Nov. 7, 2007

Northern Illinois senior guard Ryan Paradise will update his blog throughout the season and keep Huskie fans posted about the NIU men's basketball team.

11/6/07

We just finished our second exhibition game [against Augustana]. They just gave us a real good test Monday night but we were able to hang on for a 77-63 win. Mike Hart played really well giving us 13 points and some very clutch free throws in the second half.

Last Friday we battled Aurora University for a hard-fought 87-70 victory. Shaun Logan and Jarvis Nichols both played really tough in that game. Both of the games were a little sloppy as we are still getting accustomed to playing together and getting our offenses and defenses smoothed out.

Our guys really played hard in both games, and as long as we continue to do that, I think everything else will take care of itself.

We are looking forward as a team to our upcoming tournament this weekend at Northern Iowa. We will have three games against three very good teams in Northern Iowa, UMass, and Cal Poly. Playing three tough teams in three days will be extremely taxing physically, but should really give us a good idea of where we are as a team and what we need to work on. This is the beginning of our tough non-conference schedule, and we are ready to get it started.

Until next time,

Ryan Paradise #10