After head coach Brian Hammel saw what a bad team like Ginestico of Brazil could do to the NIU men’s basketball team defense, he was not too happy.

So when the Marathon Oil AAU Team stops in for a 7:05 p.m. exhibition visit to Chick Evans Fieldhouse tonight, it’s a sure bet one of his main priorities will be to play better ‘D.’

“I was disappointed in the last (exhibition) game defensively,” Hammel said. “We’re going to step it up a notch for this game.”

The Marathon team is making their last stop on a seven-game swing. Other sites have included, Penn State, the University of Dayton, UIC, Northwestern, the University of Wisconsin and Marquette. They are now 2-3 pending the outcome of the Marquette game last night.

After dropping their first game to PSU 78-75, the Marathon team squeaked out their only two victories so far over Dayton 92-91 and UIC 95-93. They have since lost their last two games 71-70 to NU and 106-84 to Wisconsin.

The victory over UIC should be an indicator of how good the Huskies will have to play to beat Marathon. The Flames are expected to be among the elite teams in the Mid-Continent Conference this season.

“They’re a pretty good team,” Hammel said. “They’ve played (and beaten) some tough competition this (pre)season.”

Leading the team into DeKalb will be Matt Nordmann a 6-7 forward who is averaging 14 points and 5.6 rebounds a game while sporting a .538 field goal percentage.

In the backcourt, the Huskies will have to watch out for Terrance Wheeler. The 6-2 guard is averaging 12.2 points and 5.2 assists.

As a team, the AAU team is shooting just .422 from the floor in their first five games (144-341), but they are supported by a respectable outside game (42-131; .321) from three point land while converting almost 70 percent of their free throws.

Defensively, Marathon has been able to hold opponents to a .452 field goal percentage, but are vulnerable to the three point threat as opponents have drained 47 three’s in 138 attempts (.341).

As far as foul shots go, when Marithon fouls, they must send people to the hospital. The combined free throw percentage against them is a pathetic .494 (40-81).

They also rebound well and hold a 253-222 advantage on the boards.

This should be a great test to the Huskies as they pride themselves as a good rebounding club.

Once again, Hammel is unconcerned with the outcome of the game. He is just trying to get his team ready for the season opener at Chick Evans against Aurora on Sat. Nov. 27.

“I don’t plan to play as many people (like in the Ginestico game),” Hammel said. “We’re just trying to fine tune some things as the regular season gets closer. As for the game, I expect us to play well and execute our offense and defense.”