In that Brian James interview from the other thread, at about 25:35 he mentioned that Brooks Barnhizer will be the primary ballhandler this year. Not necessarily something that I would have expected. That's a pretty big revelation I think.

Bart Torvik released his 2025 projections. You can edit the NU roster to see how it affects the projections, too.

His current projections have Northwestern ranked 55th in the nation and 14th in the expanded B1G, but that doesn't account for Nicholson and Berry returning.

When you add Berry and Nicholson back to the roster the Cats move up to 27th overall. If you add Blackmon then they move up to 25th.

Fun tool to play around with, and good to see the models like this returning roster.

On a lighter note, I'll just leave this here.....

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Hey Gang! We're Back!

It's Summer Preview time,and Lordy do we have a bunch of these to crank out.
We're kicking things off with the USC Trojans, who we last saw in the Keyshawn Johnson era in a little game some of you might remember

USC has a lot to work out in the post Caleb Williams era, but a massive coaching addition from across town and a fairly favorable cold-weather-free schedule ought to get the Trojans squared away in our conference fairly quickly.

Itunes link
Youtube link

It's great to be talking football again! Thanks as always!

Sam, John, and Scuzz/The West Lot Pirates

Hey Gang! We're Back!

It's Summer Preview time,and Lordy do we have a bunch of these to crank out.
We're kicking things off with the USC Trojans, who we last saw in the Keyshawn Johnson era in a little game some of you might remember

USC has a lot to work out in the post Caleb Williams era, but a massive coaching addition from across town and a fairly favorable cold-weather-free schedule ought to get the Trojans squared away in our conference fairly quickly.

Itunes link
Youtube link

It's great to be talking football again! Thanks as always!

Sam, John, and Scuzz/The West Lot Pirates

The first question of our Ten Questions preseason series is: Can the defense be elite?

The Wildcats return experience and depth across their defense, but they'll need to integrate new play callers, on and off the field, quickly before they hit the difficult home stretch of their schedule.

This was so much fun as a long suffering fan...

Nu vs Wisconsin

Hopefully the recent Bear Sightings will be as portentous of good things ahead for the Wildcats as the Moose have been.

At the beginning of last month it was a Brown Bear Encounter as this Grizzly came directly at me and got within an arms length with only a chicken wire-like fence separating us:


https://forums.collectors.com/home/...t=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfc3Fydn8Ro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfc3Fydn8Ro


Then at the end of the month, just prior to departing China from Beijing and after having climbed the Great Wall of China and taking in the Forbidden City in Beijing, it was a Panda Bear that came up and approached me:


https://forums.collectors.com/home/...t=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWlgA0bdDNs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWlgA0bdDNs


Finally this evening, back here at home, I was out watering the lawn in the front yard when a Black Bear walked in front of me, stopped and starred me down, and then began to climb the wall of the neighbor's house before climbing steps to a front door and then climbing back down before circling back.
Fortunately at that point, instead of coming at me, the bear turned and headed to a back yard. This time there was no barrier of any kind and the door behind me had inadvertently locked and I was without a key. There was no alternative than to stand my ground:

Per Jon Rothstein this morning.

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My father passed this morning. He started his time at Northwestern in the fall of 1955. Completed his undergrad in 3 years then went on to Northwestern Dental School where he met his wife and my mother in 1958 who was a nursing student at Northwestern. This lead to my love of Northwestern and Northwestern athletics. My mother passed away in 2018. Over the years took my dad back for many basketball and football games.

Craig’s son Jack is headed to NU. Will only be a few miles from Wrigley as Coach Greenspan lands the Michigan transfer. Originally from Whitefish Bay, WI, Jack will have three years of eligibility. Older brother Brady is also in the portal. Brady spent the last three years at Minnesota. He’s far more accomplished having played in 100 games for the Goohers. Would be great if we were to join Jack in Evanston. Will Greenspan be the coach who finally turns the program into a winner?

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As you guys have probably noticed, Rivals launched a rebrand this morning. You'll notice the new R logo, new fonts, new layouts, etc. We hope you enjoy the new look. It's good to change things a little bit once in a while.

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This story is on the ESPN website...

Apparently somebody associated with the Utah State football team was accused of sexual misconduct or domestic violence in Spring of 2023.
The head coach was made aware of the problem.
The coach investigated.
He appears to have not reported the allegations to the school in a timely manner.
Both "investigating" and "not reporting" violate university policy.
An external investigation was conducted.

The university notified the coach of their intent to fire him, but gave him 14 days to respond, in accordance with his employment agreement.
The Deputy athletic director and director of player development were also fired. Presumably they were part of the cover-up.
The defensive coordinator has been named interim coach for the 2024 season.
Athletic Director Diana Sabau met with the team and the football staff Tuesday to inform them of the news.
(apparently she addressed the team in her human form, not her digital form)

Its pretty sad that we are clowns compared to Utah State.

Wow! I can’t be the only one that is taken aback, right?

Did anyone buy seatbacks yesterday? If so how much are they charging.

Has anyone been able to confirm the actual go-live date for the pre-sale tomorrow? I received the generic email about it last week, which, notably, did not include a time.

I am assuming it will go live for all STHs at the same time since there should be enough inventory to accommodate all of us, but I'd be interested to know if we can pick our own seats this year as we did for the Lakefront Stadium or if it will be status quo for us at Wrigley.

Probably limited, but he’s been busy.

Update: there had been a tweet from NU hoops about Boo having worked out with 16 different teams, but it’s been deleted. 🤷‍♂️


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For whatever reason, the NBA has decided to split the draft to two days. The first round starts Wednesday at 8 eastern, and the second round on Thursday at 4.

I’d imagine we’ll see Boo on a Summer League roster. I hope he gets to abuse Bronny once or twice.

Big night Thursday: second round of the draft, then USA in Copa America, and then two weird old men wheeze at each other on CNN.

Anybody else notice on the Wrigley ticket site that the start time for the Illinois game is listed at 11am? Is that official?

Not intended to start a discussion on whether ratings have any merit. Just wondering when and how that takes place? I noticed one of our three unrated prospects just got rated but the other two did not.

Does anyone have any insight into this partnership and/if it is working? I have yet to see any meaningful marketing by NU (in the last three years), so who knows....

Legends

Zach Edey of Purdue and Caitlin Clark of Iowa were named the Jesse Owens Big Ten Athletes of the Year yesterday, each for the second straight year. Can you name the two Northwestern men and four Northwestern women who have won the honor since it was first awarded in 1982 (for men) and 1983 (for women)? (No Googling -- we'll use the honor system.)

Guess away.

I talked to 2026 four-star safety Marcello Vitti about his offer from Northwestern, his relationship with AHC/S Harlon Barnett and where the Wildcats stand in an already national recruitment.