If Huskie basketball coach Jim Molinari had to write a “What I did on my summer vacation?” essay for NIU President John La Tourette (hey, it could happen), he wouldn’t be able to.

Despite it being the off-season, the second-year coach hasn’t been able to take any time off and finds himself as busy as ever.

“I found after my first year that we’re still trying to build a foundation,” Molinari said. “So although a lot of coaches have a down time after the season, we don’t.”

However, Molinari has spent much of the summer focusing on some “R and R.” Not rest and relaxation, but recruiting and refining.

“July is the busiest recruiting month so we’ll be out a lot. We’re losing a lot of players next season so we need a good recruiting year,” Molinari said.

The refinement refers to beefing up a team which found itself frequently out-muscled during last season’s 17-11 campaign.

“We have some players here on campus, which is exciting because it gives them a chance to work with Coach Z (NIU strength and conditioning coach Jim Zielinski) in the weightroom. And he does such a great job, so they’ll have more organized weightlifting in the summer.”

The Huskies will need the added bulk as they prepare to battle for the Mid-Continent Conference (formerly the Association of Mid-Continent Universities) title in NIU’s first year of conference play.

“It (the coming season) will be tougher because now you’re in conference play, the rivalries start, and you’re going on the road all the time.

“We’ve played a lot of (the Mid-Continent teams) and it’s going to be very difficult. The conference proved itself with the performance in the (NCAA) tournament,” Molinari said. Northern Iowa advanced to the third round after knocking off highly-ranked Missouri and Wisconsin-Green Bay beat Southern Illinois in the NIT.

“I told our young men that Green Bay is the favorite. They have most of their key people back and they have the tournament at home,” Molinari said.

Molinari has also been reflecting on the growing collegiate athletics reform movement.

“I think the period of the 90’s is going to be the period of NCAA reform in college athletics,” Molinari predicted. “I think you’re going to see (a limit) on the amount of time you can spend with your athletes. I think we’ll see some changes and I’m for that.

“The only rule change I was against was going from 28 games to 25. I think we should keep basketball at 28 games because the players work so hard and the games are fun for them,” Molinari said.

Although the games might be fun for the players, Molinari, who was recently named in Basketball Times magazine as one of last season’s top 11 “coaching gems,” is in no rush to start prowling the Chick Evans Field House coaching box soon.

“I can wait for the season to start,” Molinari said. “Everyday I try to focus on what we can do as a staff and what our players can do to make this a better program that day.

“I try to do it one day at a time because if you look at it overall, it can get overwhelming. I was excited about what happened our first year, now the challenge is how we can improve our program.”

Basketball hasn’t been the most important thing on the 35 year-old coach’s mind—Molinari and wife Carol recently welcomed their second son.