Kent State is one team that is tough to figure out. But if the Golden Flashes are difficult to piece together, the NIU men’s basketball team is as easy to figure out as a Michael Jackson interview.

The success Kent State (17-3, 10-2 MAC) is having this year, while losing three starters and their coach, is simply amazing. But that just makes NIU’s success all the more amazing.

On Saturday, the Huskies topped Kent State, which is ranked No. 5 in ESPN’s Mid Major Poll, 67-61.

The only time NIU will be playing the Golden Flashes this year, this MAC crossover pitted the best in the east against the visiting Huskies, the best in the west. Perhaps it was for the better that this matchup was on the road though, as these Huskie road warriors are undefeated in the new year (6-0) when away from the Convocation Center.

Yes, that’s exactly what everyone associated with the $36 million Convo Center wants. Built primarily for the NIU hoops team, this team is going out there and playing better on the road?

Winning eight of its last nine games, six of those games have been on the road.

With a 4-5 home record, NIU will get a chance to get to sea-level on Tuesday against Ohio in a game that will be on Fox Sports.

Of course coach Rob Judson is going to give his plea for the fans to make it out to the game, as always, but if the past is any indication, it may not be too bad of a game.

The Huskies’ last two losses were both by one point in thrilling, edge-of-your seat fashion. The Dog Pound, which started off this year looking like a Wiener-dog Pound, is slowly filling up to watch this over-achieving team.

Inviting in Ohio (7-11, 4-6 MAC), who was the preseason pick to win the MAC East, certainly the lowly, underachieving Bobcats will have revenge on their minds from a loss on Jan. 15 at their place. In that game, Ohio’s MAC Player of the Year candidate, the grizzly-pawed Brandon Hunter didn’t get going until late in the second half, and now has a terrible lingering aftertaste in his mouth.

Hunter, a 6-foot-7, 265-pounder who declared for the NBA Draft then took his name out this past summer, was in foul trouble the first half of the meeting, but had 16 points in the second half, including four Shaq of the MAC-type dunks, honoring former Bobcat turned NBA player Gary Trent.

Holding down first place in the MAC West, this NIU team is expected to keep up with its superstitious ways of staying in a hotel the night before the Ohio game, but it may take more. Possibly get them in a Campus Circle Left bus and tell them they’re traveling to the airport because the game was moved, blindfold them, toss them on a roundway flight to Ohio, then unleash them on the Bobcats.

Regardless of what they do, you can guarantee Marcus Smallwood’s eyeball-to-rim style of play will be pumping energy throughout the Convo Center. Then there’s the three freshmen who’ve surprised just about everyone and are as much a part of this team as any. Add in roommates Perry Smith and Jay Bates with their slashing perimeter games and you have a recipe that equals one Brandon Hunter headache, wishing he had not returned for his senior year.

The equation may not be an exact science, but the result is a fundamental one.