Joe Sports

Ricardo Patton's second NIU team made its 2008-09 debut on Sunday afternoon against Freed-Hardeman, an NAIA outfit that made a 1,000-mile round-trip on the bus from Henderson, Tenn., in order to give the Huskies a game.

NIU trailed 40-34 at the break before rallying for an 84-72 triumph before 300 or 400 fans at NIU's Convocation Center.

Since the Huskies have just five players back from last year's 6-22 team -- and seven guys made their NIU debut on Sunday -- it's probably not fair to stick the guys with lasting labels. But, hey, the media sees what it sees. Here are three quick sketches of players who'll matter this year:

CHAMPAIGN -- Greetings from eight stories above Memorial Stadium's field, where the Illini turned what appeared to be the Big Ten's only comfortable win on Saturday into yet another nailbiter.

Some points of interest:
--I put this quote into my game story for tomorrow, but I can't keep it under wraps. Maybe it's because the Hawks fall off Illinois' schedule for the next two years (as does Wisconsin), but sophomore WR Arrelious Benn didn't mince his words:

"I’d say we got a lot of revenge beating Iowa. Iowa’s a team that just thinks they’re so much better than us and we just came out and beat ’em."

Then, a few moments later...

There are lots of places to find the Associated Press' preseason men's basketball poll. Here's one: http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/rankings

This is my ninth season voting in the poll, which is merely for amusement purposes only. NCAA seeds aren't influenced by the polls, but I think it does a decent job of letting the public know who's who. I try to do a good job of recognizing "mid-majors" that are getting the job done.

Here's my preseason ballot and All-American team:

1. North Carolina
2. Connecticut
3. Louisville
4. UCLA
5. Oklahoma
6. Pittsburgh
7. Texas
8. Duke
9. Notre Dame
10. Tennessee
11. Purdue
12. Memphis
13. Arizona State
14. Marquette
15. Villanova
16. Baylor
17. USC
18. Wisconsin
19. Wake Forest
20. Michigan State
21. Syracuse
22. Miami

Northwestern released its weekly injury report Thursday afternoon. For the first time, the Wildcats listed someone who wasn't "out" for the upcoming game.

Senior QB C.J. Bacher is deemed "questionable" with a "leg" injury, though we know it's a right hamstring problem.

Senior RB Tyrell Sutton, of course, is out after undergoing surgery Tuesday morning to repair injured ligaments in his left wrist. Notably, Sutton is not listed as out for the season.

These four are listed as out for the season, as they have been for varying amounts of time;
MLB Malcolm Arrington
SB Drake Dunsmore
DE Rejaie Johnson
CB Justan Vaughn

LW

There have been so many times during my college-beat travels where I've met student-athletes and thought, "Where do they find the time to do everything?"

That's especially true when it comes to Illinois senior center Ryan McDonald. Not only is he in the midst of his fourth year as a starter on the Illini's offensive line -- he can break the school record for starts (Tim Simpson's 48) if he finishes out this season and the team makes a bowl -- but he has a bit of a demanding academic calendar.

McDonald owns a 3.81 GPA in aerospace engineering. Yes, aerospace engineering. The other day, I watched an episode of "Illinois Football: The Journey" on the Big Ten Network where the camera crew followed McDonald to one of his classes.

Time for more computer love ($10 if you can name who wrote the '80s song by that name):

Last week, Jeff Sagarin's computer picks went 5-2 overall, and four of his 5 winners met or exceeded his predicted victory margin. He was dead-on with the Penn State win and way close than the oddsmakers on PSU, MSU and Minny. You can't blame him for not foreseeing Juice Williams' 3 interceptions at Wisconsin or Northwestern's minus-5 turnover margin at Indiana.

Illinois by 3.5 over WISCONSIN (Loss-Wisky by 10)
Northwestern by 12 over INDIANA (Loss-IU by 2)
NORTHERN ILLINOIS by 12 over Bowling Green (NIU by 3)
Penn State by 7 over OHIO STATE (PSU by 7)
Michigan State by 12 over MICHIGAN (MSU by 14)
Minnesota by 5.5 over PURDUE (Minny by 11)

DePaul has a freshman center by the name of Krys Faber. He's 6-foot-11 and 260 pounds and Scout.com ranked him as the nation's No. 23 prep center last year.

The Palmdale, Calif. native (think 45 minutes north of L.A.) seems likely to play quite a bit for the Blue Demons this year as some sort of platoon with senior Matija Poscic and redshirt freshman Kene Obi.

And he really wanted to attend Northern Illinois.

Last fall, while Faber was still under the recruiting radar, he visited DeKalb with his mother, Roxanne. He had a great time. His mom loved the place, too.

Straight outta Evanston...

Backup quarterback Mike Kafka took all of the first-team snaps on Tuesday morning as Northwestern practiced inside to prepare for Minnesota's "Rollerdome" atmosphere.

"The more you get out there, the more you get used to the speed of the game," Kafka said. "The game slows down for you. We're just trying to get better as an offense day-in and day-out."

Kafka hasn't been declared the starter for the game. First-stringer C.J. Bacher, who attended the practice and basically hung close beside offensive coordinator Mick McCall the whole time, is still listed as questionable after injuring his right hamstring on Saturday at Indiana.

In other Cats news:

The folks who run the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award just issued the list of 13 semifinalists for their award.

Illinois' Juice Williams, who ranked among the nation's top 10 players in total offense and passing efficiency prior to Saturday's 3-interception performance at Wisconsin, did not make the cut.

Penn State's Daryll Clark is the Big Ten's only representative on the list.

The Big 12 leads the way with six guys: Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, Mizzou's Chase Daniel, Texas Tech's Graham Harrell, Texas' Colt McCoy, Kansas' Todd Reesing and Oklahoma State's Zac Robinson.

The SEC put 2007 Heisman winner Tim Tebow, Georgia's Matt Stafford and Alabama's John Parker Wilson on the list. BYU's Max Hall, Tulsa's David Johnson and USC's Mark Sanchez round out the group.

His best running back, Tyrell Sutton, is out for at least the rest of the regular season with a broken left wrist.

His best quarterback, C.J. Bacher, is questionable at best for Saturday's trip to 7-1 Minnesota after he injured his right hamstring on Saturday at Indiana.

His Wildcats, who had been ranked No. 22 in the BCS standings, could be reeling after those injuries as well as an unexpected 21-19 loss to those Hoosiers.

So what Coaching 101 maneuver did Pat Fitzgerald pull off to start this week? He hired someone to speak at Monday's team meeting.

"I brought in a special motivational speaker this morning and the guys took to him pretty well," Fitzgerald said, deadpan. "I brought in Matt Foley, who spoke to the team this morning. So we're doing fine."