NIU football to hold second media day

DeKalb | Today at Soldier Field, the Huskies will participate in their second media day of the year.

Head coach Dave Doeren along with Athletic Director, Jeff Compher and a group of NIU players will be in attendance.

NIU attended media day last Tuesday at Ford Field, in Detroit, where guarterback Jordan Lynch and defensive end Sean Progar were also present.

Fans can follow the event at NIUhuskies.com and get updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Oruche represents Nigeria in Olympics

DeKalb | Former NIU men’s basketball player, Richard Oruche, will be participating in the Olympics this year as a representative of the Nigerian basketball team.

Oruche played for the Huskies from 2005-2007. He was a redshirt his freshman season and appeared in 18 games during the 2006-2007 season.

Currently, the Bensenville native is playing professionally in Portugal for the Associação Académica de Coimbra, where he is averaging 15.4 points per game.

This is the first time the Nigerian team has qualified for the Olympics. They finished third in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Caracas, Venezuela, to get into the games.

In Nigeria’s clinching game, they defeated the Dominican Republic, 88-73, and Oruche scored two points in the contest.

In the latest FIBA rankings, Nigeria was ranked No. 21.

July 29, Nigeria defeated Tunisia in its first game of the Olympics, 60-56. Oruche came off the bench, playing three minutes, but recorded no stats in the game.

Nigeria plays its next game against Lithuania today at 8:30 a.m. Their next game will be against the U.S. at 4:15 p.m. Thursday.

NIU football picked to finish second in MAC West Divison

DeKalb | When the MAC preseason poll was released, NIU football was selected to finish in second place in the MAC West Division this season.

In the MAC West Division, the Toledo Rockets were picked as the front-runner, receiving all 17 first place votes.

In the MAC East Division, the Ohio Bobcats were slated to finish No. 1. Ohio was also selected to win the 2012 MAC Championship.

Toledo received seven of the 17 first place votes, while the Huskies received five votes. Western Michigan followed NIU closely as they received four first place votes.

NIU is on a nine game winning streak, including the MAC Championship and the GoDaddy.com Bowl, which is currently the longest winning streak in college football.

The defending MAC Conference champions will kick their season off Sept. 1 at Soldier Field against Iowa.

NIU baseball adds four new players to 2012 recruiting class

DeKalb | NIU baseball has been busy this July as it has added four recruits to its recruiting class for 2012, which is now up to 15.

Two of the recruits are juniors and the other two are freshmen, one of which was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 33rd round of the draft.

Freshman pitcher Jon Savarise is the MLB draftee from Lincolnshire, Ill. In three seasons he totaled 10 complete games and 150 strikeouts. He was also an all-conference selection and North Suburban All-Star game participant.

The other freshman, Brandon Mallder is an outfielder from St. Laurence High School. In his senior season he was captain and won MVP. He was named First team All-Chicago Catholic League.

Brody Justice is a junior transfer from Paris Junior College. He is a left-handed pitcher and in 2012 he totaled a 1-0 record, with 10 strikeouts and a 4.67 ERA in 17.1 innings.

Landon Tenhagen is the Huskies’ final recruit. He is a junior from Madison Area Technical College who plays the outfield. In his sophomore season he hit four home-runs, 12 doubles and 52 RBIs, which led the team.