Anyone know any of the ifs ands or buts about Spring practice?

Nice get for Coach Creighton. Lots of Braun connections here. Florentine is a highly regarded LS…worthy successor to Halkyard. I’d expect him to eventually be on scholarship.

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Most importantly, that was a necessary win. Scary at first, but then NU just outclassed Michigan. One win away from 20, a winning B1G regular season record, and (imo) a likely NCAA bid for the second consecutive year, for the first time ever. I’d love that next win to come asap. Also thrilled that the guys are getting nearly a full week of needed rest, too. After Ty went down, they finished off Nebraska, beat PSU, were robbed at Rutgers, beat IU on the road, then stomped on Michigan. What a response to adversity. Keep it going!

But tonight was about #0, who is the greatest player of all time in NU basketball, and arguably the most impactful player in program history. What this team has done these past two years — the unprecedented success — simply doesn’t happen without him. He deserved every ovation he got tonight. I hope he can also get taken out early to a rousing “back in the tourney” standing O on senior night next month.

THANK YOU, BOO.

Go ‘Cats

Here are @mshelton33's takeaways from a historic night at Welsh-Ryan.

Here are @mshelton33's takeaways from a historic night at Welsh-Ryan.

I forget if I've posted it here before, but Brendan Sullivan, Ore Adeyi and Devin Turner are all working for NU Athletics as marketing/operations interns. Always makes me chuckle a bit to see a starting safety, a rotational DB and a potential starting quarterback setting up and taking down the halftime entertainment and other stuff around Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Really fun game. Crowd was more energized than the past few home games, understandably. Braun was there with his entire family, including the baby. Stayed for the first half. Pat Ryan was there as well and he and Braun spoke for a while.

Howard might be the winiest coach in the conference. He didn’t get that angry but he bitched on almost every call.

Collins coaches to the buzzer. After Boo came out at the end and he and and Collins had the nice embrace, Collins ran out on the court to yell at Hunger about something.

Howard and Gragg must know each other. After the game, they talked for a few minutes before Howard went to the locker room.

Boo has become such a calm player. Almost always under control. Doesn’t force anything. Took 11 shots today. One turnover.

Where might the ‘Cats play come the first round of the NCAA tournament?

1. Projected Seed:
NU will most likely wind up with a seed between 7 and 10. They have remained steadily in this range the entire season.
Outlier possibilities include 6 (win out and/or do some damage in the BTT) and 11 (a bad loss or two). Better or worse than that is not feasible.

2. “Pod” Assignment
With those seeds, NU would be in either the 1/8/9/16 or 2/7/10/15 “pod” that is assigned to a given first round city. (In the outlier circumstance, they could be in the 3/6/11/14 “pod”).

3. Geographic Preference of Top Seeds
With geographic preference given to the top seeds, the likely locations of the 1/8/9/16 and 2/7/10/15 “pods” can be surmised:

Indianapolis (Purdue)
Brooklyn (UConn)
Memphis (Houston)
Salt Lake City (Arizona)
Charlotte (Tennessee)
Charlotte (N. Carolina)
Omaha (Kansas)
Indianapolis (Marquette)

4. Other Considerations
NU cannot play Purdue in the second round, thus reducing the chance of Indianapolis.

TL;DR: Spokane and Pittsburgh are unlikely. Brooklyn, Charlotte, Memphis still on the board. Keep fingers crossed it’s not SLC again.

We won 19-14. Couldn't see the game, but I read that Cara Nugent started in goal but was replaced by Molly Laliberty at halftime. Six goals for Madison Taylor.

Northwestern (18-8, 9-6 Big Ten) hosts Michigan (8-18, 3-12 Big Ten) tonight at 8 pm at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The game will air on FS1.

Boo Buie is five points away from Northwestern's all-time scoring record!

I watched the first ~12 mins to see Buie get the record. The basketball gods were obviously pissed, and buried me under a hailstorm of MichiGag baskets and Wildcat bricks. So, because I care so much, I turned it off. Mollified, the gods let the normal course of events take place.

You're welcome

Foul. Probably. Flagrant. Unlikely. Ejection? That's ridiculous.

This is gonna be an all time test of our non-existent depth.

Nfm

Normally these scouting reports are relatively easy to write, but Michigan is a bit of a disaster at the moment, so let's see what I can come up with:

Normally Dug McDaniel would be the starting PG, but he's been suspended for road games in conference this season, so he won't be playing. That's great, because he's their best player, and their defense goes in the tank when he's out. In his place, we have Jaelin Llewellyn, 6th-year player formerly of Princeton. Llewellyn has had a history of injuries and was an afterthought this season up until McDaniel got suspended, and has been averaging 32mpg in away games. He is significantly inferior to McDaniel, as his assist-to-turnover ratio is nearly 1:2, however he is a very good 3-point shooter, at 42.5% in conference play. Despite being 6'2", he is only 45% on layups and an abysmal 14% on midrange shots.

In road games, his theoretical backup is the excellently-named George Washington, a freshman who has had very limited minutes except in blowout losses. Not much else to say about him.

Nimari Burnett is the other starting guard, a transfer from Alabama. He's probably their best all-around player - decent passer, doesn't turn the ball over, good defender, average three-point shooter. Generally though he's their last option on offense, but has had games where he's scored in bunches. On defense, he averages 0.8 steals and 0.3 blocks per game.

Terrance Williams is the normal starter at SF, though he missed their last game against MSU due to illness. He has been their best player in conference play (which isn't saying that much), where he's been averaging 12.3 points/game, and has been a solid offensive rebounder and above-average 3-point shooter. Last year at W-R, he scored 7 points and grabbed 10 boards in Michigan's blowout win.

Olivier Nkamhoua was the normal starter at the Stretch 4, however he's out for the season due to surgery and won't be playing. A nice break for us, as he was their 2nd-best rebounder and shot-blocker while also being a decent passer and their best midrange shooter. This likely means we'll be seeing a lot of the cheese man, Will Tschetter. Tschetter has spent this season backing up both Williams and Nkamhoua, and has provided them with valuable depth in his 16mpg, shooting 48% from 3 on roughly 2 shots per game. He's also a good offensive rebounder, however his biggest issue this year has been fouling at an unsustainable rate, so we'll see how long he can stay on the court. Against Purdue he fouled out in 20 minutes and against MD he did it in 23. Last year against us he picked up 4 fouls and 2 turnovers in 10 minutes in the first game and didn't play in the second. Also last year, he started 7 conference games, but only averaged 1.8 points and 2.7 boards/game in 16mpg.

Lastly we have large Center Tarris Reed, a similarly-sized behemoth to our own Big Matt. Reed is one of the best rebounders in the conference, likely second behind Edey, and a top shot-blocker as well. Reed gets to the FT line a lot, but only shoots 67%. Offensively, he's decent at the rim though not elite, and if we can keep him out of the lane on offense, he shoots an abysmal 28% from midrange. He also struggles with turning the ball over, so if we choose to double him in the post, hopefully that trend continues. This year he's averaged 10.4 points, 7.8 boards and 1.7 blocks/game, though in the last 5 games that has gone up to 12.2 points, 9.6 boards and 2.8 blocks in 31mpg. Last year against us, he scored 6 points with 8 boards and 2 blocks in the first game as Hunter Dickinson's backup, but also had 3 turnovers and 3 fouls in 18 minutes. In the second game, he was held to just 2 points, 1 rebound and 1 block with 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 11 minutes.

Reed's backup is 5th year graduate double-transfer Tray Jackson, who had two successful seasons at Seton Hall before coming back home for his final year. He has struggled this year though, posting career-lows in overall shooting percentage, 3pt%, FT%, offensive rebound% and turnover%. He theoretically has range from deep, shooting 41.7% from 3 at Seton Hall, but this year is only at 30%. He's a decent shot blocker and defensive rebounder.

As for who else might play...uh, it's hard to say. Jace Howard has missed the last 5 games with an illness, but played in 5 games before that, averaging 10mpg though being largely ineffective. Youssef Khayat is a 6'9" sophomore who's played in a handful of games and could likely see some minutes. The rest are a bunch of walk-ons.

That being said, this is NU basketball, and what seems like it should be a blowout may not turn out that way.

Don't sleep on the Wolverines.

As someone challenged my belief in what next year holds for a few guys, and bored at Apres ski - figured how about this.

Assume Chase, Boo, Beran and VH are gone. Make your own choice on Barkley.

G - Berry
G - transfer
SF - BB
PF - Mart
C - MN

G - Roper, Strauss or Clayton
Big - Hunger, transfer

Attempted RS - Strauss or Clayton, Barkley

CCC brings in two transfers. A 3 and D forward and quality PG. Schollie count climbs to 11. CCC opts to pocket two instead of lower quality transfer options and hits the recruiting road hard seeking to land a quality G, F and C in the next class.

Results? No idea. No Boo or Chase makes me nervous. Berry < Chase, BB > 2023 Berry, Mart > Beran, 2024 MN >> 2023 MN but gaping ??? v Boo

Depends a lot on that transfer, team D buy in of newcomers and chemistry/luck factor.

But 10+ from BB and MN plus solid transfer and something from Mart or Hunger should mean we are competitive again and talking about first back to back dances. I will say less than 2nd in the B1G but return to the Dance. All of which would make me super happy and a CCC supporter.

IU hasn't beaten us since his transfer, correct?

I've been thinking about this a little bit here and there and it seems like a good mid-January topic. I have been asking myself this question:

Will David Braun still be at Northwestern in five years?

Obviously, you never know. Braun seems like he likes it in Evanston (having eight wins in your first year helps) and he says all of the right things. He seems dedicated and I don't think going to any other school is even close to being on his mind at this point. And let's be honest, asking if ANY coach in college football will be at the same school in five years is a total crapshoot. Leashes are getting shorter and shorter every year it seems and coaches are always leaving for greener pastures. But with Braun specifically, I see this going one of a few different ways, and my answer to my question above is "probably not". Here are the scenarios in my head:

1) He isn't able to get back to the same level of success he had in 2023. Over the next few seasons, NU wins less than five games each year and the university decides to pull the plug. While we don't know the exact details of Braun's contract, it has been said that the deal has university-friendly out clauses built in that put them in a more favorable position to make this decision without seeing a big negative financial impact. This makes it easier for the university to make a firing decision and go and get a different coach.

2) He has success and builds off the momentum he built in 2023. The team continues to have good seasons and it becomes clear to everyone that David Braun is a good coach that can have success at the P5 level. If this happens, within another year or two, other schools will start sniffing around. We experienced this some with Fitz, but that was a different animal. Fitz loved NU, was adored by Pat Ryan, and was the face of Northwestern University. It was going to take a lot for Fitz to no longer be the coach at Northwestern (and it did take a lot - just not what any of us expected). But with Braun it's different. Until a year ago, he had no connection to Northwestern. He may like a ton about it, but will he get sick of the constant battle with admissions over high school recruits and transfers? Will the fact that we have both hands and legs tied behind our back when it comes to getting transfers to come in become too frustrating? Will playing the next two seasons in a bunch of random stadiums with no home-field advantage wear him down? Will our small and mostly passive/not typical fanbase become a turn-off off and will he desire something bigger? Will working with Gragg (hopefully he'll be gone, but hey, you never know) and/or Schill become too frustrating to deal with any longer? There are a lot of variables. What happens if/when Baylor or Oklahoma State or Minnesota comes calling with a bigger contract with more guaranteed money/years and more favorable buyout clauses?

Of course, it is very likely that if he has success in the next year or two, NU will give him a better contract that has more guaranteed money/years and out clause language that is more favorable to him - but will that be enough?

We are a unique school that really didn't have to worry about this too much for the last 20 years or so, but it is very normal for almost every other fanbase in the country. It's a fascinating question to me and I'm interested to hear what others think.

Having been tortured by NU's unbelievable end of game disasters in both football and basketball, I could not believe Langborg challenged the 3 point shooter on the last shot of a 4-point game. He played a great game , but now I need to buy a new remote for my TV. At least, I missed the TV but the fireplace was less forgiving.

On the football board I posted this article about the demolition of Ryan Field starting next week. If you scroll about 2/3 of the way down you'll see the construction perimeter that will be fenced off. It includes the entire East Lot and the spaces on the NW and SW edge of Ryan Field. Just a heads up to people who park there to start considering alternatives as the fencing may be in place for the next game.

Northwestern will land its first transfer of the 2024 cycle. Soon.

Chris Collins and Boo Buie addressed the media yesterday ahead of the Michigan game tonight where Buie has a strong chance to become Northwestern's all-time leading scorer. Here are our takeaways from what they had to say.

Some folks felt Gragg lit a fire under CCC by giving him the very public “ultimatum” to make the tourney or pack his bags. CCC hired the wizard to shore up the defense and to some he changed his ways/habits for the better. The team won and CCC was spared the death sentence.

However, reading about our lack of depth and quandary we find ourselves in with the loss of Ty got me thinking of the flip side. The ultimatum made it very difficult to recruit. Our freshman class is the result of the difficulty. That class is currently One guy that plays and has struggled mightily with his game and confidence and 2 players that I couldn’t pick out of a line up of Maine South players. Now these players could blossom like Barney or even Big Matt and go from no playing time to strong contributors, but they are not helping us this year when we really need them. This is the year we have a generational talent at PG and had a legitimate shot to win a couple games in the tourney with any type of contribution from our depth players. They had one P6 ( or whatever the BBall term is for power conference) offer between them.

CCC is like most Coaches in a position that he has to rely on transfers to fill holes while the lightly recruited new players develop. In typical NU fashion, the administration makes it difficult to recruit transfers. Mullins is the rare undergraduate transfer. Mostly NU gets the graduate one and done transfer. Tough sledding.

Coach Braun is facing a similar situation in the future as this first class was dramatically impacted by the incredibly poor handling of the Hazing scandal. The school does him zero favors by being on the quarter system and a transfer process that is so rigid it reviews college players High School transcripts to determine admissions. Forget that they have successfully completed college work!

I think a case can be made that Gragg torpedoed the depth of the program with the ultimatum. CCC didn’t do it, Lowry didn’t do it, Jordan Clayton isn’t responsible. Maybe if NU doesn’t make the tourney, the ultimatum switches to Gragg? Of course, Gragg is Teflon to Schill as his human shield, and if he wasn’t canned for his handling of Baseball and even Volleyball he is likely safe at least until lawsuits are resolved.

Our Coaches and especially our players deserve better!

David Braun was in the building for Northwestern's loss at Rutgers and joined Dave Eanet for the halftime show on ESPN 1000. Here are my takeaways from what he had to say:

Alluded to transfer dynamics: Eanet asked Braun about the recent departure of defensive backs in the portal with two starters, Rod Heard and Garnett Hollis, as well as a key rotational player in Jaheem Joseph. Reading between the lines, Braun's comments here seemed directed at Joseph or similar players like RB Anthony Tyus who would have likely come back to contribute off the bench in a rotational capacity.

"I'm really excited about the depth in that DB room," Braun said. "To be honest, some of the decisions are solely made based off of 'Coach, can you promise I'm starting next year?' No. We're about earned opportunities here. Some young men are looking to make sure they get an opportunity late in their career to get on the field and make sure they get a lot of tape out there. The thing I'm proud of is that these guys are leaving Northwestern with a degree in hand. That's non-negotiable for us. We have some work to do on the O-line and we're excited about the young DBs we have."

Braun segued from direct roster examples to his plans for Northwestern to compete in the modern world of college athletics.

"The way that we are going to win Big Ten championships is we're going to out develop people, out team people," Braun said. "Then we have to find the right pieces in the transfer portal and the NIL factor is something we have to be aware of but that's not what we're going to lead with at Northwestern. It's going to be an opportunity to play Big Ten football, the highest levels of college football, and earn a world-class degree. Then we have to tap into the NIL resources with TrueNU and [Executive Director] Jacob [Schmidt] and all the work that he's doing to retain our student-athletes."

New coaches: Braun gave a quick briefing of the five new coaching hires or promotions, giving extra emphasis to McGarigle, Lujan and Barnett.

"I'm so excited for Tim [McGarigle]," Braun said. "Man, what a stud. Paul Creighton, really excited about what he's bringing to our special teams. Zach Lujan, I tell you what, it was tough to hire a guy from South Dakota State. They beat our butt in the national championship a couple years ago but Zach is a young, energetic great football mind. Then the addition of Harlon Barnett and Bill O'Boyle. Both mentors, veteran coaches. What Coach Barnett did at Michigan State last year navigating a really tough situation, I'm really excited about some of the things he's going to bring to the table to help me navigate this head coaching role."

Complimented Collins: Eanet opened the interview by saying that the football and basketball teams remind him a good deal of each other this season.

"Coach Collins has been an incredible friend through the last six months and I really appreciate the way his teams play. What a compliment. For his team to be playing the way they are and for our team to finish off the season the way we did, I think both groups really embody what Northwestern is all about."

Starting quarterback: The more things change, the more things stay the same. Braun listed Brendan Sullivan, Jack Lausch, Ryan Hilinski and the debut of Aidan Gray to the quarterback depth chart list in response to Eanet's question about next year's starter after the departure of Ben Bryant.

"Spring ball is going to be an incredible opportunity for that room to develop under Zach Lujan and the new offense...we're going to find out early in spring ball how those guys adjust to a new system while also being aware of what we need to do to make sure that we're positioning ourselves to win a ton of Big Ten football games. But right now, excited for Brendan, Ryan and Jack for a fresh start and also Aidan Gray, a freshman who is starting to get his cleats under him. Saw a lot of great things from him in bowl prep."

Appreciates the return of Henning and Hagarty, won't close door on outgoing transfers yet: Wide receiver and return specialist AJ Henning and defensive end Richie Hagarty are both returning to Northwestern next season after joining the Wildcats out of the transfer portal in 2023.

"It's huge," Braun said. "We're so excited, they were the right people. That's what this is all about. We're going to win the Northwestern way and that's by our team of people investing in their teammates and having an incredible experience. Very excited about how we'll continue to move through the transfer portal in the coming months."

With spring ball and position battles on the horizon, Braun said that he can't rule out the possibility that more players might leave for playing time elsewhere.

"As we navigate through spring ball, there's always some guys that make decisions. The thing I'm proud of is that the guys who are making decisions right now, that are deciding to leave, they're leaving with heavy hearts, tears in their eyes and with reasons. We're going to put all our time, energy and effort into the young men that want to be here, that want to invest in this team and we have something special brewing back in Evanston. What Coach Spanos is doing right now with strength and conditioning, it's a special environment right now."

Chris Collins and Boo Buie addressed the media yesterday ahead of the Michigan game tonight where Buie has a strong chance to become Northwestern's all-time leading scorer. Here are our takeaways from what they had to say.

Check out @lou v's column on this morning's two offensive linemen signees to the Class of 2024.