Sheldon surprises in backup role

Football's Dan Sheldon wasn't even expected to play coming into this season.

But the sophomore from Burlington Central made the most of an injury to P.J. Fleck and excelled in his absence.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pound return specialist led the nation in punt return average at 22.7 per return.

-Mark Pickrel

Young gymnastics improved

After winning just seven meets in the last two years, the NIU gymnastics team came in this year with an experienced squad ready to make some noise in the MAC.

Led by MAC Gymnast of the Year Kristina Campos and MAC Freshman of the Year Ashlee Williams, the Huskies did just that. Not only did they go 9-12, they also beat Bowling Green for their first MAC win in 17 meets, finishing with three MAC wins overall.

-Brian Kelley

Knake gets statistical milestone

Kristan Knake didn't end her career the way she wanted to for the women's basketball team.

A string of injuries to the team left the Huskies a disappointing 12-16 overall. Despite closing on a bad note, the senior will leave quite a legacy at NIU.

Knake closed her career as one of only four Huskies with 1,000 points, 300 assists and 200 steals over the course of a career.

-Mark Pickrel

Scott best rookie in MAC

Joi Scott entered the season very unassumingly as a quiet freshman. By the time the season was finished, Scott would become NIU women's basketball team's first ever MAC Freshman of the Year.

Scott began the season not even getting off the bench in the team's first game versus Wisconsin. After a number of injuries to NIU's front line, Scott made her presence felt. Scott averaged 3.5 points before MAC play began in early January, then went on to average 12.9 points and 6.2 rebounds in conference action.

-Chris Jurmann

Smallwood 1st Team All-MAC

Ball State coach Tim Buckley summed up Marcus Smallwood's First-Team All-MAC performance this year in one sentence. "If you cut him open, I don't think his heart could fit inside the Convo Center."

Smallwood became the first Huskie to be named to the conference first team since T.J. Lux did it in 1999-2000.

Smallwood averaged a double-double for the season with 13.3 points and 10.1 rebounds. He finished the year third in the MAC in rebounds and field goal percentage, with a .548 marker.

Basketball is starting to turn things around.

Football has turned it around.

Wrestling has really turned it around.

Not to take anything away from Rob Judson or Joe Novak, both have done wonders for their programs, but Dave Grant has turned a team that was on the verge of extinction into an NCAA powerhouse.

It is understood that Judson took over a 5-23 team his first year and transformed it into a 12-16 team. Good for him.

The basketball team currently is tied for second in the MAC this season, but it was unable to get out of the first round in the MAC Tourney as it lost 97-93 to Marshall last season.

Novak had an extremely rough start for the Huskies as he had a 3-30 record in his first three seasons, including the infamous 23-game losing streak.

In the past three seasons, this year’s MAC Coach of the Year led his team to back-to-back 6-5 campaigns before last year’s 8-4 season. The Huskies also repeated as the MAC West Division co-champion.

People think that NIU was snubbed out of a Bowl game this past season, but still, the highest that it was ranked was 35th in the country.

That is where Grant comes into effect.

Grant has something in common with Novak; he also won a MAC Coach of the Year award last year.

Last season, the wrestling team had the second-best record in school history with a 14-4 record under Grant. The year before, NIU had a 9-8-2 mark, good for its first winning season since the 1988-’89 season.

After having his team place second in the MAC behind Central Michigan (who NIU just handed its first conference loss since the 1997-’98 season), it finds itself with a 10-6 record and a 2-1 record in the conference.

Grant and the Huskies have taken down two Top 15 teams this season, one over the third-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and the other against the 14th-ranked Chippewas.

The closest that an NIU squad has come to taking down an opponent of that magnitude was when the women’s basketball team came up short against fourth-ranked Kansas State earlier this season, 63-58.

NIU now owns a spot nationally in the Top 25, and will surely move up after last Friday’s victory over CMU.

The highest it has been ranked this season was No. 21.

When was the last time football or basketball was ranked that high?

Actually, when was the last time that either of those teams were ranked at all?

Even though Judson and Novak receive more attention in the public eye, Grant keeps winning.

How many people could even name the head coach of the wrestling program before this article? Five dollars (and a penny, Mark Pickrel) to anyone who could prove this.

The fact of the matter is, we have a team that has basically been ranked the whole season and not a lot of people know about it.

The football team manhandled an overrated Bowling Green team that was ranked 16th, but even the crowd was chanting "overrated," so you know what was going on.

Point being, Grant and his men have gone to battle against six Top 20 teams, and have held their own against the nation’s elite. Hence, NIU now is being recognized as one of the nation’s elite itself.

Grant has something in common with the other coaches.

They all inherited a team that was at or near the bottom, the difference is Grant is seeing the results much faster.

Judson and Novak are getting all the credit for turning their programs around by both the community and the student body, Grant really hasn’t received any credit locally, but he has where it counts.

On the national level.