Ball State forward Julien Mills will be the skipper of the ship and lead a team comprised of 10 first-season players against a veteran NIU men’s basketball team.

The Huskies (11-7 overall, 6-4 MAC) will play the Cardinals (7-10, 3-6) for the first time this season today at 7:05 p.m. at the Convocation Center.

Ball State comes into the match having won three of its last four contests. In this span Ball State has been able to beat Bowling Green, Central Michigan and Toledo.

The Cardinals started the season slow, but this may have been due to the lack of experience on the team. At the start of the season only four of 14 Cardinals had previously played in a college game.

“I don’t know if we think about that as an advantage or disadvantage,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “We have to think about the things that we can control and you can’t control experience.”

Junior forward “Skip” Mills took the small amounts of success from the end of his sophomore season last year and transformed it into a full-out offensive campaign this season.

The Indianapolis native is averaging 17.2 points per game in conference play, which is fourth best in the MAC.

Skip is also leading Ball State in rebounds with an average of 5.8 per game, making him the 10th best in the conference.

“Ball State is very quick and has some players who are very athletic,” Judson said. “We’ll have to box out soundly and go after lose balls with a high intesnity.”

As the season has progressed Skip found some crew members to share the duties of the ship in freshman guard Maurice Acker and junior college transfer D’Andre Peyton. The two are now averaging 13.1 and 10.7 ppg respectively.

“Ball State is very dangerous with a triple penetration,” the fifth-year coach said. “We’ll have to do a very good job on the court defensively.”

What truly makes Ball State dangerous, though, is its defense.

NIU has kept two teams to 50 points or less this season, while the Cardinals have been able to double that feat.

Ball State also holds the second best scoring defense and field goal percentage defense in the MAC.

Ball State will face its match, though, as NIU has the highest field goal percentage in the conference and is coming off a team-best 65-percent shooting performance at its last game at the Convo.

ESPN announced Tuesday the Huskies will face Winthrop in the Bracket Buster event Feb. 18 at Rock Hill S.C.

The Eagles lead their conference in field-goal defens, holding opponents to 39.6 percent from the field.

“Playing on the road is always tough and Winthrop has an outstanding home court,” Judson said. “We must do a good job defensively and on the boards to be successful.”

There are 100 teams participating in the even and 13 of the games will be aired on one of the ESPN networks.