The NIU men’s basketball team will participate in the fourth-annual ESPN Bracket Buster Feb. 18.

Of the 18 conferences participating in the event, the MAC will be sending the most schools with all of its 12 teams to the event.

NIU will play its game on the road. Akron, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan and Toledo also will be playing a road contest.

Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Kent State, Miami, Ohio and Western Michigan will host one of the other 100 teams in the match-ups.

NIU already faced three of the non-MAC conference teams earlier in the season: Missouri State, Wright State and University of Illinois-Chicago.

Other notable programs that made deep tournament runs in the past — including Southern Illinois, Pacific, Old Dominion and Bucknell — will take part in the event.

Approaching 1,000

NIU senior forward Todd Peterson is slowly adding his name to the record books.

During a recent game against Central Michigan, the 6-foot-8-inch forward grabbed the record for most career three-pointers made by a Huskie. He currently holds 208 three-pointers to his name.

Peterson now is creeping his way toward becoming the 25th player in NIU history to score 1,000 points in his career. He needs to score 92 more points this season to hit the mark.

Peterson is averaging 10.4 points per game. If he keeps this pace he will clinch the 1,000-point mark March 4 against Western Michigan.

Gettin’ their ‘D’ on

Coach Rob Judson has been very proud of his defense lately.

After letting a Toledo team creep back and steal a win last week, the Huskies have been shutting down their opponent’s offenses.

NIU won a 49-43 defensive struggle earlier last week against Central Michigan. The game marked the first time NIU won a game while scoring less than 50 points since a victory over Akron January 26, 2001.

They followed that up with a win over Eastern Michigan in which they allowed one basket in the final six minutes of play.

A game of percentages

The Huskies won 7-of-10 games this season when they shot 50 percent or better from the field.

NIU leads the MAC field goal percentage standings with a mark of 47.5 percent.

There is a three-way tie in the MAC for second place as Buffalo, Ohio and Bowling Green are holding a 45.4 percent shooting mark from the floor.

Ben Rand holds the highest field-goal percentage for the Huskies as he is shooting 59.5 percent from the floor.

Teammates James Hughes and Mike McKinney are second and third on the team at 58.3 and 55 percent from the field, respectively.