DeKALB | Questions are always raised when a team faces another for the second time in less than a month.

Will there be a similar result? Have the teams improved? Have they gotten worse?

That’s exactly the situation NIU men’s basketball will face when it hosts Ball State tonight at 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center.

Thankfully for the Huskies, a lot has changed between NIU (6-17, 3-8) and Ball State (8-16, 4-7) since they last played on Jan. 16.

When Ball State defeated the Huskies 71-60, the loss was just another in a 12-of-13 losing stretch for NIU. The Cardinal victory broke up a six-game losing streak on their end.

Since they last played, the Huskies have won two of five, with both wins coming in NIU’s last two games. Ball State has gone 3-4 since the last meeting, losing its last game to Miami University.

Another bonus for NIU has been the emergence of Cody Yelder coming off the bench since returning from a knee injury.

In the past two games, Yelder has averaged 14.5 points per game and shot 69.2 percent from the field. The freshman guard was named MAC West Player of the Week after scoring 20 points against Ohio.

Two Cardinals – senior forward Skip Mills and sophomore forward Anthony Newell – can supply plenty of offense.

Mills is averaging 13.1 points per game, while Newell averages 10.5 and pulls down 7.7 rebounds nightly, ranking him fifth in the MAC.