On Tuesday night NIU basketball coach Rob Judson probably would have liked to reminisce about the days when he was an assistant at NIU.

In the 1990-91 season, serving under Huskie head coach Jim Molinari, NIU advanced to the NCAA Tournament while participating in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference.

“Valpo was in our conference at that time,” noted Judson.

While the Huskies faced Valparaiso in 1991 in what was one of current Crusader coach Homer Drew’s first years at the university, the Huskies won by a decisive score of 72-42.

“Coach Drew felt bad with the effort they gave that night,” said Judson, referring back to the game in the early ’90s. “He came into the locker room after the game and apologized after the game. And that’s the way I feel like tonight.”

Last night’s 70-50 loss for NIU showed that the tide has turned in this battle between the Huskies and Crusaders.

With Valparaiso having imported top-notch recruits and built what Drew calls a tradition of basketball, he has come a long way.

“When you look at my program,” said Drew, “it takes a while to get to where we are at now.”

Judson calls this one of Valparaiso’s best teams that he’s witnessed, and says that the Crusaders’ press and zone are very good as they held the Huskies to 17 first-half points.

For the Crusaders, it was put best by Valparaiso’s Latvian-import, Raitis Grafs, who after the game made it sound as easy as it looked against NIU.

“My teammates pass me the ball and we score,” said Grafs, in his accented tone.

But Drew realizes that it was not long ago that his program was at the same stage as NIU’s.

“Rob Judson is going to do excellent at Northern Illinois,” said Drew. “It does not happen overnight. I would say the one thing that they would need at Northern Illinois is patience. Patience is the key.”