A very, very important Win

[xxjfgxx]

The win tonight will be remembered as one of the key wins that put the cats in the big dance for the first time ever! Also puts the cats in the upper echelon of the conference.
This team has the talent, depth, athleticism and coaching to make some serious noise before this season is over. Go Cats.

 

[Gladeskat]

It's a nice win, but beating teams like Maryland, Wisconsin, MSU, Purdue, and Indiana will have a greater impact on our going to the dance. Blowing out Illinois twice and reading the misery meltdown on the Illinois boards will be even more entertaining for me. It NU pulls that off, it will be held up as shining examples of how far Illinois has fallen and be the last straw for Groce. It would augment the humbling they've endured for the past decade in football and basketball.

 

[spartcat]

Loved the performance too but let's not get crazy. Io_a had zero defense all night, and couldn't ever keep BMac out of the lane. Other teams have helped in the circle and prevented that move pretty effectively. We are also going to be hot and cold at times from outside. We will have issues against some opponents down the stretch, just because it's still college basketball, or random acts of basketball.

The great news from my point of view is the game-long defensive pressure, along with the great ball movement. We are a TEAM, and unlike some of our earlier games, we were a 2nd half team.

 

[Palindrome]

It's a nice win, but beating teams like Maryland, Wisconsin, MSU, Purdue, and Indiana will have a greater impact on our going to the dance. Blowing out Illinois twice and reading the misery meltdown on the Illinois boards will be even more entertaining for me. It NU pulls that off, it will be held up as shining examples of how far Illinois has fallen and be the last straw for Groce. It would augment the humbling they've endured for the past decade in football and basketball.

Beating a couple of the teams you cite is probably what will give the Cats a Dance ticket, if....... if they don’t go flat in some other matches that would be seen as bad losses. I have come around to thinking we can compete head-to-head with any of them for 40 minutes. What we simply CANNOT afford any more is the “key stretch melt down” where we turn over the ball under pressure, commit ten second violations, start lobbing passes to guys in the wrong colored jerseys, short-arm a couple of bunnies, panic when getting the ball in bounds, give a guy an “and one” on a silly foul, etc. One or two brain farts in a game is virtually inevitable, but it must not be contagious when it happens. We have to keep the own-foot-shooting to the bare minimum. I think that’s a matter of confidence, and we seem to be gaining it nicely. I’m in grave danger of becoming optimistic, but guardedly so considering my long history of watching NU hoops. That said I’m getting a feeling that this team’s DNA is different in spite of a couple of early-season heartbreakers of own making. Aren’t you?

 

[TheC]

Beating a couple of the teams you cite is probably what will give the Cats a Dance ticket, if....... if they don’t go flat in some other matches that would be seen as bad losses.

The good news is that we really only have one more game left that would provide the possibility of a bad loss - Rutgers at home. Aside from that, I think every remaining game will be against a decent team (for better or worse).

 

[Hungry Jack]

Normally, beating the #117 RPI team would not be that much cause for celebration. Iowa is talented, but certainly not a complete team. But we have had our struggles with them during recent seasons (2 wins, including one in the conference tournament, but several blowout losses). And tonight was the first time we completely liquidated a conference foe that was not one of the dregs (like Minny last season) by playing a complete game, and going for the jugular to close it out.