DeKALB | With both NIU basketball teams currently floundering, sports writers Katie Leb and Andrew Singer discuss which team has a better chance to make a late-season run.

Katie Leb: Andrew, thank you for agreeing to face off with me this week. I am actually shocked that you stopped crying after I took a stab at your beloved Buffalo Bills last week.

Andrew Singer: Well, it’s easy to look past it considering the Bills are poised to make a Super Bowl run next season. Since that’s a foregone conclusion, let’s discuss something that’s actually up in the air. Which NIU basketball team has a better chance of making a late season run: head coach Ricardo Patton and the men’s team or first-year coach Kathi Bennett and her lady ballers?

KL: After the most recent performances by the Huskie women, taking down Ball State to get their first conference win and beginning the run against the Eastern division beating Miami (Ohio), the team is pulling together. The lady ballers, as you claim them to be, will continue to improve in Bennett’s triangle offensive scheme that was implemented prior to the wins.

AS: False. The triangle offense is notoriously difficult to master, and I doubt a team just implementing it will have much success. The men, on the other hand, are just getting used to each other. Even though the record may not reflect it, the Huskies have showed they can play well in conference this season. Last weekend, NIU dropped games against Central Michigan and Western Michigan by a combined four points. NIU went into the weekend with a 2-1 record in the MAC.

KL: That they may. But the same will hold true for the women’s team. I was once told that the worst team in the conference can beat the best team on any given day. If the Huskie women can continue getting good looks at the rim and sticking to Coach Bennett’s ‘pack’ defense, they will make a run to the top of the mountain. Forget king of the mountain, the Huskies are looking for queens.

AS: Well, you can keep looking for a queen, but the smart thing to do is to look for a missing link. On the men’s team, that has to be NIU quarterback turned guard on the basketball team DeMarcus Grady. Yes. The Grady Train is back in business, and it’s getting ready to move out of the station. At the moment, Grady has seen only limited action in three games this season and has yet to register his first point. That said, everyone needs a dream, and the men’s dream is that Grady will be their ringer.

KL: While everyone waits for that bucket to go through, the women’s fans will continue to see the improvement of Kim Davis who, like Grady, was not on the team last year. Davis came into the school year not knowing if she would play basketball. She quickly showed that taking a year off did not make her rusty. Averaging 6.8 rebounds and 7.7 points, Davis’ skill and scrappiness will help the Huskies win the battles under the basket.

AS: A great man once said that fundamentals are the crutch of the talentless. So, you can keep your scrappy players, I’ll take players that actually have talent. Men’s guard Xavier Silas has the potential to go on a scoring rampage every time he hits the floor. The women have Marke Freeman, but she lacks the killer instinct that “X” has. Therefore, I win and you lose.