Hello, all.

I'm making the trip up next month with my brother and a couple friends and am pretty excited for the experience, seems like it will be quite unique.
However, as far as I can figure, the Northwestern athletics page doesn't really have parking information, at least not with any clarity on prices and policies.
I was wondering if you had any suggestions on reasonably convenient places to park and info on how much parking lots tend to cost to park in on game day.

It's June, which means it's visit season for college basketball recruiting.

Head coach Chris Collins and his staff were on the road in May, checking out prospects in AAU tournaments across the country during the Evaluation Period. Now that the Dead Period that prohibits recruiting contact ended on June 2, they will try to get their top Class of 2025 targets on campus this month.

The program will have to replace guards Ty Berry and Brooks Barnhizer, and big man Matt Nicholson, at a minimum, after the 2024-25 season.

These are the seven players -- five guards and two bigs -- that sources say are the program’s primary focus right now:


GUARDS

Mason Blackwood
Login to view embedded media Northwestern is one of eight programs to offer Blackwood since May 19 – Boston College, West Virginia, Rutgers, Penn State and Wake Forest are some of the others. A big guard/wing player with toughness and athleticism, Blackmon hails from New York but is playing a prep year at New Hampton (N.H.).

Jaden Forsythe
Login to view embedded media Forsythe has become a hot commodity after a strong showing for Team Final on the AAU circuit. He’s picked up recent offers from Northwestern, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Xavier and now has nine Power Five offers. A tough, athletic two guard, he has proven that he can score from anywhere.

Phoenix Gill
Login to view embedded media Gill’s famous father Kendall played at Illinois, but his mother is a Northwestern grad. The Cats offered Gill after a visit last July. The Chicago St. Ignatius product has also visited Illinois, Iowa State (multiple times) and Stanford, and he will likely choose from among those four.

Josiah Sanders
Login to view embedded media Northwestern’s offer on May 24 was one of five Power Five offers that Sanders received within five days. He said that NU’s guard play and the hostile home-court atmosphere at Welsh-Ryan Arena is why the program interests him. He now has 15 total offers, eight from the Power Five.

Simon Walker
Login to view embedded media Interest in Walker has skyrocketed after his impressive performances on the Under Armour circuit. He picked up eight offers at the end of May, including Northwestern on May 25. The versatile shooter from Huntsville, Ala., also drew tenders from Butler, Clemson, DePaul, Iowa, Tennessee, Virginia Tech and UAB.


BIGS

Cade Bennerman
Login to view embedded media Bennerman only has an offer from Tennessee State at this point, but he drew attention from big-time programs after his strong showing for Game Elite (Ga.) on the Adidas Three-Stripe Select circuit. Duke, Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee and Vanderbilt are among the schools to reach out.

Brady Koehler
Login to view embedded media Koehler added offers from Northwestern, Rutgers, Stanford, Virginia and West Virginia in the past month. Butler, Notre Dame, Wake Forest and a long list of mid-majors got on him over the winter, after he averaged 15.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game for Indianapolis Cathedral.

Deacon Schmitt out of Windsor HS in Windsor, CO picks up an NU offer.

6’5”, 305, 4.04 GPA and a great name for an OL.

Login to view embedded media

Kasmir Hicks out of Decatur Central picks up an NU offer. Hicks tags Hicks, so I’m assuming he’s being recruited as a CB.

Login to view embedded media

Jake West out of Penn Charter receives an NU offer. Looks like Coach McIntosh is heavily involved here. He’s visiting Coastal Carolina this weekend; I’d expect him to make his way to Evanston soon.

Login to view embedded media

Interesting approach from Tennessee. They’ve already been very aggressive with NIL since it became a thing, and now they are adding a 10% talent fee to all season tickets starting next year to support player revenue sharing.

I am not totally against it in this college football environment. Is this something NU should consider starting in 2026 at the new digs? Filling our stadium is already a challenge, BUT we have maintained a pretty good season ticket holder base (and that’s even with the Fitz debacle). It would take a shift in our NIL strategy, but with a new AD on board, that could be happening anyway.

@lou v talked to the Seattle Times' Andy Yamashita to get an inside look into the Washington Huskies before Saturday night.

NU is doing its season ticket upgrade process for hoops. There are no seats available in the Wilson Club. I checked the other sections and it appears that there is limited availability throughout the arena.

When I first checked the upgrade process, there were only 9 seats in the Wilson Club available.

I do not believe that NU has even opened up the process for sales beyond the current ticket holders but honestly I have not really followed this other than to upgrade my own tickets.

MORE PFF: Sunday Eastern Illinois PFF Analysis (Snap Counts)

This is premium content. Please subscribe to view.

I talked to quarterback Jack Lausch about his starting debut vs EIU, his upcoming Big Ten debut, playing in a hostile environment, and more.

I talked to quarterback Jack Lausch about his starting debut vs EIU, his upcoming Big Ten debut, playing in a hostile environment, and more.

And we end up winning against Duke in regulation, would we have switched QBs? Nothing really would have changed about Wright’s performance, but I feel like it would have been a lot harder to change after starting the season 2-0.

Apparently it has been 40 years since Northwestern played University of Washington but there is a more recent football connection.

I vaguely recall something about Coach Barnett requesting and receiving from the University of Washington Purple gear or uniforms that were used to prepare for the Rose Bowl game. Just checked my copy of "High Hopes, Taking the Purple to Pasadena" and couldn't locate a reference. Anyone have a better recollection of the role University of Washington played?

Defensive tackle RJ Pearson is leaner, meaner and starting in 2024. I talked to the 2023 transfer about what’s led to his breakout start and the chemistry across the defensive line.

Josh Rivera out of Archbishop Stepinac in New York picks up an offer from CCC and co.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Midseason trips across two or three time zones will be challenging for any team. A few times, we’ve seen NFL teams just stay on the west coast if they’ve got back-to-back road game weeks.

But it was nice to me to see IU - new coach, but still IU - beat a UCLA team that won a bowl game last year.

Washington is very beatable, definitely more beatable than a typical returning top team. Last week was Wazzu’s biggest game of the season, and they got statistically outplayed (turnover, yardage), but they won by winning third down and by being disciplined (135 penalty yards for Washington!).

Basically, entering last weekend the optimist in me said, Hey, maybe Washington’s not that good. And now the still-optimistic side says, Hey, if IU did it…. And the more-optimistic side says, Lausch looked like an All-American in the second half.

So anyway, book it, Cats win.

@lou v talked to the Seattle Times' Andy Yamashita to get an inside look into the Washington Huskies before Saturday night.

He’s leaving ESPN for St. Bonaventure??

Login to view embedded media

Another top program.....

Login to view embedded media

Head coach David Braun talked about his days at travel coordinator, a rematch with Jedd Fisch, ambiguous injury updates and more at his weekly press conference.

Defensive tackle RJ Pearson is leaner, meaner and starting in 2024. I talked to the 2023 transfer about what’s led to his breakout start and the chemistry across the defensive line.

That’s Mason Blackwood of Greece, NY. Playing his high school ball in New Bedford, NH (teammate of Keyshawn Tillery). Self reports as a 6’7” guard with a 3.8 GPA.

Login to view embedded media

If you listened to the WGN radio coverage instead of the TV announcers while watching the game last night you probably heard the comment from Ted Albrecht about the B1G expansion to include the four West coast teams. I can't remember his exact words now, but it was very clear that he did not think it was a good thing. Dave Eanet's follow up comment was similar, but a little more guarded.

I was pleased to hear that these two people who are very close to our sports programs share my feelings about it.

Finally, after years of basically having tight ends that couldn't/wouldn't go down field more than five yards, NU is incorporating them more aggressively. Due to maturation of more athletic tight ends but also because of Lujan. Hallelujah!