By Jonathan Raymond, News Staff

The men’s basketball team will first take the court tonight at 7 p.m. at Solomon Court for the annual Red vs. Black scrimmage. The Huskies’ first regular-seasongame will be at Siena Tuesday. Ultimately, these games will mark the beginning of a season in which the Huskies face their highest expectations in quite some time.
This year’s team is, on paper, built to win. Built to compete at the highest level of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). Built to make the NCAA tournament and, just maybe, even make a little noise come March Madness.
Not since 1991 has Northeastern participated in the Big Dance, but the NCAA tournament should be the expectation this year. Head coach Bill Coen has done a fantastic job transitioning NU into the CAA since he took over for the 2006-07 season, the school’s second in the conference. This is the year when Huskies’ fans, and Coen himself, ought to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
The expectations placed on this team are not unreasonable. The high-end talent, with guard Matt Janning, and forwards Nkem Ojoughboh and Manny Adako entering their senior seasons, coupled with junior guard Chaisson Allen, is there. The complementary talent, in the form of senior guard Baptiste Bataille and junior forward Vinny Lima, is there. And the Huskies also boast a seven-man freshman class that is expected to produce the role players and hole-fillers that should make this Northeastern team an exceptional one. The schedule, as it turns out, is also nearly perfectly tailor-made for a mid-major team with dreams of March in its head.
If at any time this season the Huskies find themselves struggling, and there seems to be a sense of urgency, it’s because there is one. This is the last season for Janning, Coen’s signature recruit of his short tenure at NU. It’s also the last season for Adako and Ojoughboh, two players who have had very solid careers at Northeastern.
More importantly, this is a year for Northeastern basketball to get back on the map. A year for the student interest that revolves around hockey to flow over into basketball season. A year for Matthews Arena to be as packed and loud during a game of hoops as it is on your typical Friday or Saturday night when the puck drops.
If an NCAA tournament, CAA-championship-winning team can’t get the student body interested, well, then we don’t deserve an NCAA tournament, CAA-championship-winning team.
But for now, it’s up to the players to deliver on these expectations. I have no doubt they want it twice as much as any of Northeastern’s biggest fans want it. It’s simply a matter of executing. Each year since Coen took over, the program has made strides. Now is the year for all of that to come together.
If last year’s NCAA tournament appearance and run at a Hockey East regular season title was the breakthrough year for the men’s hockey team as a program, even if they happen to regress some this year, then this year needs to do the same for the basketball program.
It would be unreasonable to expect next year’s team to duplicate what this year’s team is capable of, without Janning or Adako or Ojoughboh or even Bataille, an underrated and productive player. That’s why this year needs to be the year they fulfill that potential.
If the excitement around the basketball team is ever going to equal that which surrounds the hockey team, this is the season they need to deliver.
I think they’re capable of it. The people at collegeinsider.com, who put out the mid-major poll and ranked the Huskies No. 13, think they’re capable of it. The coaches of the CAA, who ranked NU second in the preseason poll, think they’re capable of it.
This is the season. Or, as the Athletic Department would tell us, now is the time.

‘- Jonathan Raymond can be reached
at [email protected].