ROSEMONT – Playing without its leading scorer for the first six games of the season wasn’t easy for the Northern Illinois men’s basketball team.

But freshman Akeem Springs said it never really felt like Abdel Nader, who played his second game in Sunday’s 69-64 loss to DePaul, was away from the team when the sophomore was suspended for unspecified reasons.

“He practices really hard. You can tell every day in practice,” Springs said. “We’ve had him in all of the practices, and he’s been handling it really well. It’s not something we have to get used to again.”