The Northwestern men’s basketball team begins its 2014-2015 regular season at home against Houston Baptist 7 p.m. tonight.
The Wildcats are looking to win their seventh-straight season opener and second under coach Chris Collins. Northwestern (14-19, 6-12 B1G last season) will be facing the Huskies for the first time ever.
Fans will finally get to see the regular season debut of one of the best freshman classes in school history, led by forward Vic Law. The St. Rita product is NU’s highest recruit and is a probable starter for tonight’s game. In Friday’s exhibition against McKendree, he scored 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting and grabbed 4 boards in a team-high 26 minutes played.
Guard Bryant McIntosh is the other probable freshman starting alongside Law. Much of the attention is on Law but McIntosh has impressed many since stepping onto campus. He went a perfect 6-for-6 from the field, scoring 15 points and adding 11 assists against McKendree.
The team is also returning six players from last year’s team, including likely starters JerShon Cobb, Sanjay Lumpkin and Alex Olah.
Cobb, last year’s second-leading scorer, will have to carry a bigger load on offense without guard Drew Crawford, who graduated from the program last season.
Houston Baptist enjoyed many years of being a perennial NAIA powerhouse until switching to Division I before the 2007-2008 season. Since then, the Huskies are 65-149. Ron Cottrell is entering his 25th season as the program’s head coach.
The Huskies return their leading scorer in guard Tyler Russell, who averaged 8.3 points per game last season.
Be sure to follow @nnnsports for tweets during the game and other online content.