DeKALB | In her third year starting at guard for the women’s basketball team, senior Mary Basic is looking to help lead the Huskies to a conference championship.

Basic was selected by her teammates during the off-season as one of three captains chosen to help NIU accomplish that goal.

Before getting too serious about basketball, Basic took time out of her day to talk with the Northern Star about moustaches, sibling rivalries and juvenile pranks.

Northern Star: So if you weren’t playing basketball right now, what would you be doing?

Mary Basic: I’d probably be working or be more involved in my major somehow. I want to go into advertising, so I’d look for something in that.

NS: What’s your favorite commercial on TV right now?

MB: I really like the Peyton Manning one.

NS: Well that narrows it down to about 50. Can you be a little more specific?

MB: I like the one where he has the fake moustache and is talking about himself. That one cracks me up the most.

NS: I read that you have an older sister, Annie, who also plays basketball. Who usually gets the best of those match-ups between you two?

MB: Well, she’s five years older than me and was always bigger, so she’d bully me around. I did beat her once though when I was a sophomore in high school, so I think she was a senior in college. She refused to play me again because she was so upset. That was the last time we played.

NS: Sounds like you two are pretty competitive. Who gets the last turkey leg at Thanksgiving?

MB: We fight more over my grandmother’s mashed potatoes. She makes them specifically for me, but my sister always tries to take them anyway.

NS: A lot of times on teams you’ll find a few pranksters. Who gets that title on the team this year?

MB: We all like to collaborate kind of. We do a lot as a team. We got Coach [Carol] Owens this year by Saran Wrapping her car and toilet-papering her house.

NS: Hopefully she had a sense of humor about it?

MB: Yeah, the next day in practice she took the five of us responsible aside and told the rest of the team they had to run because of it. They weren’t very happy about it, but coach was just joking; she didn’t actually make them run — thankfully.