The Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team restarts Mid-American Conference play on Tuesday night, Feb. 13, when the Huskies welcome Buffalo to the NIU Convocation Center. Tipoff against the Bulls is slated for 7 p.m. and will be available on ESPN+, along with radio on 94-9 WDKB in DeKalb, the NIU Huskies app and the Varsity Network app, while tickets are available now at NIUHuskies.com/tickets.

NIU returns to conference play having won its last two league games against Eastern Michigan (Feb. 3) and Miami (Feb. 6) before falling at South Alabama in the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge this past Saturday (Feb. 10).

Zarique Nutter (Newark, N.J./Clarendon College) recorded his second career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds last time out against South Alabama while Zion Russell (Upper Marlboro, Md./National Christian Academy) netted a new career-high 13 points along with a new career-best eight rebounds against the Jaguars.

Over the last five games, Nutter is averaging 18.2 points per game and 7.0 rebounds per contest.

Yanic Konan Niederhauser (Fraschels, Switzerland/Ursping) recorded a career-best five blocks against South Alabama, he is currently ranked 19th in the country averaging 2.21 blocks per game. As a team, NIU is ranked 17th nationally averaging 5.2 blocks per contest.

The contest with Buffalo features two of the youngest teams in the country, according to KenPom’s ranking of Division I experience. NIU ranks 301st nationally while Buffalo is ranked 311th.

Buffalo comes to DeKalb with a 3-20 overall record, including a 1-9 mark in conference play. The Bulls scored an 82-81 overtime victory on Saturday (Feb. 10) in the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge. Two players score in double figures for the Bulls, led by 18.0 points per game from Sy Chatman. Isaiah Adams adds 13.2 points per game for Buffalo.

Buffalo ranks 46th nationally in fouls per game, committed just 15.1 per game, and 51st in blocks, averaging 4.6 per contest. Chatman leads the Bulls in blocks with 1.43 per game.

The Bulls have won each of the last five games in the series against the Huskies, with NIU’s last victory coming on Jan. 4, 2020, in Buffalo.

Following Tuesday’s game, NIU returns to the road to visit Kent State on Saturday (Feb. 17) before hosting a pair of games next week as they welcome Ball State (Feb. 20) and Ohio (Feb. 24) to DeKalb. Tickets for all remaining home games are available now at NIUHuskies.com/tickets.