All I can say is WOW. This is the best schedule in years. The local flavor is tremendous with road trips to Northwestern, Illinois, Chicago State, UIC along with a marquee home date against Bradley. It will be the first time ever Northern Illinois has ever taken on the Illini. Tubby Smith's Minnesota, UNI & Temple are all teams that are consistently good every year and we get the Owls at home (before the students get back though). Tennessee State & SEMO make their return trips to Dekalb after playing both teams last year on the road. MD Eastern Shore & North Dakota should be easy opponents sandwiching the tough Temple game to get us prepared for the conference season. No ridiculous road trips or anything like that. Definitely an 'A' schedule for a team that only lost their 6th man to graduation in Sean Smith.
Coach Patton's thoughts about this season and the future:
"Bradley is very well thought of in this state, and nationally as well," Patton said. "It's the beginning of a non-conference series that we hope to continue for a long time. We'll also be resuming our series against both Southern Illinois and Loyola (Chicago) next season."
"We're hoping to start a great local rivalry with UIC," Patton said. "Jimmy Collins has done an excellent job with that program; they had some very impressive non-conference wins last season. It will be a very challenging game for us on the road, and we're excited about that series continuing in future seasons."
"The thing I like most about our MAC schedule is that we finish the season at home, and two of our last three conference games are at the Convocation Center," said Patton. "We've got some challenging cross-divisional games that will take place on the road, but that's part of a league race. We are going to need to take our show on the road this season, and also continue to play well at home (in conference play)."
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2009-2010 SCHEDULE
( Click on an event for complete event information )
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| Date | Opponent / Event | Location | Time |
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| 11/13/09 | at Northwestern | Evanston, Ill. | TBA |
| 11/17/09 | at Illinois | Champaign, Ill. | TBA |
| 11/20/09 | vs. Tennessee State | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 11/22/09 | vs. SEMO | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 11/28/09 | at Chicago State | Chicago, Ill. | TBA |
| 12/02/09 | vs. Bradley | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 12/05/09 | at Northern Iowa | Cedar Falls, Iowa | TBA |
| 12/15/09 | at Minnesota | Minneapolis, Minn. | TBA |
| 12/19/09 | at Uic | Chicago, Ill. | TBA |
| 12/22/09 | vs. Maryland Eastern Shore | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 12/30/09 | vs. Temple | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 01/02/10 | vs. North Dakota | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 01/09/10 | at Ball State * | Muncie, Ind. | TBA |
| 01/13/10 | vs. Western Michigan * | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 01/16/10 | vs. Eastern Michigan * | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 01/20/10 | at Toledo * | Toledo, Ohio | TBA |
| 01/23/10 | at Central Michigan * | Mt. Pleasant, Mich. | TBA |
| 01/27/10 | vs. Ohio | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 01/30/10 | vs. Buffalo * | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 02/01/10 | at Kent State * | Kent, Ohio | TBA |
| 02/03/10 | at Akron * | Akron, Ohio | TBA |
| 02/06/10 | vs. Miami (Oh) * | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 02/10/10 | at Bowling Green * | Bowling Green, Ohio | TBA |
| 02/13/10 | vs. Ball State * | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 02/17/10 | at Western Michigan * | Kalamazoo, Mich. | TBA |
| 02/20/10 | ESPNU BracketBusters | TBA | TBA |
| 02/24/10 | vs. Central Michigan | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 02/27/10 | at Eastern Michigan * | Ypsilanti, Mich. | TBA |
| 03/04/10 | vs. Toledo * | DeKalb, Ill. | TBA |
| 03/07/10 | MAC Tournament First Round | Campus Sites | TBA |
| 03/11/10 | MAC Tournament Quarterfinals | Cleveland (Quicken Loans Arena) | TBA |
| 03/12/10 | MAC Tournament Semifinals | Cleveland (Quicken Loans Arena) | TBA |
| 03/13/10 | MAC Championship Game | Cleveland (Quicken Loans Arena) | TBA |
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