@lou v breaks down why Northwestern's lack of incoming transfers at this stage of the portal isn't a cause for concern.

We broke down where Northwestern's coaching staff stands after five reported departures, three new hires, an in-house promotion and two existing vacancies.

Yesterday morning's visitor to my backyard:

The NCAA has headcount sports, which means every player gets a full-ride scholarship, and equivalency sports, which means that the scholarships are split among the players.

On the men's side, the two headcount sports are football and basketball.
On the women's side, the four headcount sports are basketball, volleyball, tennis and gymnastics.

Certainly, we've had good seasons in football and basketball and tennis, but it seems that NU struggles more with headcount sports, while consistently winning in equivalency sports (lax, field hockey, softball, etc.). While 'coaching' always matters and individuals like former VB Coach Shane Davis may not have been a great fit at NU, I think the headcount-equvalency split creates an interesting dynamic.

The professionalism of the basketball, volleyball and tennis circuit at the youth level is insane. Since there are full-ride opportunities, the best athletes often play these sports and the best athletes want to be "athletes". These athletes have been professionally training all through high school, often discounting academics for athletics (and switching schools and geographies), so NU's unique value proposition may not mean as much.

What your take?

I see it as 7 more victories (regular season) to get to the dance. BIG is weaker this year so... Gets us to 20 wins and a winning BIG record. 6 might get it done but would likely require a game or to in BTT

Northwestern (12-4, 3-2 Big Ten) hosts Maryland (11-6, 3-3 Big Ten) tonight at Welsh-Ryan Arena, scheduled for an 8 pm tip. The game will air on BTN.

The Wildcats look to bounce back from a narrow road loss up in Madison and Maryland hopes to keep the momentum from their nine-point win in Champaign over Illinois.

Huge thanks to the @westlotpirates guys for having me on!

We broke down where Northwestern's coaching staff stands after five reported departures, three new hires, an in-house promotion and two existing vacancies.

I'm sure there will be a highlight of this eventually on Twitter, but East Carolina had just made a shot to take a 1 point lead with 3 seconds left. North Texas, without a timeout, threw the perfect Hail Mary pass to their big man who put it up for a left-handed layup to win by 1. Very impressive.

Edited to add said highlight clip: Login to view embedded media

Here are @mshelton33's takeaways from another memorable night at Welsh-Ryan.

Here are @mshelton33's takeaways from another memorable night at Welsh-Ryan.

Something?

The 2024 initial dead period is over and Northwestern is able to host players once again -- assuming they can get into O'Hare Airport during a pretty severe snow storm in Chicago today.

Offensive line is the focus this weekend. They're bringing in one OL from the 2024 class, and their work on incoming transfers is also officially under way with a grad transfer target.

We've known on the board for a few days about the first visitor. The second one is a name we haven't heard before.


Grad transfer OL Jacob Rizy

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Rizy was a first-team All-Ivy tackle last season, entered the portal after graduation and could come to Northwestern with two years of eligibility remaining. The Wildcats are assumed to be bringing back both of last year's tackles in Caleb Tiernan and Josh Thompson, so the addition of Rizy could mean kicking Thompson into guard, or vice versa.

Should Rizy pick the Wildcats, it'll be up to new offensive line coach Billy O'Boyle to sort that out. Rizy has kept his Northwestern interest under wraps publicly on his X profile, posting offers from nine other schools, including Purdue, as well as the new staffs at Duke and Houston.


2024 OL Ezomo Oratohkai

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The Wildcats are trying to keep this one under wraps as much as possible as they look to supplement their Class of 2024. Oratokhai does not yet have an offer from the Wildcats but one could be coming soon in the next couple days or once O'Boyle can add input to the evaluation.

Oratokhai comes into Evanston with 14 offers in our database, including Tulane and Houston, but It's unclear if those hold after coaching changes at each school. He has offers from all three service academies, Memphis and a cluster of smaller Texas programs like Sam Houston, UTSA and Texas State. He has yet to receive a Power Five offer.

As the dominoes continue to fall.

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That was an impressive performance today in Champaign and not a fluke. They outplayed the Illini. Loads of points in the paint too which is scaring me. We better be ready to go.

At this point, and I understand that the spring portal session might be our saving grace, wondering what people think about our chances to have a reasonable record next year given we've lost a number of players and brought no one in via the transfer portal yet. Do any of our freshmen coming in have a chance to make the two deep? Wondering how other people are thinking about this given that we lost our best O-lineman and wide receivers and quarterback not to mention other key players.

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

First, the NU games:

Maryland @ Northwestern
Wednesday, January 17
8:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Robbie Hummel

Northwestern @ Nebraska
Saturday, January 20
1:15 PM, BTN
PxP: Cory Provus
Color: Shon Morris

And the rest:

Monday, January 15

Ohio State @ Michigan
11:00 AM, FOX
PxP: Gus Johnson
Color: Jim Jackson

Iowa @ Minnesota
5:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Jason Ross Jr.
Color: Stephen Bardo

Tuesday, January 16

Purdue @ Indiana
6:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP: Noah Eagle
Color: Robbie Hummel

Wisconsin @ Penn State
8:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Connor Onion
Color: Myles Dread

Wednesday, January 17

Nebraska @ Rutgers
6:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Jason Horowitz
Color: Jess Settles

Thursday, January 18

Minnesota @ Michigan State
5:30 PM, FS1
PxP: Jeff Levering
Color: LaPhonso Ellis

Illinois @ Michigan
7:30 PM, FS1
PxP: Kevin Kugler
Color: Stephen Bardo

Friday, January 19

Indiana @ Wisconsin
7:30 PM, FS1
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Robbie Hummel

Saturday, January 20

Penn State @ Ohio State
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Jeff Levering
Color: Stephen Bardo

Purdue @ Iowa
1:00 PM, FS1
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Robbie Hummel

Sunday, January 21

Michigan State @ Maryland
11:00 AM, CBS
PxP: Ian Eagle
Color: Bill Raftery

Rutgers @ Illinois
12:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Robbie Hummel

We are 1.5 pt favorites.

Easily covered by 2 banked 3 pointers and more miscellaneous weird shots they will hit against us. Guaranteed!

Was it you or Shelton that asked this question?? Perhaps a future Wildcat Report employee??

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The Wildcats moved to 12-3 (3-1 Big Ten) with a tough win at Penn State. Here are our takeaways from their first Big Ten win on the road.

Had heard rumors of Taylor negotiating (successfully) to ease transfer admissions before taking the role at Stanford.

Here is the proof - https://stanford.rivals.com/news/st...owa-lb-transfer-jahsiah-galvan-from-wisconsin

The only good news is I know NU does look at Stanford as a model for student-athletes - maybe they will realize they are the last ones standing?

I need three tickets for the Penn State game on February 11. I need them for myself and two fellow 1989 alums. Please let me know if anyone has three to sell to die hard cat fans.

Thanks.