1 NIU men’s basketball head coach Ricardo Patton never intended to start playing basketball.

Instead, the first-year head coach originally wanted to play trombone.

“When I got back to school the next day they were collecting the money for the rental of the instruments,” Patton said. “That was the end of my band career.”

However, it was the start of his path down basketball.

Patton would still like to return to music one day. He loves the piano, and has tried to learn it once.

The coach also has wishes to learn another art – the art of a foreign language.

“With a name like Ricardo you ought to be able to speak Spanish,” Patton said.

2 Patton is as athletic on the court as he is off.

Not only did the coach play college basketball at Belmont College, but he also a master of Tae Kwon Do. Patton is a fifth degree black belt in the martial art.

“I started practicing when I was in the ninth grade,” the coach said. “After basketball it was still a way for me to compete.”

3 It isn’t a typo on the roster. Patton’s son Michael is a freshman member of the Huskies.

A high school product from Solebury School in Penn. Michael is a 5-foot-10 177-pound guard.

Patton says he’ll have no trouble working the guard on the court. In fact, he’ll need to make sure he won’t work him too hard.

“To say it’s not different, it is. It’s different in a lot of ways,” the coach said. “I have to be careful not to be too hard on him. He knows that I’m not going to be too easy on it.”

4 Golfing in January in Colorado – Patton’s been there and done that.

So what does the coach think of Illinois links?

“I had forgotten how many nice courses there are in this area,” Patton said. “When you think about Rich Harvest Farms, it’s as nice as any around the country.”

The coach has even found local courses to be a test of skills. “Kishwaukee is a really challenging, nice course,” Patton said.

5 Playing extremely hard – that’s what Huskie fans should expect from coach Patton’s players.

“I think the biggest thing is that [fans] will see is a team that will play extremely hard for 40 minutes and longer if necessary,” Patton said. “That’s what we’ve talked about as a team – playing very hard for 40 minutes on the defensive end, but playing very unselfish on the offensive end.”