Don’t tell NIU men’s basketball coach Rob Judson the Sporting News and Street and Smith’s college basketball previews picked his squad to win the MAC West.

“The only place I saw us ranked high was in Field and Stream,” Judson said in jest. “As a coach it is a little better to come out of nowhere.”

NIU attacked the 2005 season with a rigorous preseason conditioning routine known as a “boot camp.” For two weeks, the team took the court at 6 a.m., donned camouflage practice uniforms and ran 30 line drills in 30 minutes.

“Boot camp lead to a real strengthening of our team chemistry,” Judson said. “Chemistry is tremendously important for college basketball teams. We have a poem from Rudyard Kipling in the locker room and players’ notebooks that we think about and try and live by it as teammates, it is called ‘The Law of the Pack.’”

Now in his fifth season, Judson looks forward to a team filled with players he recruited, including preseason All-MAC guard Mike McKinney.

“Last year, we averaged close to 14 turnovers a game,” Judson said. “If we can get that into single digits, we can be a good shooting ball club.”

The Huskies finished last season with a record of 11-17 and 7-11 in the MAC, which was good enough for fifth place out of seven teams.

Raymond to lead up-tempo attack

It will be all about ‘attitude’ for the women’s basketball team in NIU Hall of Famer Carol Owens’ first year as head coach.

‘Attitude’ has top billing on the back of the NIU practice jerseys. Freshman forward Kacia Gillette is eager to take the court for her new coach.

“I love to play an up-tempo style of game,” Gillette said. “Coach brings an attitude of success to the game.”

The 2005 season has been themed “Back to the Future,” and Owens hopes to revive the “ring of fans” at the Convocation Center.

“When I was here,” Owens said, “win or lose fans would make a circle around the court, and we would shake their hands. By my senior year the fans were four rows deep.”

Owens looks to institute an up-tempo style of play, and will count on the floor leadership of preseason All-MAC guard Stephanie Raymond.

“We do a drill where we had to score 80 points in only three minutes,” Owens said. “When we finally did it; it was like we won the national title.”

The preseason coaches poll has picked NIU to finish in fifth place in the six-team MAC West.

The Huskies finished in a tie for last place in the MAC West last season with Central Michigan and were tied for the third-worst record overall in the conference.