Another weekend means another trip to the “Valley” for the NIU men’s basketball team.

Once again, the Huskies (0-3) will be the visiting Missouri Valley Conference team for their season opener.

This time around, NIU will face off against the No. 23 team in the nation, Southern Illinois University (0-0). The game will start at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at SIU Arena in Carbondale.

Forward Michael Hart is looking forward to the game. He, along with the rest of the team, knows the match will be a challenge for the Huskies.

“It’s going to be a big game. It’s the first game of their season, and it’s going to be extremely hyped,” Hart said. “But you live to play for games like that.”

Although the game will be a challenge, scheduling the contest was easy.

NIU men’s coach Ricardo Patton said he simply picked up and the phone and placed a call.

“We just called and ask, and Coach Lowery agreed,” Patton said. “I really commend him.

“Certainly, I don’t know if there’s a great deal of value for him and his program, but our fans would certainly like to see them in the Convocation Center next year,” the coach continued. “I say kudos to him for playing the game.”

The opportunity to bring SIU back to DeKalb next year is making players believe that this could be the start of an NIU-SIU rivalry in basketball. But playing the Salukis is nothing new to the Huskies.

Overall, NIU has faced SIU 78 times in the past, with the Salukis wining 57 of those games. However, the last time the two faced off was more than 10 years ago, when SIU defeated NIU 98-70 in 1996.

“Southern has established itself as a very good team,” NIU guard Ryan Paradise said. “I don’t see, when given the chance to play each other every year, why we can’t have that rivalry with them.”

Although a rivalry may be forming, the players understand that they have to focus on this first game of what could be many more to come.

Paradise, who has led the Huskies in scoring every game this season, points out that the team has to control itself to have a chance at beating SIU.

“We have to take care of the ball first and foremost,” the senior said. “I know the past few years [SIU’s] mind frame has been defense. Holding guys to 50, 40 points even in the tournament.”

Defense is a key for the Salukis. SIU returns three starters from last season’s Sweet 16 team. This includes MVC Defensive Player of the Year, forward Randal Falker and guard Bryan Mullins, a member of the MVC All-Defensive team.

However, Patton welcomes the challenge. The first-year coach believes that to develop a great program, he has to show his players what a great program looks like in action.

“I think if you aspire to be one of the best teams, you need to see what the best teams look like,” the coach said. “It shows our players how top-caliber teams do things.”