In September, it was announced that Seattle U would be one of 114 teams to participate in one of the BracketBuster games, a concept which provides programs with an opportunity to play non-conference opponents late in the regular season. Seattle U was one of the 57 designated visiting teams and was matched up with Northern Illinois, a designated home team in the process.
Northern Illinois is currently 7-12 overall, including 3-4 in Mid-American Conference play which places the team in third place in the MAC West Division. The Huskies are led by senior guard Xavier Silas, a transfer from the University of Colorado who is averaging 24.2 points per game, currently second in the country in scoring average.
The two teams are close together in the current RPI rankings, with Northern Illinois sitting in 287th place and Seattle University now in 292nd place. There is one common opponent between the Redhawks and the Huskies, as Utah Valley lost to Northern Illinois Dec. 31 in DeKalb, Ill., 86-76, and defeated Seattle U Jan. 13 in Orem, Utah, 89-73.
This will be the first meeting all-time between Seattle U and Northern Illinois and the eighth game Seattle U will play against a current member of the Mid-American Conference. The Redhawks are 3-4 against MAC schools, with the last contest coming during the 1969-70 season, a 76-68 victory over Toledo in Seattle.
According to Northern Illinois' website, the game is set to take place Saturday, Feb. 19, at 3 p.m. Central time (1 p.m. PST). The game was not one of the 11 contests chosen to be televised on the ESPN networks. As part of the BracketBuster agreement, Northern Illinois will travel to Seattle to face the Redhawks at KeyArena at Seattle Center in either the 2011-12 or 2012-13 season.
Seattle University, currently 8-13, faces Loyola Marymount Monday night at Gersten Pavilion in Los Angeles, Calif., beginning at 7 p.m. The Redhawks will then play four of its next five games at KeyArena, beginning with the contest against Portland Saturday, Feb. 5, at 7:10 p.m. that will be carried by both 710 ESPN Seattle and FSN Northwest.