I don’t think this is ideal for a team that is trying to figure things out on offense, but this does give Ty some recovery time. I think he’s getting closer to the guy we saw last year.

GA Tech (101 in kenpom), DePaul (97) and Northeastern (145) won’t be chopped liver, but I expect KJ and Gelo to get meaningful minutes in these games.

Will Halkyard LS
Reggie Fleurima WR

have entered the Portal.

Just got an email saying that football season ticket renewals are live. Looks like they jacked up the required donation, at least for my seats on the east side: $700 per ticket, compared to $100 last year. That’s a lot of dough for a mediocre product.

IU must be playing a good team again, because they look bad so far. Their QB looks totally rattled. It’s early, but they need to settle down quickly.

Northwestern (8-3, 1-1 Big Ten) hosts DePaul (8-3, 0-2 Big East) at Welsh-Ryan Arena this afternoon. The game will tip off at 3 pm and will air on BTN.

Awesome to beat DePaul resoundingly. This is a solid 9-3 record. Love the defensive intensity and effort. Brooks is the MAN. Some other really nice pieces tonight too.

Did anyone else wince when he got fouled hard very late, while we were up big & he was still in the game? Didn’t love having him out there at that point.

Suspect free throws could cost us some conference games. Needs to be cleaned up.

I really think this team could go dancing again…but I truly believe #3 needs to improve his shooting for that to happen. We can’t have a clangfest from him almost every night and do what we need to in the B1G season. Love his work on D but he can’t keep shooting like this imo.

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I had the pleasure of meeting the venerable Hungry Jack at the game this afternoon, and I'll be damned if he didn't tell me - ten minutes before tipoff - that he was expecting a twenty point win today. 'Twas almost as if he knew exactly what he was talking about. Was a pleasure meeting you today, sir. You'll have to make more such predictions in the future.

Seems to me a natural to try Lausch at WR assuming Stone is as talented as advertised. From all indications here the coaches are high on Boe so as number two this would give him additional reps for the future. Looks to me like Lausch is a quick learner, has speed, moves and hands and can take a hit. I have my doubts that NU can attract a couple more impact receivers in the portal. Thoughts?

DUI. And the Lions have already cut him.

That’s a bummer. DUIs are nothing to mess with and just plain idiotic in a day and age when there are so many ways to avoid driving after drinking. Glad no one got hurt and hope he learned his lesson. Although it comes at a big cost.

Here are my takeaways from Northwestern’s 20-point win over the Blue Demons.

I’m surprised there’ve been no comments about Farrell and Karlaftis. Two great portal transfers who should really help.

Another out of nowhere commit…

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Here are my takeaways from Northwestern’s 20-point win over the Blue Demons.

These unbalanced schedules with mega conferences just don’t work. Too much is being determined by who you draw in your league schedule and these first two games is a clear example of that. If I was the SEC I would split back into East/West. You’d have one division that is mostly traditional SEC schools and then the west would be the old Big 12 Schools, Arkansas, LSU and Ole Miss.

Big Ten and ACC need to go into PODs. Once the Big ten goes to 20 you can probably do it easier with 4 pods of 5.

TRANSFER CLASS:

COMMITMENTS: 5

OFFERS:
Xavior Gray, OT - Liberty - COMMITTED
Chase Farrell, WR - Stanford - COMMITTED
Preston Stone, QB - SMU - COMMITTED
Jaylin Davies, CB - UCLA
Liam Reardon, LC - Akron - COMMITTED
Yanni Karlaftis, DL - Purdue - COMMITTED
Broderick Roman, C - Eastern Michigan

Off the Board:
Raion Strader, CB
Alex Wohlschlaeger, OT
Jack Tanner, OT
Javion Cole, CB
Marcellus Marshall, OT
Julian Neal, CB
Elijah Culp, CB
Simmons, OT
Poindexter, OT
Himebauch, LS
Trost, OT

Nobody really stood out in a solid effort by the Wildcats. Jalen Leach drew the short straw, going 5 of 16 from the floor with 2 assists, 2 turnovers and one rebound, while backcourt partner Ty Berry put in a good effort going 4 of 8 from the floor, with 3 of 5 from outside the arc, 3 steals, 2 assists, 5 rebounds and zero turnovers.

The starters (Nicholson/Martinelli/Barnhizer/Leach/Berry put together an impressive 35-17 advantage over 16 minutes. That includes getting outscored 6-2 from 3:11 to 0:59 in a game that was essentially over. In other words, at the 3:11 mark the Cats were ahead 69-52, with the starters showing a 33-11 ledger in 14 minutes of game time. It is difficult to do much better than that.

Justin Mullins missed a 3 pointer with 11 minutes to go, got subbed out and didn't re-enter the game until there was a minute left. We only scored 22 points in his 20 minutes of action.

Oh, we inadvertently ran "the other play" for Nicholson when Leach drove to his left down the lane, drew their big guy, threw up a shot off the backboard and Nicholson grabbed it and dunked it. Works every time!

I should mention that when Nicholson picked up his 3rd foul with 17:57 to play, the Cats were only winning 33-26. Hunger took Matt's place with the starters and NU went on a 10-2 run over the next 2:43 to take a 43-28 lead. Georgia Tech was never in the game after that.

A couple sources are saying that Preston Stone, the current backup QB at SMU (and starter last year) might be coming to Northwestern. He’s staying with SMU through the CFP which I respect, which could be a reason for him to wait to declare his decision. We will see.

3197 yards, 28 TD, and 6 Int in 2023 sounds pretty decent to me. Hope we land him to have more competition at the QB spot next year.

The Demons certainly have been pretty blue in recent years. They last made the NCAA in 2003-4, when they were a CUSA member. Their last 20-win season was 2006-7, when they went 9-7 in the Big East (their most recent winning conference record).

Chris Holtman got fired for leading a highly underachieving Ohio State team last year, so DePaul promptly hired him. He did not waste any time remaking the roster. The Blue Demons have 14 new faces this season. The results have been better. They certainly could not get worse, as the team won all of 3 games last year.

But last night the Demons opened conference play with a resounding 89-61 loss at St. John's. They turned it over 24% of the time. Wow.

DePaul has 2 guards who can shoot the 3 ball: Jacob Meyer (43.8%) and Isaiah Rivera (44.3%). G Connor Enright is the facilitator, averaging 30 mpg and 7.1 assists.

The guy who can play a bit is new C David Skogman (8.6 ppg, 6.2 rbd), who has some size but will shoot the 3 (47%).

Pay attention when former Hoosier CJ Gunn enters. He averages 8.4 shots in his 17 minutes.

I think we match up well with this team, though our perimeter defense will have to be sharp. They don't have GT's length and athleticism. Matt can handle Skogman in the paint. If the St. John's game is any indication, we should be able to force a lot of turnovers.

And the last three have still not been rated by Rivals. Seems odd

Per Rivals X.

Good for him, quite a move to the #1 team in the nation. There are the buyers and there are the sellers now, and we’re not a buyer.

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