NIU-bound Frank Clair of Leo High School was named the Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV Athlete of the Month for March, as announced April 9.

Clair led Leo to a Class-A state title on March 13. He finished with a game-high 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting in the championship game.

Clair averaged 14 points and seven rebounds a game for a 28-7 team.

The Huskies signed three other high school players: 6-foot-7 Cyrus Tate of Homewood-Flossmoor and 6-foot-5 Zach Pancratz and 6-foot-8 Craig Reichel both from Schaumburg. NIU also will have Rochelle native Ben Rand enrolled for next year. Rand, a freshman transfer from Iowa, will not be eligible to play until the 2005-’06 season.

Assistant moves to Vegas

Third-year men’s basketball assistant coach Mike Shepherd will leave NIU for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Shepherd joins new UNLV coach Lon Kruger, who Shepherd is very familiar with from his days as a student at Kansas State.

Kruger was the coach at K-State from 1987-’90 while Shepherd got his degree from the school. Shepherd then was an assistant coach at Illinois from 1996-’99 while Kruger was the head coach. Shepherd later went on to be an advanced scout for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks from 2000-’01 while Kruger was the organization’s head coach.

Kruger accepted the position at UNLV on March 15 and named Shepherd his assistant on April 12.

No timetable has been set for NIU head coach Rob Judson to find a replacement as recruiting coordinator.

Women’s team gets final two

NIU coach Carol Hammerle apparently filled the Huskies’ final two scholarships with high schoolers Emina Sehalic and Tara Michels.

The 6-foot-3 Sehalic is a native of Mandan, S.D.

Michels is a Dixon native who won this year’s IHSA 3-point Showdown Queen of the Hill Champion on March 6.

According to the NIU sports information department, Hammerle still is waiting on the signed letters of intent from the players.

NIU already had two players signed earlier in the season: 6-foot-1 Nikita Odom, of Hillcrest, and 6-foot Whitney Lowe, of Bushnell-Prairie City.