The saying, “home for the holidays” will take on a very significant meaning for the NIU men’s basketball team this year.

Southern Illinois (Dec. 17), Minnesota (Dec. 23), Rice (Dec. 28) and Iona (Jan. 7) all will visit Chick Evans Field House during the Christmas break for 7:05 p.m. starts.

“Those are all very good teams, very good games and it should be exciting,” NIU head coach Jim Rosborough said.

SIU will be led by junior college transfer Freddie McSwain. The 6-foot-5 guard scored 24 points in a 102-81 rout of Rollie Massimino’s then-Top-20 Villanova Wildcats Nov. 26. Since then, the Salukis have played inconsistently and have dropped to a 4-3 record.

“When we beat Villanova we did everything right,” SIU head coach Rich Herrin said. “Every coaching decision worked. Every substitution. We whipped them with the press. They fouled. We made free throws.”

Other weapons at Herrin’s disposal include 6-foot guard Kai Nurnberger, 6-foot-8 Rick Shipley and 6-foot-11 center Tony Harvey.

“That should be a very, very good game,” Rosborough said. “We’re coming off finals and what effect that will have I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of teams get those finals over, and they’re so relieved they play their best ball of the year. So, that will be a good one.”

From there, the Huskies will head into Chicago for the UIC McClendon Classic at the UIC Pavilion Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 19-20. NIU will open the tournament against the Tennessee State Tigers (1-3) at 8:30 p.m. Monday, while Illinois-Chicago faces Morgan State in the first game at 6:30. Tuesday’s matchups will depend on the outcomes of the first-round games.

“I would really hope that any of our students that have an opportunity and aren’t doing anything those nights would come down and see us play,” Rosborough said. “We’d love to have them there, and it ought to be a good tournament.”

Big Ten opponent Minnesota (2-1) will roll into DeKalb two days before Christmas, and Rosborough said he is concerned but hopeful that enough students will be in town to give the Huskies the home-court advantage.

“I would hope that the students will come back and join us and that we’ll have a heck of a crowd in here,” Rosborough said. “I hope Santa Claus comes down the chimney that night.”

When Rice (2-3), out of the Southwest Conference, visits the fieldhouse five days later, Rosborough will be reunited with Owls’ coach Scott Thompson, who played under the Huskies’ coach at Iowa. Both NIU and Rice prefer an up-tempo pace, and fans could be in store for a high-scoring affair.

“We like to push the ball with intelligence,” Thompson said. “In the past, we’ve used the 3-pointer quite a bit. We don’t like to walk the ball up court—let’s put it that way.”

Iona, at 1-4, will hit DeKalb Jan. 7 for the Huskies’ first game of 1989. Six-foot-seven forward Nestor Payne and 5-foot-11 guard Glenn Grant will lead the Gaels into the first-ever meeting between the two ballclubs.

Throw in road games against Eastern Illinois (1-1 before Dec. 5) on Jan. 9 and Nebraska (3-2) on Jan. 12, and Huskie fans will have a pretty good stocking full of Christmas goodies to look forward to.