To those orthos around here - maybe a little help…

Sand volleyball, jumped straight up to hit ball, landed two feet on sand and felt crunchy feeling lower thoracic/upper lumbar. Played another couple points. Checked out of game.

Hurts a bunch, initially some breathing pain.

Does it sound like a vertebrae issue requiring medical attention and imaging or more likely muscular. No prior back injury history. Very active. And crappy AHCA insurance that leads to asking the question before ensuring the money and time commitment.

Sorry if this has already been posted, but I just heard about this today from a friend. Ryan Field items are showing up at the Rebuilding Exchange, which has sites in Evanston and Chicago. You can see some of it on their website, and seats are being sold through Ebay.


- Astro

Head coach Chris Collins, Boo Buie and Nick Martinelli addressed the media ahead of tomorrow night's game against Iowa where Northwestern will honor Billy McKinney and retire his jersey. McKinney is the first Northwestern athlete in any sport to earn the honor.

Here are our takeaways from what they had to say.

I’m going to be in town and time to see the WR redo. Before I jump on StubHub, anyone got a pair not used? Or want to bring a friend/foe from the Board? Bonus points for Club seats

Head coach Chris Collins, Boo Buie and Nick Martinelli addressed the media ahead of tomorrow night's game against Iowa where Northwestern will honor Billy McKinney and retire his jersey. McKinney is the first Northwestern athlete in any sport to earn the honor.

Here are our takeaways from what they had to say.

If so, this is one recruit we should definitely get. Took unofficials to NU, U of I, and Princeton last fall according to his X account.

Once again going for "dress like an opposing fan" day, I enjoy the creativity and look forward to the whining of Iowa fans

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@lou v has the story on the Belmont, Mass. DL's visit to Northwestern and the future of his recruitment.

My wife and I had a wonderful weekend hosting out of town friends, who are both NU alums. The husband is a big Cats fan. The wife is not particularly interested in sports. What was fascinating to me, was that unprompted, the wife began to discuss the Ryan Field at Dyche Stadium teardown and rebuild. Unprompted she said she could not imagine a better spot than the lakefill with temporary bleachers, even without parking and no more than. 10,000 seats. In my humble opinion, if a non sports fan can see this as obvious, why can’t the administration give this a serious evaluation?

With spring on its way, I was wondering whether Coach Braun has a different view on a spring scrimmage. Fitz did not believe in them, but with the changing of the guard, it would be something to look forward to, particularly after MBB runs the table in March Madness. (Yes, I know there's also WLAX, Softball and a resurgent baseball team, too).

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2025 RB offer Ryver Peppers tagged a couple of assistants that I hadn't seen before in their current roles, apologies if this is double posting or already well-known:

Trey Klink will be an offensive line grad assistant this season. He was previously at NU from May 2022 - April 2023 as a defensive assistant, and coached as a linebacker graduate assistant at Kent State last season.

Zac Krause will be an offensive GA this season. He was previously at NU as a walkon quarterback from 2020 through 2022.

Here’s what Coach Collins had to say today. Nothing.

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Bummer

Watching the Maryland and Indiana road games the last few weeks, it seemed to me that the crowds (and to a great extent the home teams) were not particularly inspired. Both venues are historically difficult for visiting teams, but they were not terribly daunting in those games. I have to wonder if that would have been true if the visitors were Purdue, MSU or the Illini. I have to think that the fans of those teams, and maybe some of the players, still think of the Cats as jNWU and not a team with the 2nd best conference record over the last two years.

A lot of people have posted about the Cats getting little respect from the refs this year. I do think that the apparent apathy the Cats seem to draw, the flip side of that, may be a small advantage down the stretch. I am hoping MSU is really locked behind NU in the standings when they play in East Lansing and that apathy reigns that day.

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts.

Remember Ken Norman? He played basketball for Illinois from 1984-87, then played in the NBA for 10 years for the Clippers, Bucks and Hawks.

This is his GRANDSON.

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And his wife, Caley Chelios, on the birth of their baby daughter.

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Is not dressed for warmups and will likely not play tonight. He's in sweats with a brace on his right ankle next to Ty Berry in warm ups.

does the B1G Tournament start?

is pretty darn good, in an odd sort of way.

Nick Martinelli played the best game of his career (so far) and carried the short-handed Wildcats to a surprising win against Maryland.
After a couple of rough shooting performances, Nick has presumably quieted any remaining critics.
He and his buddy Barnhizer give NU a formidable inside scoring presence.

If you had told me a month ago that Northwestern would beat the Terps on their court, without Ty Berry or Ryan Langborg, I would not have believed it.
Former walk-on Blake Smith made a positive impression again, playing solid defense, hitting the boards and making 4 of 5 from the charity stripe.
Not bad for a guy listed at 6'6" 175 lbs, but he does bring an element of quickness to the floor for Northwestern.
Matt Nicholson didn't play particularly well, but continued to do a lot of little things to help the team.
His "lightning-fast" drive from the 3 point arc, around a screen, down the baseline and in for a two handed dunk was one of the highlights for NU.
I also enjoyed watching him directing Barnhizer to come out from the paint to the arc so that he (Nicholson) could set a screen and get Barney a wide open look.
That was a nice surprise in a fantastic win.

Northwestern needs just one more win to lock up an NCAA berth.

Given the circumstances… down two starters, playing a walk on, against a solid opponent, with the tourney not a lock and wins needed… I’d say yes.

The only thing that is also under consideration to me, given injuries, was that amazing win in Feb. 2017 at Wisconsin when Scottie was out with mono and we smacked the Badgers (with the Sanjay exclamation point dunk).

Thoughts?