The opening sentence in the Columbus Dispatch article about the game last night is one for the ages. Feels pretty overdramatic and hyperbolic, but that sure doesn't take away from my joy of reading it. Here it is:

"It was a blowout nobody saw coming but that Ohio State will feel the effects of for years."

Oh, be still my heart.

May 9-11

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I hate to bring it up... but with the Portal and ease of transfer these days, will he play out his final season for NU? I know Collins has had some good recruits the past few years, but I don't know how competitive we'll be going forward....

Northwestern (13-13, 4-11 Big Ten) is on the road this evening at Ohio State (15-11, 7-8 Big Ten). The game has an earlier tip off at 5:30 pm CT and will air on FS1.

Really great to see him score 15 points without any 3’s. Totally different player from 5 or 6 weeks ago. Feel bad that he and Nicholson can’t finish going to the tournament but at least they are healthy and contributing. With Berry back to form, this could have been a very good team. What a shame.

Its so much more fun to write about the team when they play well and win.


Ty Berry and Matt Nicholson, the veterans, share "star of the game" honors.
Solid play by KJ Windham and Angelo Ciaravino provided support, with both freshmen (finally) getting 25+ minutes - and playing well.
Jordan Clayton got the start again. Its just a headscratcher at this point. As is his habit, he took the first shot and the 3rd shot of the game, missing both and then never attempting another field goal.
He played the first 3:12 of the 2nd half, then Collins subbed in Windham and KJ played the rest of the game.
Windham played with poise and skill - the talent is obvious - bouncing back from a bad game against Nebraska.
Ciaravino is big, athletic and disruptive, with good basketball instincts.

Nick Martinelli was on the bench with fouls for the final 7:03 of the first half. Mullins/Ciaravino/Windham/Berry closed out the half with an 11-9 win over that period.

Lastly, toward the end of the first half, KJ Windham passed up an open 3 pointer and his coach barked at him to take that shot after we'd lost possession... so of course the next time down the floor Windham jacked up an ill-advised shot from 4 feet outside the arc, which missed badly. Just let them play, coach. Calm encouragement for the young guys...

Since Leach was lost for the season, I've been stressing the importance of playing Nicholson/Martinelli/Windham and any combination of Berry, Mullins and Ciaravino.
It might seem obvious to you. Seemed obvious to me.
But in the Washington game Collins only played those lineups for 5:31. Those lineups won 12-2. We lost the game 76-71.
Against Oregon, those lineups played for 11 minutes and won 27-19. We lost the game 81-75.
Against Nebraska, those lineups played 11:23 and lost 14-12. We lost the game 68-64.
Finally against Ohio State, the good lineups played 23 minutes and outscored OSU 44-34. Of course this means the "not so good" lineups outscored OSU 26-15, which reflects some improvement on the part of Jordan Clayton and Keenan Fitzmorris - at least for this game.
The point is, however, that the good lineups have outscored our 4 opponents a combined 95-69 since Leach got injured.
And that means they need to play as much as possible.

Deacon Schmitt out of Windsor HS in Windsor, CO picks up an NU offer.

6’5”, 305, 4.04 GPA and a great name for an OL.

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I talked to 2026 tackle Claude Mpouma from Chicago Phillips about his recruitment from Northwestern and his offer pregame last week.

I have been following this closely for several weeks now, and Martinelli's lead is razor thin (see below). I knew he needed 18 last night to stay on top and he got those two free throws in the last minute to get to exactly 18. Here are the leaders:


Garcia and Tonje play tomorrow, in case you want to keep track yourself.

I wonder if Illinois would consider this because of a large amount of Illinois alumni? Then this would trickle down to everyone, us, Northern Illinois, Loyola, etc.



Alabama lawmakers have cooked up a plan to recruit more athletes to the state and win more championships, by tempting top prospects with tax breaks on the money they take in for name, image and likeness.

Rep. Joe Lovvorn, R-Auburn, introduced HB240, the Competitive Edge NIL Tax Cut Act, in the Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday. This would exempt student athletes from paying state income tax on the money they earn through NIL deals.

“As NIL continues to change the landscape of college sports, the state must work to foster an environment that helps our schools land America’s top recruits,” Rep. Lovvorn said in a statement. “Exempting NIL earnings from state income tax gives Alabama a competitive edge, leading to more students receiving a quality education here and more championships coming home to Alabama.”

Here are my takeaways from Northwestern's dominant 70-49 win in Columbus over Ohio State.

Here are my takeaways from Northwestern's dominant 70-49 win in Columbus over Ohio State.

Junior Day visitor Gavin Meier picked up an NU offer today. He had been offered by Wisconsin and Auburn earlier this week. He attends Janesville Parker HS.

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We were ahead of our time...

The pipeline will continue.

Always love beating those bastards. That was a really satisfying win. Collins is such a great leader and our players are high character so quit is not in their DNA. Let’s keep it rolling the final four games of the season and get in the BTT first and then the Crown/NIT afterwards. And hey… maybe we can get on a heater and sub step 2 😉.

Loved to see Matt and KJ attack the rim. Some really smart work on defense to run guys off the three point line to force long 2s. Our energy was top notch. Lots to like from this undermanned group.

The first NET ratings of the season have been released, and NU checks in at #73. Obviously this needs to get better, as that is not enough to make the tournament, but there's a lot of season left to play. I'll track our resume every week or so.

A general rule of thumb is that Quad 1 wins help your resume and Quad 3/4 losses hurt it. So here's our first resume of the year:

QUAD 1 (0-2)
A #40 Dayton - L
N #47 Butler - L

QUAD 2 (0-0)

QUAD 3 (2-0)
H #132 Montana State - W
N #149 UNLV - W

QUAD 4 (4-0)
H #161 UIC - W
H #279 Pepperdine - W
H #299 Eastern Illinois - W
H #302 Lehigh - W

We'd like to see Butler stay in the top 50 to keep that as a Q1 loss, but Q2 losses don't hurt so it's not a big deal either way. Similarly, UIC would be a Q3 win if they improved just one spot to #160, but a Q3 win isn't worth much more than a Q4 win.

This week, NU has a Q1 road game at #54 Iowa and a Q1 home game against #10 Illinois. Obviously any win over Illinois would be big, but the game in Iowa City appears winnable and would be a good early resume builder.

Can we talk about the next breakout star in the NBA? Wemby was the main attraction for the host country during the Olympics. Will he bring home gold in 2028? I’m looking forward to watching his game develop over the next four years.


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We probably won’t beat Wisconsin or the SEC for him but at least he did us a solid by tweeting it

Gavin Mueller (no relation) is an interesting prospect. He hasn't played a down of high school football yet and has 11 offers and a lot of big-time interest. NU has invited him to a game this fall.

I talked to 4-star 2026 TE Lincoln Watkins about his offer from Northwestern, his relationship with NU TE coach Paul Creighton, his taste in music, the six positions he plays for Port Huron Northern, track and field and more.

Make the Big Ten Tournament, get a W and play in the NIT. That would be a decent send-off for our super seniors and give meaningful competition to the returnees for next year.

The fact that we have lost to every team below or next to us in the standings excepting Gophers makes me nervous though. Losses against Penn St, Iowa and now Washington really hurt. Iowa we get another crack at but those 2 above plus Rutgers are our only regular season meetings.

Indiana and USC you have to figure will win some more so our advantage over them may not even come into play.

I’m going top 10 all time but no higher. However, if this kept us out of the tourney this year… would have been top 3 for sure. Brutal.