MARYVILLE, MO. – Time off can be a fickle thing. Too much, a team gets rusty. Not enough, a team gets weary. 

Saul Phillips and the Northern State men’s basketball team has tried to use its downtime to its advantage.

“We tried to take advantage of the time off rather than lament it,” Phillips said. “It came at a good time.”

The Wolves, who claimed the Northern Sun regular season title – and a first round bye in the conference tournament – before bowing out in the semifinals, have played just two games since Feb. 18, a stretch of nearly three weeks.

“We got a chance to get completely healthy,” Phillips said. “Obviously you pick up a little bit of rust, but we tried to take measures to make sure that didn’t happen.”

Northern will ramp back up Saturday when they begin play in the NCAA Central Region tournament. The Wolves earned the No. 2 seed in the region and will face No. 7 Emporia State at 2:15 p.m.

And with most of the health issues addressed, Phillips said the Wolves are heading into the tournament with confidence.

“We have the best region in America in terms of strength,” Phillips said. “Whoever comes out of this region has a chance to win the national championship, and I think we have a chance to win the region.”

First things first, though. The Wolves will have to take care of a Hornets squad that enters with a 22-8 record and has some interesting defensive matchups for the Wolves.

“Everyone here is worthy of being here,” Phillips said, noting that his staff’s scouting work has been ongoing for about a week and a half.

Northern has just six losses on the season, including that NSIC tournament loss to Minnesota-Duluth and a narrow 3-point loss to region host and defending national champion Northwest Missouri State in the season opener.

“Our schedule has prepared us for this,” Phillips said. “Our guys aren’t backing away from it. But we’ve got to play well three days in a row to get out of here.”