We knew two years ago at MSG that the team was for real when it beat Texas and should have beaten ND. And then we knew to fear the worst last year after struggling with LaSalle and then suffering one of the worst blowouts I’ve ever seen against Texas Tech. So tomorrow’s game can’t be underrated as a barometer.
You are spot on with this post, and it suddenly has me even more excited for tonight's game and the next 8 days of NU basketball! Big late-November contests and the B1G/ACC Challenge tend to expose what kind of team we have and what kind of season we are in for.
Last season, the voice of reason on the board was not to freak out after the Creighton, Texas Tech and Georgia Tech losses. After all, we returned most of the pieces from our first NCAA Tournament team and the veteran team would surely recover...but the little voice in the back of my head knew better after watching those games.
The previous season, it was clear that we were pretty good after we blew out Texas, blew a game we had in the bag against Notre Dame and then beat Wake Forest in the B1G/ACC Challenge. I worried about our ability to finish after late-game collapses against Butler and Notre Dame, but I still felt really good about the way we competed against those top-notch teams. Of course, we wound up advancing all the way to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Even in 2009-10, it was apparent that we were a pretty good team after we knocked off Iowa State and Notre Dame in the late-November Chicago Tournament--and then beat NC State in thee B1G/ACC Challenge. It was a sign of things to come in the first 20-win season in program history.
Here's to hoping I can figure out a way to stream the game on ESPNU from Germany tonight...and that we will play on ESPN or ESPN2 (which I get) for the remainder of the tournament!
