Per HUSKIEWIRE/Toledo Blade

This is just ridiculous folks. Northern Illinois starting Linebacker Jamaal Bass indicted on two counts of assault? One Felony and one Midemeanor? Are you kidding me?

Doeren and Bass not only apologized to the University of Toledo, but Bass was already suspended three games last season? And now criminal charges?

You can see the video here:

NIU player VS. UT Band Member (via pepperguy)

We've looked at this situation before and the whole thing is a joke. The charges are going to get dropped. Sure he intentionally ran in to the guy. Wouldn't you if he were IN YOUR WAY when you were running on to the field? What a freaking joke.

Two seasons ago, the Ohio Bobcats mascot physically attacked Brutus the Buckeye and no files were charged then. He was just fired. Bass was suspended. Punishment was lent out.

Now you've got a guy amped up to play a game in Toledo (which we would win 63-60 btw). Against your biggest rivalry for a chance to reach the championship of your conference. And there's some band nerd casually making his way off the field. What would you do in this situation?

If you watch the video or the GIF over and over again, he barely nudged the idiot band member that shouldn't have been there in the first place.

WHAT NOW?

Is the Tuba player who got assaulted in the 1982 Cal-Stanford game going to come out and sue Kevin Moen, the Cal player that scored the touchdown? Are they going to sue Chandler Harnish for criminally assaulting their defense the last two years? (h/t @nburzych)

This is so stupid. Bass was just a redshirt freshman, and I think he can learn from a mistake. We should just walk out on to the field this year in Huskie Stadium. Now that would be a statement.

Tuck Foledo.

Third time's a charm I suppose. I knew something was off with that -8 point spread for the Huskies, since there were less games on the schedule they probably inflated the odds to get more people to bet on the Eagles. I just never thought that NIU would win the game straight up!

The Northern Illinois Huskies had a fortunate draw getting the 14-18 Eastern Michigan Eagles. Despite "winning" the MAC West, the Eagles are considerably a weaker opponent than any of the MAC East teams.

It may not show it on the scoreboard, but the Huskies went bonkers offensively in the limited possessions they had. Their effective FG% was a whopping 60.3% compared to their usual 42.8%. 19 out of 39 (48.7%) field goal attempts and 9 of 21 from three are tremendous numbers.

In fact the offense and defense was so good, EMU even beat the Huskies in turnovers (16-11), rebounding (28-27) and shooting free throws (8-13 to 14-20). Holding an opponent to 11 points in a first half is going to do the trick, even if they put up 41 in the second.

You can read the official release here. Stats here. This win was just so huge for the program and the Huskies.

What's great is that everybody on this team is equally important and they fight so hard to win games. Tony Nixon had 14 points and Askel Bolin had 13. Both had 5 rebounds.

The Huskies will take the short bus ride down to Cleveland and rest and prepare for a winnable game against Western Michigan.

Three chances for Northern Illinois to defeat the Eastern Michigan Eagles. Will it happen? Not likely.

When we last saw the Huskies, they blew a 32-24 lead at halftime to the Ball State Cardinals, only to lose the game 61-52. How does this happen? Well, a ridiculous 24 fouls were called on the Huskies compared to only 11 for the Cardinals. 15 FT attempts to 6. How do things like this happen? Getting out-rebounded 35-29 and 16-9 on the offensive boards didn't help as well.

Abdel Nader did his usual thing scoring 16 and grabbing 6 boards.

Up comes the Eagles. The first time we lost 40-47 at home, the second time we lost 48-45 on the road. Now we should win the game? Would be nice, but you can't trust the 0-14 Huskies on the road.

The spread opened up at -8 and is rising, which is absolutely mind-boggling, considering the pace of how both these teams play. In their last game, they got humiliated by Toledo 51-76 on the road, making the line that much more confusing.

I want the Huskies to be competitive in this one, but considering we can't win a road game and the fact we haven't won a MAC tourney game since 2003 I don't feel comfortable backing the Huskies in this one.

EMU 61, Huskies 49

Victory couldn't be sweeter in Dekalb tonight as Northern Illinois took down Toledo in the final home game of the season.

Even though this was a night for the seniors, freshman Abdel Nader led the team in scoring with 12 points and sophomore Aksel Bolin scored 10 while grabbing 8 boards and dishing out 4 assists.

Senior Tyler Storm did get the start and finished with 8 points and 3 rebounds in 18 minutes played. DeMarcus Grady went in the game just before the half and played just one minute.

The game was pretty much even in most statistical categories. What this game came down to was whoever wanted the game more in the end, which ended up being the Huskies. The Huskies dominated the boards as usual 31-25 with 11 offensive boards to 5. That is huge.

The Huskies were actually out shot 44.2% to 41.2% but NIU had 8 more shot attempts due to the rebounding success.

The game was tied 61-61 with 3:32 left in the game. Keith Gray put in the basket to not only tie the game, but to put the Huskies ahead by one with a free throw and another layup to go up 64-61.

After that the Rockets missed a three, the Huskies rebounded but then missed three straight shots of their own. Toledo misses yet another three, but NIU turns the ball over again to Toledo.

The Rockets look to take a game-tying three with 7 seconds left in the game but Marquavese Ford steals the ball and Toledo has to foul with two seconds left in the game. He makes a free throw to seal put NIU up by 4 and seal the deal at the end.

Couldn't have asked for a better senior night for the Huskies in this one. It was nearly the same score as the football game which was 63-60. Way to outscore that one.

Official Release

Northern Illinois Huskies (3-24, 2-12 MAC) vs. Toledo Rockets (15-14, 6-8 MAC)
Date: Wednesday February 29, 2012
Tipoff: 7 p.m.
Location: NIU Convocation Center • DeKalb, Ill.
Radio: WLBK 1360-AM in DeKalb, WJOL 1340-AM in Joliet and WLIP 1050-AM in Kenosha
Live Stats: NIUHuskies.com

On Saturday, January 14th 2012, the Huskies came away with their first MAC and D-I victory of the season over the Central Michigan Chippewas 74-66. The ecstasy of that victory would only last so long as four days later the Huskies traveled to Toledo and got rocked 41-71.

Nothing worked in that game. Toledo shot a ridiculous 53.2% compared to only 30.2% for NIU. 23 turnover. The Huskies did get to the line more than the Rockets, but only made 12 of 23 points. The 40 point margin of victory was the largest of the conference season. Now it's payback time.

I'm sure the Huskies will be chomping at the bit to defeat the Rockets on a rather peculiar senior night.

The two seniors to be honored will be Tyler Storm and DeMarcus Grady.

Who? You might ask yourself seeing those two names.

A huge prospect coming out of high school, it took forward Tyler Storm a while to get acclimated with the college game. He's having his best season so far as arguably the best 6th man on the team. He's playing 13.7 mins per game and scores 3.7 ppg and grabs 2.7 rpg, both career highs.

His season has been up and down, but in 29 minutes and 17 points vs. Miami OH, Storm his his peak, guiding the Huskies to a 62-59 victory over the Miami Redhawks at home.

Grady is probably more famous for his time on the gridiron, switching from QB to WR. Now another position change as playing point guard part-time for the Huskies. Grady made his debut January 18th vs Toledo ironically and added some much needed depth as Zach Miller went down with his knee injury. Just as he played a bit last year, Montgomery welcomed him on the team.

Miller plays only 5.8 mpg, but he's helped this team quite a bit just by being on the team these past two seasons.

Missing is Tim Toler, who got kicked off the team earlier this season. Oh wells.

I really hope the Huskies can put together a victory for the seniors. They've been so close lately and now is the time to put that last W on the scoreboard. The spread also likes the revenge spot for the Huskies, as they opened up as 5-point favorites, down to four.

The Huskies expect to slow it down and have a focus on defense [per NStar]:

“They are a high-octane team,” Christian said. “They like to get up and down. The last game we weren’t able to stop them in transition with our turnovers and our quick shots, but we’ve learned in order to beat them we have to keep them in the low 60s and 50s, take care of the ball and stop them in transition.”

Sounds like a 62-61 grind-it-out victory for the Huskies. What do you think?