DeKALB | NIU forward Nate Rucker is commonly referred by his nickname, “The Dog,” yet he didn’t play like a full-grown canine Saturday afternoon against Kent State.

The Huskies true freshman struggled to find rhythm inside against Golden Flashes’ center Justin Manns during NIU’s 84-77 home loss.

“I wasn’t fully prepared for the game plan because I wasn’t prepared to guard him mentally,” Rucker said. “I kind of let that get to me. He used his length better than I did tonight, and he just over powered [me.]”

Manns had a distinct height advantage over Rucker, as the Kent State junior stands at 6’11”, while Rucker is listed at 6’6″. Combining his size and experience, Manns made life on the hardwood unpleasant for Rucker.

“Night in and night out he’s facing not only bigger guys, he’s facing older guys,” NIU head coach Ricardo Patton said. “He’s kind of going through the growing pain of just learning how to play Division-I basketball. He’s still developing.”

In the first half, Rucker played only 11 minutes, while missing all four of his shot attempts and grabbing three rebounds.

“I thought what happened early in the game. We were able to get a piece of a couple of his shots,” Kent State head coach Geno Ford said. “Any offensive player, you get a shot blocked, the next time you go [down on the offensive end] you maybe don’t go quite as strong because you’re kind of looking, ‘is there a guy coming, do I need to shovel it, do I need to shot fake?'”

At one point during the first half, Patton was so dissatisfied with Rucker’s performance that he ran down his bench and literally pulled forward Lee Fisher out of his seat to sub in for Rucker.

“We often talk about freshman hitting that wall,” Patton said. “We’ve asked a lot of this young man to come in as a freshman and be kind of our go-to guy in the post.”

Patton believes giving Rucker more minutes means that eventually he’ll take that step towards being a force inside.

“The only one way is to continue to throw him in the fire,” Patton said. “Good players will come out of the fire at some point and they’ll learn from the experiences.”

Rucker played only six minutes in the second half, adding only one more shot attempt, which he missed, while earning all four of his points from the free-throw line. Being given the chance to start as underclassmen, Rucker is well aware that utilizing the minutes he plays will only make him better in both the short and long term.

“There’s not a lot of guys who get to play the D-1 level as a freshman,” Rucker said. “I know me coming in here starting as a freshman, I need to take advantage of all the opportunities that I can get.”

Ford feels that eventually Rucker will be a force in the MAC.

“Watching on film, he’s going to be a good one,” Ford said. “He’s got hands. He’s got toughness. He’s explosive.”

Patton went on to echo those sentiments about Rucker, but for now, he’ll be going through those growing pains.

“There will be a time when he will be the veteran post-guy out on the floor,” Patton said. “Unfortunately, right now, he’s just not that guy; he’s a young pup.”