The last time NU played USC

[lou v]

Northwestern takes on USC tonight in the first meeting of the two schools since December of 2000, when the Cats took them down at Welsh-Ryan, 63-61. I remember that game -- it was Bill Carmody's first big win at NU because the Trojans were ranked 16th. NU had Ben Johnson and Tavaras Hardy, while USC had the White Mamba, Brian Scalabrine.

Here's a summary from the game notes.

Northwestern pulled off an upset of the then-No. 16 Trojans by a final score of 63-61 inside Welsh-Ryan Arena on Dec. 27, 2000.

• Current Minnesota head coach Ben
Johnson hit a baseline jumper with 1:23
left and then drilled two free throws with
8 seconds left for the Wildcats.
• The Trojans (9-2) had a chance to at
least send it to overtime when Brandon
Granville made the front end of a one-and-one with 3.7 seconds left. He missed
the second, giving the Trojans a chance
at the rebound and the putback. But
Northwestern's Jason Burke grabbed the
ball, and the Trojans had no choice but to
foul him with 2.4 seconds left. He missed
the free throw, but Brian Scalabrine's
desperation heave at the buzzer wasn't
close.
• Tavaras Hardy led the Wildcats with a
season-high 20 points and four rebounds,
while Johnson had eight assists with his
13 points and Winston Blake added 12
points. Northwestern shot 52 percent as
a team and never trailed after scoring the
first 15 points of the game.

 

[its_the_sauce]

I should remember that game but I don't lol

 

[EagerFan]

I had high hopes for Carmody after the disaster that was O'Neill. Hardy, with Blake, Burke, Johnson, and newcomer stud Jitim Young seemed like a promising crew.

 

[Skunkpilot]

never knew Ben Johnson went to NU thanks for sharing that story.

 

[lou v]

never knew Ben Johnson went to NU thanks for sharing that story.

He played two years for NU and then transferred to Minnesota.

 

[Catreporter]

We played at USC the next year and got clobbered as I remember it. I think we played them in a couple of tournaments in the late 50s.

 

[GatoLouco]

We are 2.5 pts favorites.

I saw USC play once this season. Looked like a lot of athletic wings without much maturity.

Probably the type of team that can be extremely unpredictable, able to beat the best teams while losing the worst.

Kind of a lot to read from one game that I was not even paying that close attention to!

 

[Skunkpilot]

He played two years for NU and then transferred to Minnesota.

Wow it even gets better did he have to sit out a year?

 

[Jonny2TheP]

We are 2.5 pts favorites.

I saw USC play once this season. Looked like a lot of athletic wings without much maturity.

Probably the type of team that can be extremely unpredictable, able to beat the best teams while losing the worst.

Kind of a lot to read from one game that I was not even paying that close attention to!

This is exactly right. Hard to pinpoint which USC will show up. I have seen a few of their games and they appear to be gelling a little bit over the last couple of weeks. They've also been able to win on the road with three conference road victories (Washington, Nebraska and an impressive one at Illinois).

It's always hard to go two time zones away and win, but I was still surprised to see we were favorites since Barnhizer is out (it actually opened at 1.5 and has gone up to 2.5). But they've already done the two time zone thing a few times and won a couple of them so they've shown they can do it.

I don't really know what to expect, but I do really like that they won a big home game on Saturday against MSU and now have to travel a couple thousand miles to play a game three days later against an opponent they won't be nearly as pumped up about. The classic letdown formula...we'll see though.

 

[Catreporter]

the line was a bit surprising to me.

Likewise. USC has really come on as of late and this is a big game for them, I also don't see the students flocking to this one on a cold night, but we will see. Except for MSU, all the Big Ten games have been pretty tightly contested at Welsh-Ryan this year.

 

[pschatz25]

We played at USC the next year and got clobbered as I remember it. I think we played them in a couple of tournaments in the late 50s.

It was the other way around. We played them the year before in LA and lost 85-44 during O'Neil's last season.

We've played USC eight times (31, 46, 47, 48, 59, 65, 99, 00) and won three. So we could close the series gap tonight!