaching throughout the entire season. 

Missing an ‘it’ factor

Finally, the Huskies lacked a consistent offensive centerpiece.In other words, NIU lacked a guy who could level out the efficiency of Burno’s rotational unit as a whole. 

Sophomore guard Makhai Valentine was the closest thing Huskie fans and MAC viewers got to see to this in the past season, averaging 13.1 points per game while shooting 39% from the field, and 76%  from the charity stripe. 

With that being said, expecting a young sophomore to consistently be the driving force of a Division 1 collegiate offense while the rest of the team is shooting poorly and averaging a high 14.9 turnovers per game is not a dependable plan.

Ultimately, the combination of inefficient shooting, shaky rotation and absence of a go-to offensive leader proved to be formidable issues that the Huskies could not overcome. As a unit, the only way is up from here. 

With new head coach Matt Majkrzak hired during a pivotal conference switch to the Horizon League, the time to address these dire issues is now.