Another game, another quality Big Ten opponent.

Tonight, NIU men’s basketball (0-2) will continue its trend of playing Big Ten teams when it travels to Iowa City to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Both players and coaches agree the Huskies have to play the best in order to be the best.

“Going against Purdue, with their up-in-your-face pressure defense, that definitely helped us,” said freshman point guard Zach Miller. “And Iowa is going to be pretty good this year. I definitely think going against the best will make us better.”

NIU coach Mark Montgomery said playing against quality opponents will give the team a good example of how it should play.

“It definitely shows you what you have to improve on,” Montgomery said. “I think it helps our players understand that you have to go hard in practice because there are other good players and good teams out there.”

Iowa hasn’t been the storied team of old lately, posting four losing seasons in a row. This year, a change is expected, and second year head coach Fran McCaffery has the Hawkeyes at 2-0, largely due to their experience and talent at the point guard position, where senior Bryce Cartwright has stolen the show.

“The report on Cartwright is he’s a jet-quick kind of point guard,” Miller said. “He’s looking to create more than he is to score, and we hope to contain him and keep him out of the lane as much as possible.”

Montgomery mentioned Cartwright as a key player to watch out for, but he also said the experienced guard play, defense and tempo Iowa uses will be difficult tasks for the Huskies to stop.

“Cartwright – the point guard led the Big Ten in assists last year,” Montgomery said. “He’s very good penetrating point guard and their two wing players, – senior guard Matt Gatens and junior guard Eric May – they both shoot the ball extremely well and they both average over 20 points a game.”

But all of Iowa’s talent doesn’t reside in its back court.

“Then you have their four man, sophomore forward Melsahn Basabe; he’s a big kid, a monster on the inside, and can float out a little bit,” Montgomery said. “They have four experienced guys who have started. They put up 95 in both their home games this year, and they will want to play fast. So we’re going to try and control the tempo of the game and slow it down a little bit.”

It’s asking a lot for this young NIU team to get a win on the road at Iowa against a Hawkeyes team that will play a challenging defensive scheme. However, Montgomery said NIU has been gelling and will continue to work to get better, regardless of how it plays.

“I think [my players] have good chemistry off the court,” Montgomery said. “Now we have to value timing and shots in game situations. We’re going to have to really rebound the basketball and their full court press is different from Purdue’s man-to-man pressure. It’s a different kind of pressure. We have to rebound and take care of the ball and we have to make some shots to give ourselves some more confidence. But no matter what, it’s a great opportunity, a great environment and a great learning experience for our younger guys.”

Montgomery likened the Huskies’ rough early season schedule to that of his former boss, Tom Izzo of Michigan State, who has played both Duke and North Carolina to open the season and says he is taking the same approach.

“[Izzo is] not changing his philosophy,” Montgomery said. “He wants Michigan State in the spotlight. He’s going to play anybody anytime anywhere, and I’m taking the same approach with our schedule with playing Purdue and Iowa, two Big Ten teams. It’s a tall task but both present great opportunities.”