July—tanning on the beach, sunglasses melting on your car’s dashboard, and trips to Wal-Mart—not because you need another spatula or a shirt that was outdated the moment it came out of the factory—but because it’s air conditioned.

What better time to start thinking about NIU Huskies basketball? Alright, basketball doesn’t exactly fit in with the previous images, but with the recent finalization of NIU’s men’s basketball schedule, hoops junkies now have something to look forward to besides quarter beer night at McMollynesias. Have your pencils and calendars ready.

The exhibition season starts on Tuesday, Nov. 13 (just 125 days away!) against the Sydney, Australia Kings at 7:05 at Chick Evans Field House. What? You have plans that night?! Well don’t worry, the Huskies will be back in action one week later against the always tough, opponent to-be-announced (who went undefeated last year, led by their star center: player to be named later).

To be serious, the Huskies will start getting serious Nov. 27 when they open their season at Orono, Maine against the University of Maine Black Bears. NIU invades Big Ten (or is it Big Eleven?) country to take on Minnesota, Dec. 1 before Huskies fans will be able to see their heroes in person at the “Dog House”.

NIU’s home-opener is Dec. 4 against the University of Evansville at 7:05 P.M. All 12 home games, with the exception of Jan. 31 against Eastern Illinois at 8:00 P.M., will have a 7:05 starting time.

After the home opener, NIU travels to Southwest Texas State for a four-team tournament, stays down south for a match against Rice University in Houston, hits the Windy City for a battle against Chicago State, and finally begins Mid-Continent (formerly the AMCU) Conference play on Jan. 2, when it hosts University of Illinois-Chicago.

With two exceptions, the Huskies, in their first year of Mid-Continent competition, round out their schedule against conference teams. The first exception is the most noteworthy as national power DePaul treks to the cornfields (or at that time of year, the snow dunes) of DeKalb Jan. 15.

The game has added significance beside the fact that the Blue Demons are the biggest “name” team to come to the fieldhouse in years. Huskies coach Jim Molinari cut his teeth at the Chicago school while serving as an assistant for 11 years.

Revenge might also play a part in the contest—DePaul drubbed the Huskies in NIU’s season finale last season and effectively killed any NIU chances for an NIT bid.

The other non Mid-Continent game in NIU’s remaining schedule is Feb. 18 when the Huskies travel to Lincoln, Neb. to take on the Cornhuskers.

The “second-season” begins March 3, as Wisconsin-Green Bay hosts the Mid-Continent tournament, the winner of which will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Head Huskie Jim Molinari knows his squad (17-11 last season including 13-1 at home) will have their work cut out for them this winter.

“It will be very challenging. As I told our team, we have only 12 home games and two of those are DePaul and Evansville plus the conference. I told our players that even now they’re preparing for the season (because) it’s always been my philosophy that teams are made during the season but players are made during the off-season.”

This season’s schedule may be less of a reflection of Molinari’s scheduling philosophy as it is a reflection of past commitments. “It’s tough for us,” Molinari said, “because we still owed some games.

“We really haven’t had a chance to schedule yet (but) I’m happy that next year we’ll be out of a lot of games that we owe, two-for-ones (two road games for NIU in exchange for one home game) like Nebraska, Rice and Minnesota, and we’ll be able to do our own scheduling.”

So although it might be too early to put away that tanning lotion, it might not be a bad idea to start practicing that “air-ball” chant—after all, the home-opener is only 3,504 hours from 7:00 P.M. Wednesday.