From Texas TECH, via a prep school.

From Nazareth Academy.

Huge huge huge win. Boy was that needed. Exhale.

1) So happy for Borg who got absolutely, appallingly screwed by the refs at Rutgers. Without him going off, we lose.

2) Man, that was an ugly second half defensively, allowing 46(!)…I was so nervous in the last few minutes.

3) Another game shooting in the 30s from the field. I get losing Ty hurts but that’s bad.

4) The last two points are both rooted in this: We are GASSED. Having no depth is hurting us. They need rest, badly.

5) All three home games “should” be wins. But nothing should be taken for granted. I still think 11-9 gets us in, but I’d still love 12+, which is still attainable. I’d be way more worried if this game had gone the other way.

YES/PHEW/GO CATS

NU needs to go into a partnership with the Bears for recruiting purposes to increase our ability to recruit the higher star players. The spiel, "not only will you get a world class degree, but you will get handsomely paid, trained, scouted and pampered. If you want to play in the NFL, NU is the place for you!" Why not? It's thinking outside the box and doable. Do we have any contacts? Let's truly be Chicago's team!!!

I took the trip out to Bloomington, here are my takeaways from a key win at Assembly Hall. Wildcats got, and needed every bit of, career nights from Ryan Langborg, Nick Martinelli and Matt Nicholson after their star tandem of Boo Buie and Brooks Barnhizer was mired in early foul trouble.

Though there are no shortage of good candidates, game ball goes to Nicholson: 14 points, 16 rebounds, two blocks, two steals, one assist, and excellent defense most of the time.

Martinelli got a ton of rebounds early and finished with a 13/13 game. Shooting wasn't great, but he made a huge three.

Turnovers: 11 to 3

22 for 28 from the line. Yes, some of those six misses weren't at the best time, but 79% from the line (especially when you shoot 28) is fantastic. Indiana was 12-for-21.

Langborg had his best game as a Cat and was the steadying force throughout, especially with Boo and Barney on the bench and Berry recuperating: 26 points, six assists (including one that was maybe the best pass by Northwestern this year), and a perfect 8-for-8 from the line.

Unfortunately there was some bad: one point from the bench (hello Blake Smith!), 35% from the field overall. Bad games offensively by Boo (who still played pretty well in the second half I'd say) and Barnhizer (he's in a slump - he seems to miss Berry the most). Hunger hasn't really played well in a while, and Mullins came back to earth from Thursday. There is work to do, and the offense isn't nearly as good as it was with Berry, but...A WIN IS WIN. Winning on the road is tough in the Big 10, but NU has two of those skins now. Go Cats!

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One key detail is that McGarigle remains as LB coach, so DJ Vokolek will stay a floating defensive assistant.

This is a very important game. A win puts cats in position to finish in top third of the conference. I lost put the cats in a perilous position for the stretch drive.

While the highest profile game of the year, it could be argued it’s one of the most important.

#play with poise
#Limit turnovers
#PlayDefense

Today I received a phone call from the Ohio State Athletic Department asking me to opine on my game day experience for an OSU hockey game. I have not donated a single dollar to the OSU athletic department.
I am season ticket holder for NU football for nearly twenty years. I am an annual donor to the University, the Athletic Department, and the Wildcat and True NU funds. To date, I, like many of you, have had zero contact with any representative of the Athletic Department regarding the Ryan Field at Dyche Stadium teardown and the future (next two years). A simple call saying ‘Hey, just checking in. Don’t know what is happening other than the teardown has started and rest assured as soon as we know what is happening, we will reach out to you as a season ticket holder and educate you on the next steps.’. Radio Silence. We are the embodiment of amateur hour.

And neither had had one before. Nicholson and Martinelli. Huge win and they both meant a lot in getting it done

Totally locked in to play at AH, especially on D. And without Berry and Buie and Barnhizer not doing much.

Meanwhile, Hoping today’s “effort” by IU will be enough to convince folks at the top it’s time for Woody to go. Best NIL in the league, three 5*’s (Ware, Reneau, Mgbako) and they continue to look like they’ve not been coached at all. Zero improvement as a team. Individually, all good players. As a unit, a disaster!!

As for lack of hustle, lack of effort and every team IU plays going off from 3-point land, at least that’s been a constant all year. TIC.

Northwestern (17-8, 8-6 Big Ten) is on the road at Assembly Hall to play Indiana (14-10, 6-7 Big Ten).

The Wildcats haven't won on the road in the Big Ten since Penn State on Jan. 10, and are a win is much needed after at tight loss at Rutgers. Indiana has lost five of their last seven, including their last game at home, 85-71 to Penn State. But, the Hoosiers have had their "bye week" and have not played a game since a Feb. 10 loss at Purdue.

I took the trip out to Bloomington, here are my takeaways from a key win at Assembly Hall. Wildcats got, and needed every bit of, career nights from Ryan Langborg, Nick Martinelli and Matt Nicholson after their star tandem of Boo Buie and Brooks Barnhizer was mired in early foul trouble.

I've been told that construction crews will launch at least one web cam in the next few days. The cam will be positioned inside the stadium, where the bulk of activity will take place as crews raze the stadium from the inside out, starting with all of the seating areas. Stay tuned!

I had a post earlier this year cricticizing our bigs’ rebounding. Matt was fantastic today. He kept their bigs off the offensive boards all game. And did a good job protecting the rim as well. Wish he would use both hands on offensive rebounds but just quibbling.

And neither had had one before. Nicholson and Martinelli. Huge win and they both meant a lot in getting it done

If we win last night, we are in great shape. We know how that went, and why. Looking ahead, I think Sunday could be the most important game of the season. NU will be on short rest and licking their wounds from that disgrace in NJ. NU, like everyone else in the league, reallllllyyyyyy struggles on the road.

A win at IU, with the Hoosiers being down overall, rights the ship and steadies the trajectory heading toward selection Sunday.

A loss at IU, and things get dicey. The likelihood of losing out on the road (with just one conference win away from home) becomes very realistic/probable. And the pressure to sweep the remaining home games becomes immense.

Look, this group could surprise us @MD or @MSU, but I’d hate to be counting on winning either of those. And this group could run into a hot shooting night for Mich, Iowa, or Minny, and lose.

Sunday at Indiana: Massive, massive game. Gut check time for these guys, whose last THREE road B10 games have resulted in gut-wrenching losses, two in OT. Losing Ty and then what went down in NJ both suck. We can wallow in anger and self pity here. But the guys can’t. Too much at stake. They can still do this. Will they?

I am nervous. Go ‘Cats

I really wish I had taken live video in the stadium of the entire sequence on that Langborg ejection. I trust the Big Ten has footage of it from the RAC cams for when they evaluate what in the world happened on that play. So that they can see the interaction between the officials with Walton repeatedly calling additional conferences between the officials. Hopefully they debrief all 3 of them to try to get an accounting of that egregious mishap. Granted I was observing from afar but it certainly appeared to me that Earl Walton was the one that forced the flagrant 2 call on the rest of the crew. And then told Chris that he had “no choice” but to eject Ryan Langborg for a basketball play.

This guy needs to be ejected from referee ing Big Ten games.

Marcus Romain of Marietta, GA picks up his first P4 offer from NU. Has a bunch of IVY offers.

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of being a developmental program when the guys you are developing transfer away for their final year?

The Athletic's article today from EIC Stewart Mandel really hit a nerve with the Northwestern higher ups involved with promoting Braun to head coach. Mandel wrote that the promotion "might be shortsighted", that Braun coached his 8-5 season "with someone else's staff" and the hire was "an indictment AD Derrick Gragg that he couldn't convince an established Power 5 head coach to go to a Big Ten program with deep pockets and modest expectations."

A source close to the search committee shared with me today that those comments were far from the truth, and Northwestern hired Braun from a position of strength in their search.

1) targeted hire date at the start of the process was Nov 27 if a candidate was not in a conference championship, Dec. 4 if they were

2) search firm had a 30+ list in late October, plans to narrow for a two-week interview blitz in mid-to-late November

3) team lobbied heavily for Braun in early November when Gragg met with the team

4) finalizing list of target candidates when NU almost beat Iowa w/o Bryant "best on-field playing intensity and defense anyone had seen since 2020" then had “a dominant performance at Wisconsin”

5) realized after Wisconsin that he was on track for a COTY campaign while "displaying the qualities and character that are foundational to anyone leading our program." and jumped Braun to front of the pool. He crushed interviews with his "insights, strategy and plans for the program". It was clear he was the guy. Originally had planned to give him another week and play through as much of the schedule as possible before interviewing.

6) At the time of Braun's hire there were 12 candidates with strong interest “including 5 with success as Power Five head coaches” and an expected group from Group of Five jobs, though they won't share names to protect confidentiality. Doesn't mean they'd all interview, but at that time in the search none had turned them down.

Probably not a surprise.


Gallagher probably had the best shot? Maybe Bryant or Cam Johnson.

Malik Washington did get an invite. Also not a surprise.

After commentary from The Athletic's Editor in Chief, Stewart Mandel, around the hiring of Northwestern head coach David Braun struck a nerve in the inner circle surrounding Northwestern Athletics, a source came forward with insight into the process of Northwestern's coaching search that ultimately ended with the promotion of Braun to full-time coach. A second source familiar with the hiring process was able to corroborate the process described by the first source close to the search.

This article takes you behind the scenes of the timeline of Braun's hiring in the context of the search, and evaluates the analysis by Mandel and others who have published similar narratives since Braun's promotion.

Is there a conspiracy that almost no teams ever win a road game? That was particularly egregious.

Northwestern fell to 1-6 on the road in Big Ten play in a 63-60 loss at Rutgers that featured yet another night of controversial officiating.