Jim Rosborough wants a victory and he wants one now.

The second-year NIU men’s basketball coach wants to see an end to the Huskies’ current three-game losing streak when NIU travels to Toledo Wednesday at 7 p.m.

“The losing nicks at you,” Rosborough said. “Once it starts it’s hard to stop.”

While he praised the performances of seniors Rodney Davis and John Culbertson, Rosborough hoped to see inspired play from the upperclassmen as a whole.

“It boils down to what our senior kids want to make out of this season,” Rosborough said.

Guard Randy Norman is one NIU senior who has carried his weight recently. The 6-foot-3 sixth man has averaged 17.5 points in the Huskies’ last four games, including seven 3-pointers in the loss at Butler.

“He’s a good shooter,” Rosborough said of Norman. “The 3-pointer is not that far a distance. Butler was zoning us and the shot was there.”

But Norman and his Huskie mates will not be seeing many zone defenses when they face Toledo. The Rockets, who have fallen to 9-4 after an impressive 7-1 start, rely on an aggressive man-to-man defense.

First-year Toledo coach Jay Eck, who left Wisconsin-Stevens Point after posting 22-7 and 23-6 records his final two seasons, has already lifted the Rockets above the expectations of most observers. The talent returning from last year’s 11-16 Toledo squad was suspect, but the incoming freshman backcourt of Keith Wade and Tike Branch has sparked the Rockets to great heights—if not great height.

Wade’s 10.9 points per game leads Toledo as do the 19 steals contributed by Branch. However, the 6-foot-1 Wade and the 6-foot Branch do not contribute much to the Rockets’ overall size.

“Johnny Orr of Iowa State said he has the smallest team in the country,” Eck said. “Well, we might be No. 2.”

The rest of the Rockets’ starters include forwards Fred King (6-4, Jr.) and Andy Fisher (6-7, Jr.) and center Chad Keller (6-6 So.), the team rebounding leader at 6.7 per game.

So how does Toledo stop the bigger Huskies?

“We try to mug ‘em coming out of the locker room,” Eck said jokingly.

Though Rosborough is looking to the seniors to pull NIU out of its current dry spell, the play of freshmen Donnell Thomas and Andrew Wells could play an equally vital role.

Thomas has averaged 11.2 ppg and is in a virtual three-way tie for the team rebounding lead with 7.5 pg. But keeping opponents from scoring has been a problem for the 6-foot-5 forward.

“Donnell could play better, particularly defensively,” Rosborough said, though he was quick to point out his approval of Thomas’s offensive skills.

The 6-foot-6 Wells has given the Huskies 6.0 rebounds per game coming off the bench despite playing an average of 14 minutes per game. The freshman forward has led NIU in rebounding on two occasions this year and scored a personal-best 10 points against Eastern Illinois.