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.

“I do think that’s a basketball move. Now it’s a foul but…”

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Looked like he belonged out there. Have to wonder how he has not gotten minutes before. Going to need him down the stretch

Cats hit the road vs the #7 Irish, who beat their two MAC opponents by a combined score of 43-9.

The rude jerk is, of course, the moron who kicked Ryan Langborg out of a basketball game for trying to get out of a double-team and accidentally slapping a defender's crotch with his hand.
Accidental, incidental contact is normally not a foul, much less a flagrant foul, but it was last night, with NU leading 17-7.
I'd bet my life that ref had somebody's betting interests at heart or was trying to screw Chris Collins.
Hard to imagine NU would have lost if Langborg hadn't been kicked out.
Anyhow, it was an interesting game, with a few questions answered and a few new ones to ponder.


This was the most minutes (39) Nick Martinelli has ever played in an NCAA game and it was his worst performance by a wide margin.
He scored both of his baskets in the first 5 minutes of the game. Then he missed 7 straight shots.
He only had 2 rebounds. Three turnovers. He was pretty bad in the 2nd half. He played tired.

Brooks Barnhizer didn't shoot the ball well, but tried to make up for it with 13 rebounds.
Thats a 4 for 15 shooting effort on the heels of a 3 for 15 performance since Ty Berry has been unavailable.
Zero steals for Brooks is a sign of fatigue. Hopefully this isn't the same sort of thing as Chase Audige went thru last year, where he just couldn't make a shot after playing heavy minutes all season.

Boo Buie did what he could to win the game for NU. Yet another strong performance, though he too faded a bit down the stretch.
If I counted right, NU went 5 of 21 from the floor with 6 turnovers after taking a 42-31 lead with 17 minutes to play.

Matt Nicholson made a significant impact on the defensive end. Somebody needs to talk to him about when to dunk and when to try a left handed layup.
Enjoyed watching him battling with Omoruyi - thankfully the refs let them play. Nothing sucks like a whistle-happy ref.

Blake Preston provided some decent minutes slugging it out in the mosh pit.

As for Justin Mullins - well he was something of a revelation. He appeared to have hit the weights and put mass on his athletic frame since showing up at NU.
Why Jordan Clayton was getting opportunities ahead of him will be one of life's mysteries. Why Mullins has been glued to the bench for a few months is another.
Guy went 3 for 3 from the field and had 3 blocked shots. Clearly unfazed by playing on the road in the Big Ten.
Looked like the best athlete on the team.
Some guys play a lot better in games than they do in practice. Hopefully Mullins is the answer to our rotation's deficiencies.
If he can provide productive minutes in relief of Barnhizer and Martinelli at Indiana, a big problem has been addressed.
I'm hoping this is a repeat of last season's Martinelli story, where an injury to a teammate provided an opportunity for a young player to open his coach's eyes a little.

Jordan Clayton did not play well.

An incredibly worthy cause. Please contribute if you have the means to do so.

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This year has been great and next year is a way off but just wondered who will be back next year and who’s coming in and will there be a spot for a transfer?

Back in March 2016, after the ‘Cats were eliminated from the BTT at the hands of Michigan in overtime, Chris Collins alluded to several (blown) calls going against NU. One call, in particular, should have given the ‘Cats an opportunity to win the game in the closing seconds. Chris attributed this
as a clear sign Big Ten officials didn’t respect Northwestern’s program and he hoped this would change over time. It should be noted that NU team won 20 games; it was no pushover.

Fast forward to January 31st, 2024 in West Lafayette and one of Collins comments following a heartbreaking defeat to Boilers referenced the same issue, only this time Northwestern was proving itself as a legitimate league contender.

Tonight we saw exactly what Chris is talking about.

Missing the blatant fouls (yes plural) on Buie’s final shot is unfathomable. This isn’t a freshman in desperation mode, he’s a Cousey award finalist for cripesake.

Then we have a seemingly rouge official continuously calling back his colleagues to review Langborg’s offensive foul (one created while clearly making a basketball move) ad nauseam until the crew upgrades it to a flagrant two resulting in an ejection. Better yet, Rutgers back up center goes full Draymond Green and takes out Justin Mullins knees. Somehow, the player is allowed to stay in the game.

Big Ten officials do not respect Chris Collins or Northwestern. The end.

Zach Lujan has offered 2025 QB Marcus Romain out of Marietta (Ga.) Wheeler. He's got offers from Boston College, Navy and some Ivys.

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Given the discussion about the team and Foster's tenure last year, this gave me major Springtime for Hitler vibes when I saw it.
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2025 ATH Mason Ellen says he has been invited to Northwestern for a visit. He comes from Glenbard West, the same program that produced Will Halkyard and Grayson Metz. He just picked up offers from Fordham and Ohio, which offered him as a DB. He's also being recruited by Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State and Minnesota.

Here's Edgy's story:

I’m increasingly frustrated that the B1G doesn’t give Boo the Edey treatment. Edey gets breathed on and a foul is called, Boo gets knocked into next year and it’s incidental contact.

Feel good story - five years, came back without having too, will leave with a host of records at NU and is a sure fire All American. Lot to like about the school and the program - underdog that excels in an academics.

When does the memo go out that Boo is as much of a superstar for the B1G and a better NBA candidate? He doesn’t bitch. He has improved every year. He is a team player. What more could you want?

Want to look at personal life? Has a degree, en route to another. Family man.

Simply amazing - I would think he would’ve been a B1G marketing team wet dream.

I have been watching these tix. Prices have gone down today. Jumped on 301 Row A (big difference between Row A and Row M). Less than $17/ticket with fees on SeatGeek. Won’t get much cheaper.

I’m a bargain shopper and not a baller like @CatManTrue.

Grab the other few seats and let’s establish a Cat beachhead in the RAC.

Northwestern (17-7, 8-5 Big Ten) plays at Rutgers (13-10, 5-7 Big Ten) tonight at 5:30 pm CT. The game will air on BTN.

This is Northwestern's second straight game without starting guard Ty Berry but the first knowing he will be out for the season. Rutgers has won its last three games, including a 22-point drubbing of Wisconsin.

Without a good 3-point shooter on the court with Buie, the offense is going to be stagnant. Barnhizer and Martinelli will take wide open 3’s but neither is comfortable coming off of screens. We couldn’t run a pretty big part of our offense. Once they blitzed Buie in the 2nd half, we were forced to put the ball in Martinelli’s hands way too often. He’s a change of pace guy. Matt has no game outside of dunks and layups. Clayton hasn’t scored in conference. We could have still won if Clayton and Matt made their shots and Rutgers didn’t get every roll (how about that last hook shot?), but without Berry and Langborg, we are bad offensive team.

NU did play Detroit Mercy earlier this year. They got their first win to get to 1-26, and one guy stormed the court.

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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.

I’ve got an update on Berry. He is definitely out tomorrow for the Penn State game. Long-term, his status is still not clear. They’ll know more next week.

I’ll let the doctors on the board speculate what that might mean.

Edgy has a story on local QB Owen Lansu from Downers Grove North. He picked up his first Power Four offer from Cincinnati. But he also told Edgy this about NU:

"I'm also looking to go visit both Iowa and also Northwestern this spring. I really like what Northwestern has to offer and they are one of my top schools for now."

I got this via email today:

There is a hearing via Zoom on February 13 at 9 a.m. Central Time as part of the breach of contract and defamation litigation that former Northwestern University head football Coach Patrick Fitzgerald filed against Northwestern and university president Michael Schill. Winston & Strawn Partners and Counsel for Coach Fitzgerald, Dan Webb and Matthew Carter will attend along with Coach Fitzgerald. During the hearing, counsel is expecting the Court to set a case schedule, including a trial date. At trial, a jury will ultimately decide Coach Fitzgerald’s claims.