Northwestern gutted out a 77-69 comeback win over Minnesota by outscoring the Gophers 43-29 in the second half.
Cats grind one out on the road
Cats grind one out on the road
How sweep it is: NU grinds one out on the road
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
On the basis of RPI, this is Northwestern's best win of the season. A big, big dose of confidence heading into the game against Michigan in Ann Arbor.
In addition to taking two of the three upcoming games against MD/Mich (plus a win against a surprisingly mediocre Wisconsin team), we could really use the Gophers to go a little run from this point on. If all of that were to happen, NU's RPI/resume would look quite a bit different by the second week of February
Great point. Their success from this point on becomes NU's success. To shift those two top 100 wins into top 50 wins would be big.
I'm all about getting greedy, but even if the Gophers were to tread water, that would be fine with me too. If you subtract the Minnesota wins, NU is 0-7 vs the RPI top 100.
Fortunately, there are still a opportunities to score quality wins, even with the conference in a down year. Michigan and MD are both candidates for a top 50 finish and Michigan State may very well end up in the top 25 by season's end. These five regular season opportunities as well as the BTT will give the 'Cats a chance to make up ground.
A tall order to be sure, but there's still hope.
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Wisconsin
is very beatable! It will be a tall order to beat Michigan on the road!
Speaking of RPI, it's easy to waste an hour or so running all kinds of permutations on this site.
http://www.rpiforecast.com/wizard/Northwestern.html
It's not updated with last night's win, but if we go on a crazy run we could get closer to the conversation headed into the BTT. For example:
- Losing at Michigan and Maryland only: 19-11 with a 62 RPI
- Losing either at Maryland or Michigan only: 20-10 and a 51/52 RPI
- Winning all nine: 21-9 and 48 RPI
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