Exhibition play comes to an end this weekend as the NIU men’s basketball team hosts Carthage at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The Huskies began exhibition play last weekend with a 84-72 win over Freed-Hardeman. In the game, red-shirt freshman Lee Fisher and freshman Mike DiNunno stole the spotlight.

“Things are looking bright,” said senior Sean Smith of the team’s new foundation. “We’ve got a lot of freshmen and they’re working hard and playing hard everyday. We’ve got a lot of things to look at this year, and we are all staying positive.”

Smith, the only senior on the team, said the freshmen have been getting advice from members who played last year along with the team captains.

One team captain, Sean Kowal, said the team is working hard on finding its rhythm before regular season play begins Nov. 14. Kowal said as a captain, he is helping fix the kinks during exhibition play.

“We make sure the guys know where they’re going on plays,” the Colorado transfer said. “If they get confused, it’s our job to correct them and to make sure they keep a positive attitude.”

Going into Saturday’s match-up, head coach Ricardo Patton will continue to test pairs to see which players work best together on the court.

“Coach is going to be trying things out for the first couple games, looking at what makes the perfect fit,” Kowal said. “The key is just trying to find a couple good fits and sticking with it.”

Smith said the team has been working hard on its defense during the exhibition stand. The senior said the team is beginning to get a feel of playing with each other, and said the team will do better than their 12th preseason poll pick in the MAC.

“Most people think we are going to finish last,” Smith said. “But they don’t know the talent we have this year. They’ll be surprised. They’ll look for an easy win, but we will make a good run to be one of the top teams in the MAC.”

Despite the positive outlook, the team will have to finish up exhibition play before heading into conference match-ups later this season. But both Kowal and Smith will look to improve their game when they take to the court for the exhibition finale.