POLL: Which NU team had a more improbable run?

[mshelton33]

I was talking to @lou v about the last year in Northwestern sports and this debate popped up. Which team had a more improbable run: 2023 Northwestern football or 2022-23 Northwestern basketball?

The basketball team responded to their fifth straight season under .500, and a public letter from athletic director Dr. Derrick Gragg casting doubt on the future of Chris Collins as head coach beyond that season. They were almost unanimously picked to finish at the bottom of the conference and responded with a 22-12 season and the second NCAA Tournament in school history.

The football team rallied from a hazing scandal that wracked the program and caused the firing of long-time head coach Pat Fitzgerald to finish with a 7-5 record, earn a bowl berth and finish second in the last season of the Big Ten West under interim, and then permanent, head coach David Braun. Much like hoops, this team was predicted preseason to finish in the basement of the Big Ten and proved everyone wrong.

Football hasn't played their bowl game yet, which could factor in here, but I still think it's neck and neck.

 

[zeek55]

I agree the bowl game likely could be a tipping factor.

If this football team finishes 8-5 with a bowl win after that offseason and past 2 years... that's basically right up there only behind Barnett's generational '95 turnaround (which can never be matched).

As it is now, I probably still give a slight edge to football because the offseason upheaval was much greater and the team was 1-11 last year, but they're both very close.

Incredible to have two seasons like this in the major sports back-to-back.

 

[SmellyCat]

Great topic!

I picked football because the team seemed almost left for dead, while the hoops team was mediocre at best in the previous season. Football didn't raise to the heights of the basketball team, but they just had so much farther to go to where they got to.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Basketball, because:

The football roster did have some (poorly utilized, poorly coached) talent to fall back on this year, whereas the basketball team looked really really short in that department.

Basketball ultimately had a better overall year, achieving a truly excellent season start to finish. Football had a decent year with a bad start but great improvement as the year went on.

Football’s season might be more IMPORTANT, but basketball reached even higher with less clay to work with.

 

[CappyNU]

Basketball for sure. The football schedule was hot garbage while the basketball team reinvented itself to be a legitimate top half conference team while winning a tourney game.

 

[phatcat]

Football. I've been meaning to have a separate post, but this year rivals Green and Barnett in terms of breakout years. The program, such as it was (4-20), was burned to the ground last summer and this FCS coordinator turned it around. Sure, there was some talent, but zero depth and gigantic holes on OL and DL. And the remaining talent was beaten down. And half the remaining coaches are bad. Inauspicious start with two of first three games bad losses.

I saw 7 games this year (6-1). Obviously a flawed team. But they win.

 

[hdhntr1]

I agree the bowl game likely could be a tipping factor.

If this football team finishes 8-5 with a bowl win after that offseason and past 2 years... that's basically right up there only behind Barnett's generational '95 turnaround (which can never be matched).

As it is now, I probably still give a slight edge to football because the offseason upheaval was much greater and the team was 1-11 last year, but they're both very close.

Incredible to have two seasons like this in the major sports back-to-back.

Except that BB won first round game as well

 

[zeek55]

Basketball for sure. The football schedule was hot garbage while the basketball team reinvented itself to be a legitimate top half conference team while winning a tourney game.

Agreed that the football schedule featured a lot of mediocre teams but at the same time we were underdogs in 10 out of 12 games.

As @mshelton33 put it: Minnesota + Wisconsin + Illinois beat us by 101 points combined last year. We beat all 3 this year with 2 of those being on the road.

It's hard to understate what a turnaround this has been, even without considering the offseason fiasco.

 

[NUcats92]

It’s easily 100% basketball for me, football had some guys coming in that I thought would have gotten them moving forward Henning, Bryant, Etc plus with what they still had on the roster i for one didn’t think the cupboard was bare , them making a bowl game isn’t the most shocking thing to me I thought with what they had They should’ve made a bowl game but I think with everything that happened in the summer really made this an even bigger deal.

 

[Catreporter]

Beating the number one team in the nation in front of a sold out crowd swayed my pick to hoops. Both seasons were amazing and are what makes me keep following these teams. Love being an underdog.

 

[zeek55]

Except that BB won first round game as well

Sure, I just think the turnaround in FB is probably a bit more substantial given the depths of the past 2 years.

Either way, both were huge turnarounds given the preseason prospects. It's just an interesting discussion I suppose but both were impressive.

We'll see what happens with the bowl game for this FB team.

 

[NUCat320]

Football was in pure chaos. *And* football’s success was predicated on so many unknowns;

Another transfer quarterback
Two transfer receivers
A defensive line of guys who, based on performance, probably didn’t belong in the P5
A running back who hadn’t been healthy for two years, with too-slow and too-small behind him
And, of course, a DC now serving double duty despite jumping two rungs of competition


Meanwhile, Boo had shown some spurts of alpha-ness, and Audige’s athleticism clearly played, and Beran was tall, and Nicholson and Brooks and Berry and Roper had all at least been around. And CCC had done it before.


That said, I’d’ve given you 20:1 on the Cats making the tourney, and 30:1 on the Cats making bowl game.

Two glorious seasons, slightly different degrees.

 

[TheC]

Beating the number one team in the nation in front of a sold out crowd swayed my pick to hoops. Both seasons were amazing and are what makes me keep following these teams. Love being an underdog.

Same

 

[NJcatsfan]

Hoops, for the reasons stated by others & all the quality wins. PLUS the way they just outta nowhere revolutionized the student section at W-R. But damn, it’s fun to even be debating this.

 

[Deeringfish]

Except that BB won first round game as well

Football won the Hat.That is as close to a first round as football gets.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

I'll go with your "neck and neck."

Ironically in both cases though our AD was the catalyst who deserves credit for the respective turnarounds.

Preseason threatening the BB Coach was only topped by telling the FB players at the beginning of their season that they were tone deaf.

/s/

 

[phatcat]

I'll go with your "neck and neck."

Ironically in both cases though our AD was the catalyst who deserves credit for the respective turnarounds.

Preseason threatening the BB Coach was only topped by telling the FB players at the beginning of their season that they were tone deaf.

/s/

Who is this "AD" you speak of?? (Also /s)

He and shill got some light boos at PU game but it seemed like a "why bother?" effort from the fans

 

[Deeringfish]

I think football for sure. When I consider how I felt about the football teams chances of winning even two games at the beginning of the season, a part of me didn't even want to watch. I even wondered if NU FB would go back to the dark ages of 2 wins a year was about all b=we should expect over the next decade; its happened before as I remember.
I expected BB to be at least .500 and had some hope that the team might get to the NIT.
Both teams had great seasons and I'm truly grateful to be having this thread.

 

[zeek55]

Who is this "AD" you speak of?? (Also /s)

He and shill got some light boos at PU game but it seemed like a "why bother?" effort from the fans

They should thank Braun for that. I'd assume the most angry fans already cancelled tickets and watched from home, while the fans that showed have enjoyed a 5-1 season at RF.

Pretty sure the boos would have a lot more effort if the team was 1-11 again and 1-5 at RF... just the nature of the beast. Wins take the edge off; I'm much more content focusing on the success of Braun and the team than Schill/Gragg (who I'd prefer to ignore completely now that the stadium rebuild has gotten past Evansion CC).

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

It’s hoops for all the reasons stated by others!