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If you want to get pumped up for the day, just check out this press conference.  Bennett seems to have it all: the experience, the intensity and the plan to turn this women's basketball program around.  Let's breakdown her story and what she brings to the table for the Huskies:

Let's take a look at the experience (Official Release):

Bennett brings 17 years of experience as a collegiate head coach at Marycrest College (1988-89), Wisconsin-Oshkosh (1989-96), Evansville (1996-2000) and Indiana (2000-05). Her career record of 296-177 includes 12 winning campaigns and nine postseason appearances. Under Bennett's direction, UW-Oshkosh won the 1996 NCAA Division III National Championship with a perfect 31-0 record after playing in the national title game the previous season. She was named Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year five times and was the Women's Basketball Coaches' Association Division III Coach of the Year in 1996.

Despite having struggled her first two years at Evansville (3-23, 6-20), she hugely rebounded with two straight postseason appearances with the Purples Aces (19-11, 23-7).  It just goes to show you how fast she can turn a mid-major program around.

Coaching runs through her veins:

A native of Stevens Point, Wisc. Bennett is the sister of University of Virginia head men's basketball coach Tony Bennett; her father, Dick, won 316 games as a collegiate coach at Washington State, Wisconsin, UW-Green Bay and UW-Stevens Point. Kathi Bennett played collegiately at both Stevens Point and Green Bay and earned her bachelor's degree from UW-Green Bay in 1986.

She's excited to be here:

"I feel like this is the opportunity of a lifetime for me," Kathi Bennett said. "It is rare to encounter an opportunity where everything is perfect - the timing, the situation, the people. I feel like that with this head coaching job at Northern Illinois."

Why she took a break from being a head coach:

Bennett also was in a near-fatal car accident while head coaching at Indiana in 2002 that resulted in a broken neck. She was back at practice a week and a half later and the Hoosiers won the Big Ten tournament that year as a five-seed and beat two top-10 teams. Bennett resigned in 2005, saying at the time that the accident was a factor and left coaching until going to Wisconsin.

As an assistant at Wisconsin, she brought the Badgers up from 10th to first in the conference in terms of scoring defense, leading to an NCAA appearance this past season.

Defensive minded:

You'll read a lot about Bennett's coaching style and Bennett-ball (a "pack line" defense that will clog the middle and a motion offense) in the coming days, weeks and months. For now, here's a Bennett quote on her belief in the system.

"The style of play has proven itself over and over," she said. "You've got to be crazy not to believe in it. It works. It's proven."

Somebody START BOARDING UP THE CONVO WALLS

"I would run through a brick wall. I will work my tail off because of the people, because of President Peters, because of Jeff Compher. I will work my butt off for them. I will run through a brick wall for them. They are for real."

"TWO HOT DOGS PLEASE"

via www.daily-chronicle.com

Sahly goes all investigative on us and tries to get the bottom of NIU's recruiting process.  Here's what I got out of it: Recruiting 101...Todd Townsend is a great recruiter...then it's Ricardo Patton quote time:

"The stereotype of the players being style of substance, I don't know that I've heard that. Uncoachable, OK. Selfish, pampered. If I were writing this, I would eliminate, I don't know that they're pampered," Patton said. "Uncoachable, selfish, maybe. Style over substance, not sure that I (agree with that)."

It sounds like he's actually talking about how CPS players are "uncoachable" rather than just talking about perceptions.

"If you print that, I'll tell you what buddy, we're done," Patton threatened last Friday. "You cannot be trusted."

So I guess that's it.  No more coverage of NIU basketball...?  I can actually live with that.

"I think what's a more interesting story is he named just about every Division I program in the state and talked about there being a larger NCAA presence," Patton said. "To me, that's telling. This doesn't appear to be a Ricardo Patton/Northern Illinois problem. If I have a cough, and I'm the only guy in the room with a cough, then I'm the only guy in the room with a cold. But if we all start coughing, then we've all got the same problem. That's a bigger story.

He just described what happened to people that watched NIU basketball games last year.

"I don't think anybody has to repair anything with Ricardo Patton," Patton said. "I don't take anything they say personally and the reason I don't take it personal is because they don't know me. For anyone to come out and believe that Ricardo Patton is in this business to screw kids, doesn't know Ricardo Patton."

That's not one, not two, but THREE references to himself in the 3rd person.  He should really win some kind of award for this.

In other news, everybody's favorite point guard Mike DiNunno will transfer to Eastern Kentucky University.  He'll have to sit out a year, giving me time to erase these reoccurring nightmares I still have of him launching up airball three-point shots.  I might need therapy. Also, I had no idea EKU's mascot was Colonel Sanders.  Oh and even though the basketball season has been over for months now, here's the season wrap-up.  Huh? 

Akron's point guard Anthony Hitchens has also left his team, presumably because of family issues.  Apparently a transfer is going to take his place, doesn't that sound familiar...

Similar to the Kansas City shuffle, just a lot more Irish.  One HuskieWire article, two birds hit:

On April 29, Owens said this: "I want to focus more on my personal life, and what those things are, I feel like they’re private," Owens said. "They’re things that I hold dear to my heart."

"I am very happy to be back at Notre Dame," Owens said in a news release. "It's a place that is so dear to my heart and the people there have been wonderful to me.

Here's the Notre Dame press release if you're interested.  What I'm interested more is in the money situation.  John Sahly points out in many different ways that if Owens left NIU to take the Notre Dame job, she would have owed NIU $75,000.  However, since she did this indirectly she owes nothing and NIU will choose not to pursue the money in any way.  Let's look at the theoretical numbers:

(IF) Buyout: $300,000 for Owens

(IF) Direct to Notre Dame: $75,000 from Owens to NIU

Summary: Owens leaving the way she did saved NIU a lot of money.  In return, NIU is cutting her a break not going after that 75K. A win-win for both sides.

It's extremely strange how the whole situation worked out.  From an outsider point of view, there had to be a lot more behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing in this situation.  My best guess was that there was a mutual agreement between both Owens and the AD Jeff Compher, meeting in the middle of the road in terms of her leaving the program.  Because she is so connected to Northern Illinois in every which way, the whole situation turned out to be a bit awkward and fumbling.

Being a head coach is a tough gig and maybe this ND job is what's best for Owens in the long run.  Huskie fans may be a bit peeved at Owens and this whole situation, but somebody is always going to end up in the negative light whenever it comes to coaching changes of this magnitude.

So good luck to Carol Owens and her life pursuit.  She will always be a Huskie at heart and she was loved by her players.  I'll never forget the one time she asked me on twitter where she could find beer nuggets outside of Dekalb.  The answer: virtually nowhere.

I was surprised by all of the extra hoopla surrounding the blood and carnage of players leaving the basketball team yesterday.  Usually, it's announced that players are leaving and that's that.  There's no exit interview.  There's just a sense of mutual agreement through the media and fans are left to speculate.

Now here is the curious case of Jake Anderson, who felt so screwed over by Ricardo Patton that he had to say something at this point and time and after the fact that Mike DiNunno and Michael Fakuade had both been kicked off the team as well.

"The meeting was supposed to be at 9 [a.m.] and [Patton] didn’t show up until 10:15 or 10:30 [a.m.]," Anderson said. "He asked me what my plans are for next year. I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he asked what are your plans for next year? I said, ‘Nothing, graduate and go to grad school [and play my final year],’ and he said, ‘Well that’s good because we’re not going to have you back next year.’ Then I said, ‘OK.’ There was no hand shake and that’s the last time I ever talked to him."

OK, that is a real dick move right there.  You have somebody who has worked hard for this program for 3+ years and this is how you repay them?  This isn't a sign of class as a coach, but it's how Patton has been doing things for ages.  Just look at the house that he cleaned out right when he came in: Ryan Paradise, Jarvis Nichols, Zach Pancratz.  All of these departures involved a similar structure of Patton basically telling them to leave the team.  Telling Bristan Kelley to try out for football when when there aren't any scholarships open.

The common quote during press conferences was that NIU "Needed to recruit better".  Now what exactly does that tell your players?

But it's not like Ricardo Patton ever really wanted Jake Anderson on this team.  He never recruited him out of high school, Rob Judson did.  Same thing with Mike DiNunno at PG.  Michael Fakuade was a walk-on.  In order to earn a scholarship as a walk-on, you have to perform well out there on the court.  Nothing is ever promised when you aren't offered a scholarship out of high school.  The quote from the Von Stuben coach about Fakuade being promised a scholarship is just ridiculous.

Players get cut all the time all over the country, but you rarely hear anything about it.  Jake Anderson's coming out to the media was a rare one indeed.

All though you may disagree with the way Patton does things, he finally has what he wants after three seasons.  All of the players on his roster will have been recruited by Patton and Patton alone, for good or for bad.  Xavier Silas is his star, not Jake Anderson.

This is just the way Patton is, and I doubt anybody will care in the long run as long as we get some wins next season.

via midstatehoops.com

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It's really strange covering this much basketball recruiting in the Patton era.  Up to this point, there really hasn't been any media coverage, guys have just shown up on rosters or through press releases from time to time and that was that.  It's hard to get excited about transfers, because they have to sit out a year before they can even play.  Plus you can only get so many Colorado transfers (2).  I believe that the last recruit that fans were particularly excited about was Tyler Storm, but he hasn't lived up to his potential yet.  Tony Nixon is another one that comes to mind, but he saw limited time this past year as a freshman.

There had been some speculation over where Jake Anderson's scholarship would end up.  Would it go to a guard on the team (Antone Christian/Justin Peaster) or would the Huskies save it next year and load up with 5 new players

Toler is 6'7" 270 lbs, but a lot of that is good weight according to Toler:

"I'm a versatile big man," Toler said. "I'm 270 (pounds) but I've got a lot of muscle mass. I feel like the best parts of my game are my post game and I can shoot the three."

A guy that big can shoot the three?

Toler averaged 14.7 points and 8.6 rebounds a game this past season for Danville. He shot 49.6 percent from the field and went 17-of-48 (35.4 percent) from three-point range. Toler shot 75.5 percent from the free-throw line.

As sad as it may seem, Toler's 35.4% shooting from 3-pt range would have actually led the team this past year.  75.5% from the charity stripe is always a welcome sight.  The departed seniors in Najul Ervin and Ante Dzepina had big bodies, but nowhere close to the skillset that guys like Toler an Nate Rucker have.

So who else was after him?

His Rivals Profile confirms that he also had offers from Eastern Illinois and MTSU.  Rivals also ranked him as one of the top 150 JUCO players in the 2010 class.

MidStateHoops reports that he was deciding between Southern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky and ranks him as the #10 JC Sophomore in Illinois:

"They want me to come right in and start.  They see me being an All-Conference player.  With the players coming back I think we have a chance to win right away.  The whole staff recruited me harder than any school especially Coach Townsend who was a big part of my commitment."

He's insurance and competition against Nate Rucker, who suffered a broken ankle as his season was winding down.  Fellow Indianapolis native Kyree Jones was also instrumental in his recruitment.

He'll only be eligible for two years, but Patton is feeling the fire and has to win now or else.

per HuskieWire

Cue the stock quote by Patton:

"We would like to thank Jake for his contributions to the NIU basketball program, and congratulate him on earning his degree from NIU," NIU coach Ricardo Patton said in a news release.  "We wish him nothing but the best of luck in his future endeavors."

I too am happy that junior guard Darion "Jake" Anderson managed to graduate with a degree in communications.  He had a lot of trouble qualifying academically for NIU, but was able to redshirt his freshman year and become eligible in 2007.

Why?  We're not going to get any specific reasons for this happening from the Patton camp, so let's speculate.

It's really a lot more simple than you might think.  I suspect he's been here for 4 years already and just wants to move on with everything.  He's older than me (he'll be 23 April 8th) and I graduated last year.

Last year he decided to declare himself for the NBA draft on some crazy whim and then pulled out at the last moment, so it really shouldn't be a shocker at this point that he was leaving the team.  There were some other indicators as well like his suspension during the 08-09 season as Sahly alluded to.

His offensive numbers were significantly down from last year (16.9 ppg to 10.6 ppg), but he led the team in assists (3.5 apg) and was second in rebounds (6.0 rpg).  This is due to the addition to Xavier Silas in the offense.  The two players could never mesh and that left it turned out to be a big mess on the court.

When Jake was on, boy was he on.  But when he was off, he was just about as cold as the Convo gets.  One thing was consistent though: He was one hell of a rebounder.  Our big men should be ashamed about how a 6'2" shooting guard could absolutely own every single one of you on the boards (sans Super K).  Like Patton always says, he's a warrior out there.

Jake always had the ability to take over games.  Here's what he did: He drives the ball to the basket, puts up a shot and tries to get fouled.  When Jake isn't hot, it seems like the entire team fizzles along with him.  Sometimes Anderson just looked lackadaisical or pouty out on the floor.

Maybe it just was the coaching.  Jake Anderson was recruited by Rob Judson.  He wasn't recruited for the type of offense Patton likes to run.  With Jake gone, that's 1 more scholarship available for the 2010 class or we're now up to 5 for 2011 if nobody is signed.

Is this just the tip of the iceberg?  Are other players on their way out?  Kyree Jones was promised the starting point guard position for next year...

Today's Lineup:

• No. 2 Central Michigan vs. No. 7 Western Michigan at 11 a.m.
• No. 3 Akron vs. No. 6 Eastern Michigan at 1:30 p.m.
• No. 1 Kent State vs. No. 9 Ohio at 6 p.m.
• 4 Miami vs. No. 5 Buffalo at 8:30 p.m.

My predictions: CMU, Akron, Kent State & I'll have to go with Miami who plays a Buffalo team that is pretty much on the road.

All games will be broadcast on FS Ohio and ESPN360.

All-MAC Teams announced:

All-MAC First Team
Jimmy Conyers, Akron
Rodney Pierce, Buffalo
Kenny Hayes, Miami
David Kool, Western Michigan
Chris Singletary, Kent State

All-MAC Second Team
Jordan Bitzer, Central Michigan
Robbie Harman, Central Michigan
Carlos Medlock, Eastern Michigan
Brandon Bowdry, Eastern Michigan (Junior)
Justin Greene, Kent State (Sophomore)

That is a LOT of seniors that will be graduating that have been playing forever for their respective teams.  Kenny Hayes, Chris Singletary, Robbie Harman & Carlos Medlock all played point guard, which is essentially the quarterback for your offense.  Kool was MAC player of the year, so that will kill WMU and CMU loses their wondertwins who shoot 3-pointers in Bitzer and Harman.  With all these guards graduating, I'm assuming the big focus in the conference will be front-court play next year with guys like 6'6" Brandon Bowdry (16.1 ppg, 9.8 rpg) and 6'8" Justin Greene (13.9 ppg, 6.8 rpg) returning (hello Nate Rucker).

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6-22, 10-20, 10-20.  Those are the records of Ricardo Patton's 1st three years as head of the Northern Illinois basketball program.  That fact is that this team isn't any fun to watch at all.  It's a different type of suffering than back in the Judson days.  These Patton teams have a lot more talent and athleticism than a lot of the teams preceding them.  The fact is that this team just does not play up to their potential that they're capable of.  Now this can lay blame on the coaching staff or the players themselves, or both.  I'm going to just put a slight weight on how the coaches didn't prepare this team for the 2009-10 season.

NIU lost one player (ONE) in Sean Smith this past off-season.  This team was supposed to be leaps and bound better than last year.  NIU basketball was supposed to be back!  What happened???  I HAVE NO IDEA.  That's the frustrating part.  The defense was the same mediocre defense like last years, but the offense actually regressed from last year.  I would have been fine with the Huskies shooting the lights out of the ball and winning a few offensive shootouts, but that never happened.

Regressing from a 223rd ranked Effective FG% to 310th?  3-pt shooting down from 34.4% to 30.0%??  Jake Anderson would disappear one game and Xavier Silas was never a savior like he was so hyped up to be.  Mike DiNunno came out missing threes at the point and would never stop.  Sean Kowal was a nice surprise in the middle, but what the heck happened to Michael Fakuade?  Tyler Storm? Najul Ervin?  I just don't get it and I don't think anybody watching does.

What were Judson's records like?  12-16, 17-14, 10-20, 11-17, 17-11, 7-23.  The obscure fact that we won the MAC West in 2006 is completely irrelevant considering we went down in the 1st round of the tournament that year.  NIU is now 0-11 in the MAC tourney since re-joining the MAC.  The drought in the MAC tourney dates all the way back to 1982 when we won the whole darn thing.

How did this all come about?  Let's take a look:

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