All times CENTRAL. All games available nationally unless otherwise indicated. I will add announcers as they are assigned.

First, the NU games:

Northwestern @ Rutgers
Thursday, February 15
5:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Jason Horowitz
Color: Brian Butch

Northwestern @ Indiana
Sunday, February 18
2:00 PM, FS1
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: LaPhonso Ellis

And the rest:

Tuesday, February 13

Michigan @ Illinois
6:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP: Noah Eagle
Color: Stephen Bardo

Ohio State @ Wisconsin
8:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP: Paul Burmeister
Color: Robbie Hummel

Wednesday, February 14

Michigan State @ Penn State
5:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Jason Ross Jr.
Color: LaPhonso Ellis

Iowa @ Maryland
7:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Kevin Kugler
Color: Stephen Bardo

Thursday, February 15

Minnesota @ Purdue
7:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Robbie Hummel

Saturday, February 17

Penn State @ Nebraska
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Connor Onion
Color: Nick Bahe

Wisconsin @ Iowa
1:15 PM, BTN
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Stephen Bardo

Illinois @ Maryland
4:30 PM, FOX
PxP: Jason Benetti
Color: Robbie Hummel

Michigan State @ Michigan
7:00 PM, FOX
PxP: Gus Johnson
Color: Jim Jackson

Sunday, February 18

Purdue @ Ohio State
12:00 PM, CBS
PxP: Tom McCarthy
Color: Jim Spanarkel

Rutgers @ Minnesota
5:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Mike Hall
Color: Shon Morris

I understand we have a weak NIL program, but time to step up and pay the best available QB and get this thing going for next season!!

How do we feel if Sully is our starter throughout next season?

Seeing posts on twitter/X for players from other schools. So might as well have a thread for NU players. We can't go 0-for, I hope.

Check out our profile on high three-star 2025 DE Adam Shovlin from Connecticut who was just offered by Northwestern.

The Wildcats made their first offer to a running back on Feb. 9 when they offered Ryver Peppers from Independence (Mo.) Fort Osage. Check out this story on Peppers, his earlier visit for Northwestern's Junior Day, and a potential visit back to Evanston soon.

The three biggest Wildcat players on the court were the most productive.
Matt Nicholson gets the game ball, even though the Wildcats were -3 while he was playing.
He did a solid job on Wahab, who scored all 4 of his points in the first 3 minutes of the game.
Luke Hunger was effective in relief of Nicholson, with the team only allowing 10 points to PSU in 12 minutes. Thats a sharp improvement defensively.
With Ty Berry out indefinitely, Martinelli picked up minutes and did some good things, especially on the offensive boards.

Freshman Jordan Clayton put in a "Ryan Greer" type of performance, playing 11.5 minutes, during which NU blitzed PSU 30-19.
However, he only recorded one defensive rebound, so his Player +/- reflects this lack of individual production.
A couple years ago, when Greer and Buie were paired in the backcourt, NU was quite effective, with no obvious reason why.
When Greer took Buie's place on the court, we got creamed.
This season, subbing Clayton in for Buie has been "quite bad."
Against Penn State, Clayton played exclusively alongside Buie and the team performed very well.
So it is possible Collins has found something in how he uses Clayton.
The task of replacing Boo Buie fell to Blake Smith for almost 2 minutes. That didn't seem to work very well.

Prior to Ty Berry's injury, NU's most effective duo had been Nicholson/Berry.
As pointed out after Berry's injury, the new starting lineup of Nicholson/Martinelli/Barnhizer/Langborg/Buie had not been very good so far this season.
They had been outscored 120-116 in about 70 minutes.
Alternatively, Luke Hunger with the same 4 had been effective, outscoring our opponents 59-47 in less than 29 minutes.
Both of those trends held steady against Penn State.
The starters struggled mightily on offense, getting beat 32-25 in almost 21 minutes of action.
In the 6 minutes Hunger played with the other starters, NU outscored PSU 10-6.

24 hour rule still in effect as of this posting so the boys should still be enjoying this win (until 10:29pm CT tonight) and praying Ty is ok.

But starting much later tonight… the focus shifts to Penn State. They have been playing much better recently including a nice win at Indiana. We all know the trouble their defense gave us last go around in State College. Ball security is paramount Sunday. Go ‘Cats!

I find myself bracing for when Kelce and Taylor Swift break up. I don’t think our country’s collective heart can handle it.

49ers are favored by 1.5, but I’d be fearful to bet against Mahomes. Let’s chop it up my fellow freeloaders.

Northwestern (16-7, 7-5 Big Ten) hosts Penn State (12-11, 6-6 Big Ten) at 12 pm at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

To Illinois and Bielema. Such is the world we live in.

Felt like we were in danger of getting PennState’d but came up with some big buckets late. A stressful grind-it-out W at home, despite a very non-pretty shooting performance (31% woof) & a fairly mellow (but 95% purple) crowd. That was NEEDED. Would love to steal at least one of the next two on the road.

Matt Fortuna reports Alex Spanos has been promoted to the lead strength and conditioning role with Northwestern football.

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Will he score at all? One shot attempt vs Nebby, looked good but rimmed. No shots today. One nice drive and dump but MN couldn't convert. Standing a lot in left side but offense stayed right so it seemed like we were playing 4 on 5. Think we need him to score going forward

I know I'm supposed to be watching some football game right now, but I'm still hung over from the big win this afternoon. It was ugly, the crowd wasn't up to its normal standards, and the opponent isn't one that will set the world on fire, but it was still HUGE.

This team is now tied for third place in the Big Ten, and you can say the Big Ten is down this year, but the two teams that appear to be worth a damn have both lost to NU. With every win NU gets, ugly or not, we're closer and closer to something we've only dreamed about: NU turning the corner as a basketball program. Is it possible to imagine NU is where Duke was 45 years ago or Gonzaga was 25 years ago? Getting to the tourney in 2017 was the first step. Getting there in back-to-back years is step #2. Step 3: ? Step 4: Perennial Power.

Check out @lou v's column on Northwestern's 68-63 win over Penn State that starred sophomore forward Nick Martinelli in the starting lineup for the first time.

Hopefully they are being overly cautious here. 🙏

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Had to have it, and got it! Good teams win when they’re not at their best and shorthanded. Big win for cats.

Here are @mshelton33's takeaways from a not-so-pretty but oh-so-effective win over the Nittany Lions.

Here are @mshelton33's takeaways from a not-so-pretty but oh-so-effective win over the Nittany Lions.

Check out @lou v's column on Northwestern's 68-63 win over Penn State that starred sophomore forward Nick Martinelli in the starting lineup for the first time.

Rutgers is just dominating Wisconsin in Jersey. Just because.

Michigan State hosts Illinois next.

I realize that we get obsessed with March and hopefully April, but there’s something about the grind of these pretty-familiar teams just straight going at it twice a week.

We’ll lose something with the expansion. I hope the conference errs on the side of opponent familiarity and protected rivalries, over time, in scheduling.

In honor of this February 10, 2024 being the Chinese New Year, I have gone through photos I took in China during November of 2018. The selection below were taken on a November 4th visit to "Emperor Quinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in Lintong, China" as per the photos' meta data. The rest of the world simply refers to this location as the army of Terracotta Warriors or Soldiers that accompanied China's first emperor, Emperor Qin, in death. It took 40 years during Qin's life to build the expansive mausoleum with its terra-cotta figures. He died at the age of 50 in 210 BC.

There are three main pits and the excavation continues to this day. The Emperor himself was placed in an above ground building with all the furnishings of a palace in which he could continue to live in death and apparently it remains buried in a huge mound that has yet to be fully excavated. Reportedly there exist booby traps to deter entry.

While Emperor Qin was China's first emperor (having conquered and combined warring factions) there were rulers before him who also surrounded themselves with an "army" to protect them in the after life. In some instances, those buried with the prior rulers were not made of terra-cotta, but rather the persons themselves. Qin himself was accompanied in death by thousands of officials and construction workers who were buried alive primarily to keep the location a secret.

In 1974 the site was discovered by farmers digging a well.