Aside from making the NCAA Tournament

[eastbaycat99]

It would be nice for this team to post a winning conference season. I would hate to have the "trying to avoid their 50th consecutive years without a winning record in the conference" to the "only power five team to never have played in the tournament" spiel at the start of each ESPN game.

On a side note, since Rutgers will certainly still be in the conference next year, it seems that the 2017-18 season will probably mark the 10th consecutive year of not finishing last in the conference. If you lived through the dismal seasons from '69 through '08, watching the Cats finished in the cellar 18 times in those 40 years is an experience I do not choose to repeat.

 

[Styre]

It would be nice for this team to post a winning conference season. I would hate to have the "trying to avoid their 50th consecutive losing season in the conference" to the "only power five team to never have played in the tournament" spiel at the start of each ESPN game.

It would only be the 13th consecutive losing season.

 

[hdhntr1]

It would be nice for this team to post a winning conference season. I would hate to have the "trying to avoid their 50th consecutive losing season in the conference" to the "only power five team to never have played in the tournament" spiel at the start of each ESPN game.

On a side note, since Rutgers will certainly still be in the conference next year, it seems that the 2017-18 season will probably mark the 10th consecutive year of not finishing last in the conference. If you lived through the dismal seasons from '69 through '08, watching the Cats finished in the cellar 18 times in those 40 years is an experience I do not choose to repeat.

Under BC, we had a 500 record in conference on yearso 50 years of not having a winning record would be accurate but 50 years of losing record would not

 

[eastbaycat99]

Under BC, we had a 500 record in conference on yearso 50 years of not having a winning record would be accurate but 50 years of losing record would not

You are absolutely correct and I will correct the original post. From a personal emotional standpoint, not having a winning conference season sticks in my craw, and in a lot of ways I obsess more over that than inclusion in the Tournament.

 

[ricko654321]

You are absolutely correct and I will correct the original post. From a personal emotional standpoint, not having a winning conference season sticks in my craw, and in a lot of ways I obsess more over that than inclusion in the Tournament.

this seems like a brilliant opportunity for that whole "two birds, one stone" thing....

 

[BosCat]

You are absolutely correct and I will correct the original post. From a personal emotional standpoint, not having a winning conference season sticks in my craw, and in a lot of ways I obsess more over that than inclusion in the Tournament.

Are you saying I shouldn't have enjoyed the consistency of four straight 2-16 B1G seasons when I was at NU? (Sean Morris era 84-88)

 

[purplebirder]

Actually it is true that it has been 50 years that the Cats had a winning record in the conference. In 1967-68 NU was 8-6 in the Big Ten and finished in 4th place.. Highlight of the season was a victory over Louisville (ranked 3rd in the country at the time of the game if I recall correctly). One of the stars of that team was Don Adams who later played in the NBA for 7 season

For you "youngsters" on the forum in those day only the Big Ten champ (tOSU that season) was invited to the Big Dance

I was a freshman at NU in 1967-1968 and enjoyed attending all home games.

I look forward to watching the Cats the NCAA tournament this year. I would enjoy watching them beat the AZ Wildcats (I moved to Tucson 4 years ago) !

 

[IdahoAlum]

Actually it is true that it has been 50 years that the Cats had a winning record in the conference. In 1967-68 NU was 8-6 in the Big Ten and finished in 4th place.. Highlight of the season was a victory over Louisville (ranked 3rd in the country at the time of the game if I recall correctly). One of the stars of that team was Don Adams who later played in the NBA for 7 season

For you "youngsters" on the forum in those day only the Big Ten champ (tOSU that season) was invited to the Big Dance

I was a freshman at NU in 1967-1968 and enjoyed attending all home games.

I look forward to watching the Cats the NCAA tournament this year. I would enjoy watching them beat the AZ Wildcats (I moved to Tucson 4 years ago) !

From a Chicago Tribune article referencing that 1967-68 team (us old guys love this nostalgia stuff):
Northwestern finished 13-10 in that 1967-68 season under coach Larry Glass. Those Wildcats, led by high-scoring guard Dale Kelley, were 9-0 at home, 3-8 on the road and 1-2 on neutral sites. NU was fourth in the Big Ten with an 8-6 conference mark.

Former Northwestern head coach Rich Falk was an assistant coach on the NU staff of Glass in 1968.

"The team captain of that team was Mike Weaver," said Falk, who currently works for the Big Ten office. "Brad Snyder also was an assistant coach. I don't remember the specifics of that Indiana game, other than it was an 86-81 victory. It was an outstanding Northwestern team, capable of beating a lot of teams, including a big win earlier in the year over Louisville in Chicago Stadium, 88-83, when they had Wes Unseld and Butch Beard. I think they were nationally ranked No. 3 at the time."

 

[purplebirder]

Larry Glass was actually disliked by Cats fans . There were many "Glass Must Go" signs in the stands because some fans believed that the team should have had a much better record than 13-10/8-6. The following year Glass resigned during the season and was replaced by Brad Snyder.

 

[Catreporter]

The 68-69 team started out like a house afire. 9-1 in the preseason with a tourney win that included a victory over Neal Walk and the Fla Gators. Ranked nationally, They opened the Big Ten season with a resounding win at Mich State and came home to a capacity crowd at McGaw to face Illinois. A huge seven point swing on a technical foul by Terry Gamber swung the game Illinois' way and the season totally tanked after that with Glass resigning mid-season. Northwestern basketball went into a precipitous decline after that and is still digging out some 48 years later.

 

[NJCat]

The 68-69 team started out like a house afire. 9-1 in the preseason with a tourney win that included a victory over Neal Walk and the Fla Gators. Ranked nationally, They opened the Big Ten season with a resounding win at Mich State and came home to a capacity crowd at McGaw to face Illinois. A huge seven point swing on a technical foul by Terry Gamber swung the game Illinois' way and the season totally tanked after that with Glass resigning mid-season. Northwestern basketball went into a precipitous decline after that and is still digging out some 48 years later.

Wow. Thanks for the history.

 

[purplebirder]

More history from the 1968-69 season. One of the losses was 81-67 to UCLA at Chicago Stadium(UCLA won the national championship that year). Perhaps someone else from that year can confirm but I seem to recall that Northwestern led that game at halftime (maybe by 10 pints?) Future NBA player Don Adams had 15 rebounds against the Bruins who were led by Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)

 

[FloridAlum]

More history from the 1968-69 season. One of the losses was 81-67 to UCLA at Chicago Stadium(UCLA won the national championship that year). Perhaps someone else from that year can confirm but I seem to recall that Northwestern led that game at halftime (maybe by 10 pints?) Future NBA player Don Adams had 15 rebounds against the Bruins who were led by Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)

OK, my turn. I remember that game, my senior year, I had two friends on the team, great guys, Terry Hurley and Jerry Sutton, but they were the guys at the end of the bench that got very little playing time. Jerry was the third string center, maybe 69 or 610, and pretty strong, but not really the most athletic . As luck would have it, of the two centers ahead of him, one was out for the game and the other was dinged up, so Jerry got perhaps the only start of his collegiate career and it was against Alcindor and UCLA. I bumped into him a day or two before the game, and he told me he was probably going to start. I did not attend the game but listened in my apartment on my little portable radio, and all I really remember was listening as hard as I could for the announcer to mention his name. It sounded like he really gave it his best shot and try to consistently muscle Alcindor away from the basket, but he was going against the best player in the country. I just remember being very proud of him.
PS The year before, 67-68, my junior year, was the last time we had a winning record in the Big Ten.

 

[spartcat]

Back to the original post...If we don't have a winning conference record our chances of making the tournament are near zero. So let's kill two millstones with one bird.