It looks like another one of those hard-luck seasons for Northwestern.
The Wildcats (4-3) will play at Western Illinois Wednesday night, but starting point guard Jevon Johnson will be back in Evanston, undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee. The cartilage was ripped during Saturday’s 84-49 loss to DePaul.
The inexperienced sophomore is expected to be sidelined from four to six weeks, leaving coach Ricky Byrdsong with 10 players to begin the Big 10 season at home Jan. 7 against Illinois.
Evan Eschmeyer, the 6-foot-11-inch redshirt freshman, has yet to play a college game because of a bone condition in his right foot. It’s highly unlikely that he will be able to play this season.
Senior swingman Dion Lee is serving the fourth game of a six-game suspension for gambling on football games and won’t be back until the Wildcats’ second conference game .
Geno Carlisle, the freshman who has been outplaying Johnson recently as his backup, is expected to replace him in the starting lineup.
Northern Illinois: Off to its best start in 50 years, undefeated Northern Illinois will be in quest of its seventh victory Wednesday night when it meets Air Force in Evans Field House.
The last time the Huskies did this well at the start of the season was when the 1944-45 team won its first 10 games en route to a 15-1 season.
Illinois: Before the season, Illinois coach Lou Henson talked about the necessity of getting senior center Shelly Clark at least 30 minutes a game and perhaps as many as 34.
He’s averaging only 19.3 so far, but he has looked good of late, especially in contributing a season-high 14 points and 11 rebounds against Illinois-Chicago on Saturday.
Silly fouls have continued to be a problem. Clark is committing one foul every 6.82 minutes.
Clark said referees won’t blow so many whistles on him once the Big 10 season begins, because they expect a more physical game during conference play.
