Freshman accounting major Ryan Shaughnessy dove to the floor trying to save an errant pass from one of his teammates during basketball practice Wednesday.

He wasn’t going all out for NIU men’s basketball coach Rob Judson. He was helping prepare the NIU women’s basketball team.

Shaughnessy is one of nine men that are part of the scout team assembled by NIU women’s basketball coach Carol Hammerle and her staff. The team scrimmages against the women twice a week to prepare them for the upcoming season.

“The bottom line is, it’s going to make us better,” Hammerle said. “If we can stop them, we can stop Loyola.”

The Huskies, who finished the exhibition season 2-0, will begin the regular season today with a 7:05 p.m. home game against Loyola.

The past few seasons, Hammerle has asked members of the men’s football team, baseball team and soccer team to come in to scrimmage against the girls. This year, tryouts were held to recruit men with more time on their hands, who wanted to play to help the girls out.

Shaughnessy found out about the opportunity and decided to try out.

“I love doing it,” Shaughnessy said. “It keeps me in shape. Hopefully, we’re tough competition, so they’ll be ready when the season starts.”

Senior forward Stephanie Smith likes playing against the scout team.

“They’re a lot quicker and more aggressive than us,” Smith said. “It’s going to help us because we aren’t going to face girls this big in the MAC. It’s very frustrating now, though, because they are just so quick.”

In addition to the new scout team, the Huskies have many other changes this season.

Guard Kristan Knake and forward Kim Boeding both graduated, but NIU got forward Jamie Wilson back from an ACL injury which kept her out all of last season.

“I look at basketball in a whole new way,” Wilson said. “Before, there were times when I didn’t want to go to practice and run, or I’d rather sleep in. Now I look at it as I could be tired, but it could be worse. I could be sitting out.”

Last year’s MAC Freshman of the Year, Joi Scott, is expected to be the team’s sixth man with Wilson returning.

Senior Jennifer Youngblood was tabbed preseason All-MAC and will be looked upon as the leader of the team, Hammerle said.

The Huskies are projected to finish fourth in the MAC West.