I know we crushed them last year, but I understand they have a few key players returning. Seems that they're having a decent season so far. This won't be as easy as we think.

nm

Haven’t watched the game.

Three turnovers. Just wild.

Very excited to watch in a few days.

I attended this game, thinking that we might lose - based on how we looked in the prior games. Thankfully, the Cats responded with a big 2nd half effort and torched the Huskies, who seem like a decent team to me. It was encouraging to see.

From the statistical perspective, I should note that I did not include the last 2:27, as the game was well out of hand (87-61) at that point, when Mullins took the court.
Buie and Berry played very well. Nicholson looked more agile than he had in earlier games - I think it is possible that he had a minor injury that was limiting his mobility.

There were several things that grabbed my attention. Most importantly, Blake Preston did not play in the 2nd half and only played 5 minutes in the first half. Luke Hunger got those minutes against Northern Illinois. Hunger, despite what some have opined, looks quite capable. Its only a matter of experience for Luke - he will contribute this year. Not sure what others see when they watch him. I see a big mobile guy with a positive attitude who can shoot the basketball. Is he the dominant force that Nicholson presents? No. But he is a big, solid, legit athlete who has a low center of gravity. He will not be pushed around by anyone other than Zach Edey. His shooting touch is much better than Nicholson or Preston. In other words, somebody you want on your team.

The other thing that jumped out at me was that Collins primarily used 6 guys, with 3 others seeing limited minutes - clearly just to rest the other 6.
Thats a bit of a departure for the coach - and from my perspective, a good sign.
NU was particularly successful when Nicholson / Martinelli / Barnhizer were on the court together. The Cats outscored NIU 39-24 in 16 minutes of game time.
However, 6 of those minutes involved Clayton and we lost those segments 14-9.
So that means when Nicholson, Martinelli and Barnhizer were out there with Buie, Berry or Langborg, we annihilated NIU 30-10 in 10 minutes.
The starting lineup (Nicholson / Barnhizer / Berry / Langborg / Buie) produced a 22-13 advantage in 9 minutes.

Through 5 games (NIU, Mississippi State, Rhode Island, Western Michigan and Dayton) NU has outscored its opponents 348-308 ignoring garbage time.
NU has been outscored 113-103 when Jordan Clayton has been on the court.
Preston is also below water - NU has been outscored 112-105 during his time on the court.

Clayton is a freshman with a solid build, adapting to college ball. Unfortunately, when he has been on the court with Nicholson, NU has been outscored 57-41.
In the rest of Nicholson's playing time, NU has outscored its opponents 166 - 102.

Purdue will have something to say about that on Friday.

I wasn't going to run the numbers at all, since WMU is not close to a Power 6 team. but changed my mind because it was a tight game with no garbage time.


Ty Berry had a rough night, especially when Preston was playing the 5. We got outscored 20-10 in 5 short segments totaling 5.5 minutes. Thats some bad defense.
Langborg's Player Adjustment of -11.9 reflects a lot of missed 3-pointers and 3 turnovers. The team was +8 with him on the court, but he was hurting the team.

Of the 5 man lineups, the Nicholson/Martinelli/Barnhizer/Langborg/Buie "big boy" lineup only got one segment midway through the first half, outscoring WMU 10-3 in 3 minutes. It was NU's best stretch of the game.
We did not see Nicholson/Martinelli/Barnhizer/Berry/Buie at all.

For the season (WMU and Dayton games) here are some of our better pairings

Nicholson / Martinelli / Barnhizer 27-17 in 13 minutes
Preston / Martinelli / Barnhizer 27-14 in 13 minutes

In fact, all lineups that include both Martinelli and Barnhizer are "winning" 60-39 in about 29 minutes. Thats an 82.2 - 53.4 pace.
All other lineups are "losing" 74-86 in about 51 minutes. Thats roughly a 58.0 - 67.5 pace.

My #1 might b Mueller

Brian did a great job this year. BUT questions remain:

1) Can he recruit? Never has done so before and doesn’t have high school contacts in area


2) Can he hire a strong staff? The offensive coaching staff needs to be revamped


3) How can he navigate next years schedule? Brutal

The man won with Fitz players and coaches. Can he build anything on his own?

Billy Bob isn’t sure.

Wazzu QB Cam Ward supposedly has multiple $1MM offers on the table to transfer. Sharing here to demonstrate just what we are up against in today’s world of NIL, especially when it comes to QB recruiting:

Login to view embedded media

NU Recipients
David Braun - Hayes-Schembechler Coach of the Year
David Braun - Dave McClain Coach of the Year
Bryce Gallagher - 2nd Team All Big Ten (Coaches)
Bryce Gallagher - 2nd Team All Big Ten (Media)
Xander Mueller - 3rd Team All Big Ten (Media)
Xander Mueller - Honorable Mention (Coaches)
Rod Heard - Honorable Mention (Coaches)
Rod Heard - Honorable Mention (Media)
Aidan Hubbard - Honorable Mention (Media)
Coco Azema - Honorable Mention (Media)
Jack Olsen - Honorable Mention (Coaches)
Jack Olsen - Honorable Mention (Media)

See All Recipients

It looks like it will be a long year for the women’s basketball team. They are 3-2 with three wins over mid and low majors (two of them close) and losses to Notre Dame by 58 and Florida State by 38.

Coach Joe had two great teams led by Pulliam and Burton in 2019-20 and 2020-21 but has gone 17-12 and 9-21 since. So we did not capitalize on that brief success and are moving in the wrong direction.

Ryan Fitzgerald and Drew McPherson played great leading LA to perfect 14-0 season and another State Championship!

Ps. The players said big Fitz gave some pretty fiery halftime speech’s that pumped up the team, especially in the semi-final game.

Not good.

Login to view embedded media

Matt Lawson is our first guy in the transfer portal this year. Because Matt got hurt in the first game and only played in that one game this year, he is entitled to a medical redshirt and it looks like he is pursuing a 7th year of college football.

He would be ideal and he would be a great bridge to give new OC time to recruit someone. Give him a spot in Kellogg and lets get some NIL money for him.

It's deja vu all over again, and No. 1 Purdue is coming to Welsh-Ryan Arena. Northwestern basketball had a brief media availability today, here are our takeaways from Chris Collins' remarks.

That's it. Amazing what this team has done without star power.

Edit Kirtz also got HM media

Some interesting names being mentioned:

Alex Atkins
Curt Cignetti
Manny Diaz
Jason Garrett
Willie Fritz
Kevin Johns
Jim Knowles
Steve Spurrier, Jr

Here's @mshelton33's summary of the Cats who were recognized by the conference.

David gets his first nod as B1G COTY.

Most projections have assumed Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State will play in non BIG 10 Contracted Bowl Games freeing up the Citrus Bowl and below for the other BIG 10 Bowl qualifiers. I guess the real question is how secure is Penn State's position in playing in one of the upper tier bowls above Citrus? Could what happens in conference championship games elevate some looking in to squeeze Penn State out and thus have a domino effect for the rest including Northwestern?

My guess is that regardless of Tuesday's rankings and what they may portend with regard to what may happen after the Conference Championship games, the Northwestern Wildcats are still going to be playing either in Las Vegas or Phoenix.

Seemed like it needed to be said.

Apparently Ben Johnson is a frontrunner for the Carolina Panthers HC job…and here I thought our longest tenured LB still had a Covid year available.

In a development that should shock nobody, Timi Oke committed to NU today:

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media