Seth Davis gives a shout-out in the "Underrated" section of his article today:

Go Cats! We have our best lineup out there with Trevor Chumbley back in the lineup

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Put up or shut up, Paddy.

Friends, it’s been a minute since I’ve had a minute to share the truth with you. Check out this Hudson Ohio hog (an Ohio program that has produced 2 NFL OL in the last 10 years).

He’s going to be a junior next season, has a 4.36 GPA, and just picked up a MSU offer. Somebody call in the NWO.

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Cats offer Woodstock, IL tight end Christian Bentancur.

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Lau hit a big 3 late to put us ahead and Brown made 2 clutch free throws at the end to seal the deal

Here’s the story from Edgy.

Putting aside the BTT, I’d say 5 more wins (11-9) puts us comfortably in, 4 more (10-10) keeps us sweating. Where are we going to find 5 wins? Best chance would seem to be 4 of last 5 at home (W over MI, IU, IA, PSU, assume L to PU), steal 1 of last 6 on the road (IA, WI, OSU, IL, MD, RU). Man, the conference is tough this year.

I made it to the game today and the students were great. I was disappointed with the number of empty seats but these kids deserve better. The last few years have been rough but this team is fun to watch.

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

First, the NU games:

Wisconsin @ Northwestern
Monday, January 23
5:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Stephen Bardo

Northwestern @ Nebraska
Wednesday, January 25
6:00 PM, FS2
PxP: Kevin Kugler
Color: Nick Bahe

Minnesota @ Northwestern
Saturday, January 28
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Mike Hall
Color: Trent Meacham

And the rest:

Tuesday, January 24

Penn State @ Rutgers
5:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Jason Horowitz
Color: Stephen Bardo

Ohio State @ Illinois
6:00 PM, ESPN
PxP: Brian Custer
Color: Robbie Hummel

Wednesday, January 25

Wisconsin @ Maryland
6:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Stephen Bardo

Indiana @ Minnesota
8:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Cory Provus
Color: Robbie Hummel

Thursday, January 26

Iowa @ Michigan State
6:00 PM, FS1
PxP: Gus Johnson
Color: Jim Jackson

Purdue @ Michigan
8:00 PM, FS1
PxP: Jason Benetti
Color: Bill Raftery

Saturday, January 28

Illinois @ Wisconsin
2:00 PM, FOX
PxP: Jason Benetti
Color: Stephen Bardo

Nebraska @ Maryland
3:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Jason Ross Jr.
Color: Robbie Hummel

Ohio State @ Indiana
7:00 PM, FOX
PxP: Gus Johnson
Color: Jim Jackson

Sunday, January 29

Michigan @ Penn State
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Kevin Kugler
Color: Shon Morris

Michigan State @ Purdue
11:15 AM, CBS
PxP: Spero Dedes
Color: Bill Raftery
Color: Jay Wright

Rutgers @ Iowa
1:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Dave Revsine
Color: Brian Butch

Lau is on campus. Looking forward to watching her play. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun watching her during her NU career. Get used to seeing plays like this:

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If Iowa wins at home 🏡 tomorrow

Now a QUAD one loss?

He basically said he and Boo over the summer finally decided to work as teammates rather than as some guy who was taking the other’s shots away. (He didn’t say that exactly, but I’m interpreting in the interests of a good story.)


It’s better when you share.

Northwestern has offered Ellis Davis, a 6-foot-7, 2024 tackle from Texas.

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Annoying when local media, here Brad Biggs of the Tribune writing about the Senior Bowl, discusses the three Illini and a Notre Dame player but ignores Adebawore and Hull.

I wrote him to complain.

Alright, there was a healthy debate on the Rock. Some premium posters stated that Duke is more prestigious than Northwestern.

I could not disagree more strongly with that statement, so after thinking about it I thought it would be a cool free board poll.

Let’s see what the good people say! Here’s the question and a very informative video if you don’t believe me.

Which university is more prestigious: Duke or Northwestern?

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I am pretty pessimistic when it comes to NU hoops. I've been a fan for a long time and I am too beaten down to feel any other way. I admit it is miserable, but I can't control it. That all said, I found myself pleasantly surprised, but not overly exuberant about our upset win in East Lansing last night. I imagine many of you feel the same. It's a pattern we've seen play out with this team in recent years before. We clean up in the cupcake portion of our schedule. We blow a chance for a quality non-conference win. We have at least one game that we want to forget. And then we start conference play with a really nice, even shocking win or two. But then.....

Last year, we lost tough, close games to Providence and Wake Forest, but then came back with a really nice road win at Maryland to start conference play. We followed that with 4 straight losses including at home to Maryland. But then we had a nice upset of Michigan State... followed by 4 more losses and an eventual 7-13 finish in conference and below .500 record overall.

Two years ago, we had a tough loss to Pitt in the non-conference portion. But had an even more shocking win over MSU again to start conference play. Even better, we followed that up with tough wins against Ohio State and Indiana. That was the last time I think we felt hope as Cat fans. Of course, then we went on to lose our next 13 games!! What was that line from Shawshank Redemption about hope? Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It applies to being a Northwestern fan.

So, today we celebrate a nice win against (a somewhat depleted) MSU team. I feel great for the kids. I even feel good for Coach Collins. He looked pretty happy last night. I generally like the guy and wished he were the answer here, so I don't want his life to be miserable. But I've seen this movie before. Even if we win the next BIG game, it is not necessarily a harbinger of good things to come. Hope is a dangerous thing for an NU hoops' fan. That long losing streak always feels like it's just around the corner.

Little Hungry got selfies with Ty Berry, Brooks B, and Big Matt after the game. Ty signed his jersey. He was thrilled.

Big Matt was carting three boxes of tacos after the game. He’s a big boy.

A few stadium tidbits, especially related to the 35,000 person capacity decision:

1) The first and most important consideration was making sure the place looked great on TV. A smaller, more densely packed stadium with seats closer to the field looks much better on TV than a larger stadium with empty seats. One reason that the current TV coverage looks a little odd at Ryan Field is that the TV angles are much tighter so that empty stands are not picked up. Extra points to empty stands look terrible.

2) They believe that fandom has changed, and that most new or renovated stadiums will be smaller than existing facilities. Kansas loved our new concepts and selected our architects to design their new stadium complex.

3) In order to make the numbers work, they want to hold events at the stadium continually. This includes things like academic conferences, business meetings, weddings, bar mitvahs, etc. They are working with Evanston to make sure that this can happen.

4) While costly, they believe the roof over the stands will make a much better experience for fans and will make the in-game atmosphere more purple and much louder (i.e. a 'real homefield advantage').

5) Today we have ~27,000 season ticket holders, average ~32,000 fans per game, and the stadium holds ~47,000 people. So when Ohio State comes to town, we get ~30,000 purple fans and ~17,000 Ohio State fans. With the new, smaller capacity stadium, it would be 30k purple fans and 5k buckeyes, which is a better homefield advantage. What about the lost revenue of those 12k buckeye fans?? Our admin knows that the NU game is a destination game for many B1G fanbases because there are so many alumni in the Chicagoland area, but (a) most of the revenue is TV money, so maximizing that experience is #1. Much more important than the revenue potential of seats, in-stadium advertising, sponsorships, etc. (b) the current stadium is so terrible - i.e. no premium seats or food or parking - that the revenue generated off the 17k opponent fans is surprisingly small. With the new stadium, they will offer more premium experiences and be able to make more $$$ off 5k buckeye fans than they can off 17k today. A joke was made that the goal was to 'break the buckeye bank accounts'.

Bottomline:
- Better TV viewing experience
- Better game-day experience for fans
- A real home-field advantage for NU teams
- Multi-purpose space for events

Watch list

Well deserved.

Have to think the student section will be full and lively for MICH

Well another decisive CATS win, so I might as well post again. It scares me to keep saying and repeating it, but this Cats bball team just seems different. So many prior years whenever we are a favorite in a conference game it’s automatic cause for concern and nail biting. I missed the first 10 ish minutes, and by the time I tuned in we were already up double digits. We extended it to 17 at halftime, then 20 in early 2H, and never looked back. They tried pressing us and we looked totally comfortable breaking the press.

I didn’t love us taking the air out of the ball but even starting our attack at 10 seconds or less on the shot clock we seemed to get a decent look almost every possession down the stretch. Our defense got slightly lazy a few possessions with a 20 pt lead, but I appreciated Chris calling the TO after the Boo FTs to tell them that. The outcome of the game wasn’t in doubt but he wanted us to finish it playing the right way. After that TO they scored some more points but almost entirely from the FT line, on some dubious calls. And when they cut it to 15, Boo scored a quick 4 to shut the door.

It was an all around very strong team effort. Various different players contributed. Solid team basketball.

Outside of the general happiness with the game, a couple other brief observations:
1. Chase looked like an all-B1G player to me today. I’m sure he doesn’t care about that and is happy with the win, but I’m just saying.
2. Boo was decisive. Made good decisions. Great finishes around the rim. And again brought the effort on defense. He and Chase are a dynamic duo.
3. Robbie Beran’s offense showed up. I don’t think this was his breakout game mostly because we didn’t really need it today. But him getting more confidence in his shot and his moves off the dribble can only be a good thing.
4. The “it was a total team effort” thing. Tydus made a couple plays on offense (still too many fouls on D). Martinelli again gave us some solid minutes. Nicholson did his thing, made a couple FTs. Berry’s scoring wasn’t needed as much today but he played solid D and was smart with the ball. Players are making plays when it’s appropriate, and distributing the ball to others when they don’t need to.

It just looks like a TEAM.

Now the last point, on a less optimistic note - we just took advantage of the easier part of our schedule which is huge. It’s gonna get tougher from here on out. 3 more games next week, 2 on the road. Zero more games against Neb or Minn. No easy wins remaining, lots of battles from here. But from watching our team, I like the way we battle, and so I don’t hate our chances.

Good clean American fun tonight for the boys, then back at it for Iowa Michigan Wisconsin. Keep pounding away, one game at a time.

GO CATS!

It's 28 minutes to tipoff as I write this and the student sections are about two-thirds full and filling up quickly. It looks like it will be another strong showing.

Julian Roper II will be out again today, per Jon Rothstein, so the Cats will be shorthanded again. What else is new? I think they'll be fine. They have to take care of business today.