Attention this time has turned slightly away from the 7-foot behemoth Chris Kaman.

When the NIU men’s basketball team travels to Mount Pleasant, Mich., for a 7 p.m. game today, the rest of the Chippewas – particularly the three-point shooters – will not get an opportunity to feel lonely on the court from lack of defensive pressure.

NIU (15-11, 11-5 MAC) will try to avenge its 87-75, Feb. 22 loss to CMU (19-6, 12-4 MAC), in which Chippewa senior guard J.R. Wallace torched the Huskies for 27 points on 7-of-14 three-point shooting.

“We have to do a lot better job on their three-point shooters,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “It really hurt us last time and we have to have a better balance.”

The balance Judson refers to is the Huskies focus on Kaman and the inside, while not neglecting the outside. In the second half of the Feb. 22 meeting, the Huskies tried to change their plans and went to a box-in-one for part of the game, but that did little to slow the hot-shooting Wallace.

Tonight, the Huskies will continue with their typical zone defense (1-2-2) and pressing-style of play to start the game, but will give CMU a lot more different defensive looks to combat its inside-outside threat. If they switch to a man-to-man defense, Judson said senior Mike Morrison or freshman Bryson McKenzie would guard Kaman.

Judson added that he looks for sophomore Jamel Staten to continue his hot play, coming off his first career double-double against Toledo on Saturday.

“Jamel’s playing better and better,” the second-year coach said. “His effort stats have been good. We look for him to continue his upward trend against Central.”

The last regular season home game of the year, the road in conference has been good to the Huskies with only one loss (Miami).

NIU is in third place in the entire MAC, a half-game ahead of Kent State and losing the tie-breaker with Miami (NIU lost to Miami Feb. 25). With a win, NIU could pull even with CMU. Miami plays host to Brandon Hunter and Ohio tonight, and Kent State is idle until Saturday when it also will invite Ohio to its gym.