20 - 7 Northwestern B-Ball Appreciation Thread
As we watch Michigan b-ball struggle to get into the tournament, it is impressive just how amazing has been Northwestern's accomplishments this season as they are just one game away from 1st place in the B1G.
Watching them dismantle Iowa tonight...their front court looks like three Tschetters but amazing what their two veteran guards have done in taking them to the top of the league.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:19 PM ^
11 wins in the B10 would be the most since....1931?
go cats!
February 19th, 2023 at 9:30 PM ^
People here would have had Collins fired many times over. At least judging by the response to a coach who has taken us to the Sweet 16 three of his first four years. Let's all accept that people are silly.
February 19th, 2023 at 10:29 PM ^
Many schools would have fired him. After reaching the NCAA tournament in 2017, his program promptly posted five consecutive losing seasons. Northwestern is one of the only schools where a coach could survive that.
I wouldn't be shocked if the same happened over the next five years. This year's NW team relies heavily on two senior guards (Audige and Buie). No one else on the team is scoring more than nine points per game.
IMO, their season is more a testament to the importance of experience - especially in the backcourt - than anything else.
February 20th, 2023 at 8:56 AM ^
"IMO, their season is more a testament to the importance of experience - especially in the backcourt - than anything else." If only Michigan fans would abide by such a sentiment when it comes to this very young and talented roster, struggling to close out games but still competitive against a strong schedule.
February 20th, 2023 at 10:41 AM ^
The broadcast on Saturday actually pointed out how many close losses we had to good teams. We have losses of 5 or fewer points to teams like Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Purdue, and Indiana. I honestly have no idea how CMU happened, but this team is one of the least experienced teams in the nation let alone the B10 and it shows with that stat alone
February 20th, 2023 at 2:32 PM ^
Does beating NW now count as a “Quad 1” win?
February 20th, 2023 at 4:50 PM ^
The road win is Quad 1. The home win is Quad 2.
February 21st, 2023 at 2:38 PM ^
The last time NW had 11 Big Ten wins, the Star Spangled Banner was not yet the National Anthem of the US.
However they started that 11th game in 1931, it was not with the Star Spangled Banner.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:20 PM ^
I should have added that their best inside player, Ryan Young, portaled to Duke before the season. Could you imagine having our two young guards coming back next year and then Reed enters portal to go to ACC. Would be a sucker-punch that would be hard to come back from.
Kudos to Northwestern for proving it takes a team not an ego to win.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:39 PM ^
If I'm not mistaken, Nance just transferred to UNC as well.
February 20th, 2023 at 8:22 AM ^
You are correct, I thought of him but swore it was 2 years ago (hard to keep the Nance's straight).
So we are talking about going into next year thrilled our two guards are coming back but then Reed and Dickinson portal to the ACC. I am not sure Michigan fans would even turn on the tube to watch any UM bball the following year.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:31 PM ^
Really a Northwestern Appreciation thread on Mgoblog? Seems a bit silly.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:35 PM ^
it is a great school, they don't cheat, they are tiny compared to the rest of the B10, and as much as we like to make fun of their coach you have to tip your hat to the perennial underdog team having what qualifies as a great season for them. i'll be rooting for them in the NCAA's.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:38 PM ^
'To hell with Notre Western'
February 19th, 2023 at 8:39 PM ^
Nice.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:40 PM ^
A2T you are a champ, but how can you not be pleased for a program that just tied its most B10 wins since 1931? not our rival, great academics, and my brother played football there and they were actively recruiting one of my sons for football. love that school. happy for success for them.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:46 PM ^
Congrats on your son. I can see why you are fond of them. In your case I take back my comments! I do agree it's an excellent school and gotta respect what their Hoops team is doing this year. How did we sweep them? !
February 19th, 2023 at 9:21 PM ^
Don't take it back! To hell with Notre Western! But a soft to hell though.
I'm holding a grudge since 1995 and 1996. Back to back!
February 19th, 2023 at 10:31 PM ^
plus, the cats got fran mccaffery thrown out with 2 technicals, then got a third tech for one of the mccaffery sons. has to be a record there.
February 20th, 2023 at 11:08 AM ^
Ed McCaffrey was thrown out with only two technical seasons, and didn't get his son a third. has to be a parallel there.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:49 PM ^
One of the few disagreements that my parents had was about Northwestern. My mother was a proud NU grad many years ago, and my father was a very proud M grad some years before that. He also contended that a degree from the Northwestern University Training School was a wonderful degree. Go NUTS 'Cats!
February 19th, 2023 at 9:43 PM ^
Guess I'm naive. I thought it was a joke, simply a play on "To hell with Notre Dame."
FWIW, I also attended Northwestern, and thinks it's a great place.
February 20th, 2023 at 12:02 PM ^
The worst Northwestern is ever going to be for me is to be an occasional mild irritant.
February 19th, 2023 at 11:11 PM ^
I get it, people like to root for the underdog --- but some of the current adoration is just because Northwestern hoops isn't viewed as any sort of long-term threat.
If Northwestern hoops turned into the B1G's version of Duke (and there's no reason this is impossible! the institutional and athletic profiles aren't that different), or even Illinois, most folk would come to dislike them.
February 20th, 2023 at 8:58 AM ^
If Northwestern hoops turned into the B1G's version of Duke (and there's no reason this is impossible! the institutional and athletic profiles aren't that different).
chris collins ain't no mike kertewptaserbvski. hell, he ain't even bill foster. he's probably not jon scheyer.
February 20th, 2023 at 12:20 PM ^
a.) coach K cheated, as did wooden way back when
b.) i think your spelling of his name should be mandated as the official spelling.
February 20th, 2023 at 8:07 PM ^
“kertewptaserbvski” sounds like our dog coughing up shreds of a stick he’s been chewing.
February 20th, 2023 at 8:54 PM ^
All you’re missing is a little pile of bark and spit
February 20th, 2023 at 9:01 AM ^
It’s been while since I’ve been on NU’s campus but there are major reasons NU athletics can’t become Duke. Primarily, NU, at least in my experience, refuses to bend on academics for current athletes in a way Duke bends over backwards for.
I have always heard rumors, and read the occasional article in USA Today, that Duke basketball players take correspondence/online courses etc that the school claims it doesn’t allow. The kids who spend all summer traveling for Team USA would all come back with a semester of credits also completed. Supposedly all up to the standards of Duke.
That was absolutely not the case at NU last time I took a look at their academics for athletes. NU athletes are, more or less, held fairly tightly to the standards of other students and most that I saw scraping by academically were eventually asked to leave.
February 21st, 2023 at 2:32 PM ^
My son is at Northwestern. He sees NW football players in actual classes. Hard classes like Engineering classes.
It ain't Ohio State. They come to play school.
February 20th, 2023 at 2:18 PM ^
I agree with all of that, but still don't think it should be a thread on mgoblog lol.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:47 PM ^
The Big Ten is...not good.
February 19th, 2023 at 8:56 PM ^
Related story: we're somehow tied for the last double bye.
February 19th, 2023 at 9:00 PM ^
Beyond the fact NW is doing well and that's cool, they're helping UM's case a bit by continuing to win.
Also, if you're wondering how valuable experience is NW is one of the more experienced teams in the conference and they're also one of the best at winning close games.
February 19th, 2023 at 9:15 PM ^
and they upset the then #1 purdue boilermakers last week.
February 19th, 2023 at 9:24 PM ^
I will say, since there's nothing even close to a dominant team, I expect the tournament to be absolutely wild this year.
February 19th, 2023 at 10:40 PM ^
Absolutely. Tennessee is largely the same team UM played last year in the second round and they were, for a brief time, the #2 team in the country. Houston loses games, Alabama loses games, there really isn't a top-level team this year and I don't think people are going to confident at all with their brackets come March.
February 20th, 2023 at 8:48 AM ^
With all the parity, this will be the year that someone wins $1 million for a perfect bracket.
February 20th, 2023 at 5:23 PM ^
Same chance as always. So miniscule as to be molecular.
February 19th, 2023 at 10:33 PM ^
NW has 6 players who have topped 500 minutes played in a previous season. Michigan has one (not counting Llewellyn), fewest in the Big Ten. Illinois has 3 such players, every other Big Ten team has 4 or more. Some of the criticisms of Juwan are valid, but it is tough to win with an inexperienced roster that has good but not elite young talent to make up for that inexperience.
February 19th, 2023 at 10:38 PM ^
Yeah, Penn St. is sniffing around a tourney bid in no small part because they have one of the most experienced teams in the country. It absolutely helps having guys who've played some college basketball already on your team. Michigan has rolled out lineups recently with between 3 and 4 true or RS freshmen starters and a true freshman as one of the first off the bench. Other than Dickinson and sorta Baker (he never played a ton at Duke but he's at least been in college for a while) they really don't have anyone on the team (with Williams out) who's logged many minutes in these types of games and it shows. The potential is there for them to improve significantly but it's tough to mature that quickly in high-pressure games.
February 20th, 2023 at 4:56 AM ^
One of the Fab Five’s legacies is that they apparently rewired the brains of a large percentage of Michigan fans into expecting teams that depend heavily on freshmen and sophomores to be consistently successful against teams led primarily by juniors and seniors.
February 19th, 2023 at 9:09 PM ^
You know the Big Ten is bad when it’s this far into the season and Northwestern is in serious contention for the conference title.
I’d be willing to put $100 down and say that however many teams make the tournament, none of them will still be standing by the second weekend.
February 20th, 2023 at 11:30 AM ^
I don't know about that, whether the big-10 is good or not is dependent on how it does out of conference, and the big ten always has a lot of teams in the tourney because the middle of the conference has always been strong, that's why I said 19 wins is usually good enough to get in.
And Northwestern is right now a 6-seed, it's not like they're going to have a lot of expectations, if fact after Purdue as a 1, the big ten's teams are all 5 and lower.
February 19th, 2023 at 9:23 PM ^
Sweet fancy Moses
February 19th, 2023 at 9:56 PM ^
Yeah but she can't dance.
February 20th, 2023 at 9:17 AM ^
I bet she's a mean hitchhiker though
February 19th, 2023 at 9:37 PM ^
Anything that keeps Chris Collins upright is okay by me.