The number 80 has significant meaning for the NIU men’s basketball team. A meaning it would just as soon forget.

During the last two year’s of head coach Jim Rosborough’s reign, the Huskies have lost nearly every game when their opponent has reached the 80-point mark.

“There seems to be a moral to that story—I’m still trying to find out what it is,” Rosborough said at Media Day Wednesday. “If you’re giving up 80 points and you don’t win, something has to give.

“We’ve got to stop the points allowed. The field goal percentage shot against us—we’ve got to cut that down. That needs to be done through defensive pressure, intensity and toughness.”

As a probable solution to the lacking defense, Rosborough assigned assistant coach Robert Collins to handle the defenses this year. Collins’ main conquest is to do away with the “strange number”.

If we can hold our opponents down 15-20 points below their (field goal) average, we can win some games,” Collins said. “We really need to hold them (opponents) down to 70 or less to win some games. It’s just that strange number (80) that stood out with us.”

Rosborough said the two biggest adjustments that will be made in the half-court defense from last season are fronting of the posts and preventing the opposing team from moving the ball around the perimeter.

“We had some big strong horses in the past with (Mike) Grabner and (John) Culbertson,” Rosborough said, “and we felt that maybe they could move people off the blocks.

“This year, we’re better athletes. We’ve got some beef in the two freshmen (6-foot-9, 250-pound Brent Varner and 6-foot-8, 214-pound Randy Fens) coming in.

“We are going to make it tough for people to reverse the basketball. We’re going to use our quickness and get some good anticipated steals, and then get our big kids down the floor and do the things that are exciting.”

Collins said this task is feasible with this squad’s talent level.

“We have a lot more quickness at our low post,” Collins said. “The defense will provide a lot more opportunity for the 3-on-2 and the 2-on-1 breaks.”

While Collins said there weren’t any specific key players for the new defense, he said that some will arise as their time comes. “You never know what’s burning inside of a kid,” Collins said. “But the ones that excel will step up.”