At 8 p.m., the NIU men’s basketball team will finally be able to put its tumultuous offseason in the rear-view mirror when it tips off its regular season against Northwestern.

Going up against a Big Ten team poised to make a run at its first NCAA tournament berth could be the best way to forget multiple key players leaving NIU with athletic eligibility left.

NIU head coach Ricardo Patton is depending on some newcomers to step in and make a difference in 2010-11. Starting at two of the team’s forward positions Friday night will be Danville Community College transfer Tim Toler and true freshman Nate Rucker.

Rucker is starting in place of an ailing Cameron Madlock, a junior college transfer that had been slated to start until an ankle injury in exhibition play last Saturday against Coe College sidelined the forward for the remainder of the game. According to Patton, Madlock is likely to play against Northwestern but won’t be starting.

Coming off a 13-point performance against Coe College, Rucker believes he can contribute immediately for the Huskies.

“I’m really excited to get out there against a Big Ten team,” Rucker said. “I believe I can come in and get the job done. [It] shouldn’t be that hard, just have to work hard and stay committed.”

Showing their inexperience with each other last Saturday, the Huskies turned the ball over 19 times against the Kohawks.

Instead of attributing the turnovers to a lack of chemistry, though, junior point guard Bryan Hall believes the sloppy play can be chalked up to nervousness.

“There were some mistakes during that first game that can’t happen,” Hall said. “But I think that those were just some first game jitters from people that were just a little too excited.”

The Huskies played over their mistakes in an 82-65 win over Division III Coe College. Patton knows, however, that turning the ball over won’t be an option against an experienced Northwestern team.

“We certainly know that if we turn the ball over and we’re our own worst enemy, then it’s going to be a long night,” Patton said.

Returning four of five starters, Northwestern is led by senior point guard Michael Thompson. Since arriving in Evanston, Thompson hasn’t missed a single game and has served as a point of consistency for the Wildcats throughout his career.

Right beside Thompson will be shooting guard John Shurna. The junior from Glen Ellyn, Illinois compiled a 45.9 percent field goal percentage while starting all 34 games for the Wildcats in 2009-10.

Hall and his teammates have been hard at work in an attempt to stop the Wildcat shooters, but he realizes it’s a task easier said than done.

“We’ve been working really hard. A lot on closing off the shooters and knowing where to be and when to be there,” Hall said. “There’s going to be a lot of movement out there, so we have to be there on defense Friday night and get the job done.”