There’s always next year – until your senior season.

NIU’s Mike Morrison and Jay Bates ended their season and careers at NIU on Friday in a 94-72 loss to MAC Champion Central Michigan, but not before they helped lead the Huskies to one of their best seasons in recent history.

Two years ago, NIU won just five games, but this season it won 17 and a school-record 11 games in the MAC.

Bates scored a career-high 29 points on 11-of-14 shooting in his final game.

“My time here has been great,” said Bates after the loss. “I’ve only been here two years, but I want to thank coach, the fans and all my teammates. I just knew I was never gonna have the chance again [against Central Michigan], so I just tried to leave it all on the court.”

Out of Chicago’s Robeson High School, Bates attended junior college for two years at Lincoln College before being recruited by Huskie coach Rob Judson in 2001.

The 6-foot senior started all but two games for the Huskies as point guard.

“Jay’s only been here two years, but he’s helped us out a lot,” fellow point guard Anthony Maestranzi said. “He was probably our most key player, being the point guard. Mike had a tough start as he was here through the tough times, but I’m glad we were able to have a good season for him.”

Morrison didn’t have as good a game to end his career (four points, five rebounds), but his dedication to the program is evident.

The 6-foot-9 center was co-captain on the court, along with Bates. A Deerfield native, Morrison showed his commitment to the team when he made a road trip to Kent State on Feb. 8 despite one of the biggest tests of his life being that same weekend.

Aspiring to be an attorney just as his father, grandfather and great-grandfather was before him, Morrison took the LSAT test in Kent, Ohio, on the same day as the Huskies’ game. The test is only administered once a year, and he didn’t want to miss it, but the game was also important to him.

Feeling confident with his results on the test – he still is waiting to hear back from the NIU Law School – NIU upset the Golden Flashes 67-61, who were the No. 1 team overall in the MAC.

“I felt like the team could’ve used me in a big game like that,” Morrison said. “Sometimes you’ve got to sacrifice things for the better of the team. It turned out I did pretty good on the test and we got the W, so it was a pretty good day for me.”

With a positive outlook on the season to begin the year, Morrison’s season began with a bumpy start.

After having surgery on his knee to start the year, Morrison came back to action against Drake on Dec. 4 and played seven minutes. In his next game against Marshall he had a career-high 17 points in 26 minutes of action.

“It’s been an awesome ride,” Morrison said.

Big games, teammates, coaches, rivalries and packed arenas all will be missed by both Bates and Morrison, but there are other aspects of collegiate basketball the pair of Huskies are glad to get rid of.

“I’m not gonna miss preseason conditioning,” Morrison said. “I’m not gonna miss running timed miles. Everything else I’ll miss. Everything’s been