This board has gone NUTS. The reality is that we have a solid season going

[Turk]

My gosh, pipe down folks. We have a LEGIT chance to be as high as 8th place in the BIG this year out of 14. That isn't bad considering we are progressing and lost our best player. More importantly, we are 3-1 against BIG teams that are 8th place or below, beating Minny, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. We have a real chance at 8th place and maybe a seed playing OSU in the BTT. This year, imo, will come down to Nebraska at W/R the last game of the year. Nebraska had a easy schedule lately but has 2 tough games in a row.

Yeah, we may look bad at iowa but we played iowa tough, including last year. Flush the last 4 games against stud programs, the only we we were going to win was by a huge upset.

 

[Catreporter]

Minny will NOT be an easy game. Nearly won at Indiana today although the Hoosier defensive strategy was very puzzling. The Gophers are not an outside shooting team and yet Indiana continued to play man defense, allowed their guards to isolate, and drive it to the basket. Announcer called it a layup drill in the second half. Then, in the last three minutes, down 67-66, Indiana's defense forced Minny to shoot from outside. They scored one point the rest of the way. Nevertheless, no question that it is a better Minnesota team than we met earlier. We will need to MAKE SHOTS!

 

[Sec.112]

How many caveats are allowed in the definition of "solid?"

 

[Bradleywildcatsfan]

I couldn't agree with you more Turk. I think Northwestern is showing progress this year, and it may take until next year when Collins has all of his recruits here that they take the next step. It would be nice to steal a win against an NCAA Tournament caliber team, and the Maryland loss still irks me, but it takes time to build a consistent winner.

As my screen name implies, I am actually a Bradley University alum, but I have lived my entire life over four decades here in the northern suburbs, so I follow Northwestern basketball and football quite a bit. I have been to three football and three basketball games this year, and enjoy watching both teams playing. If you want to follow a really bad team, try being a Bradley fan this year that just fell to 3-20, has the worse scoring offense in the entire country, and is playing ten freshmen under a new coach this year! I think that will pay off nicely in the long run, but for now it's been painful watching them, though I see signs of growth in each game as well. Same for Northwestern although they are much further along obviously.

It's frustrating to see Northwestern's shooting struggles (heck even Bradley shot the three much better today against Drake than Northwestern did the other night against Michigan State at a game I witnessed in person!). But they give it their effort all year, and at least they are beating the teams they should be for the most part. And that Wisconsin win was a pretty decent win as well, another great game that I witnessed in person.

I hope once beyond Iowa tomorrow (and you never know, an upset could occur, though not likely) Northwestern will be able to run the table at home, and steal one or two on the road. The weak OOC schedule could cause NW to miss the NIT, but I hope they at least get a long look for at least that tournament if nothing else. I think playing a stronger OOC schedule next year (which will be a big upgrade from what I am hearing) will help this team progress to the next level. This year's schedule was designed to instill some confidence in the players and help bring the overall win total up. Next year's schedule will help to provide some additional early season experience against tougher competition, and hopefully that will make some difference in finally beating a few of the elite teams in the Big Ten. So I for one am happy to see the progress this year, and I hope people here don't lose sight that it takes time to build a program like this into a consistent NCAA Tournament contender. Lots of great coaches struggled early on, so I hope Northwestern fans continue to be patient for the remainder of this year. Hopefully we will see more dividends paid by next year at this time.

 

[mikewebb68]

My gosh, pipe down folks. We have a LEGIT chance to be as high as 8th place in the BIG this year out of 14. That isn't bad considering we are progressing and lost our best player. More importantly, we are 3-1 against BIG teams that are 8th place or below, beating Minny, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. We have a real chance at 8th place and maybe a seed playing OSU in the BTT. This year, imo, will come down to Nebraska at W/R the last game of the year. Nebraska had a easy schedule lately but has 2 tough games in a row.

Yeah, we may look bad at iowa but we played iowa tough, including last year. Flush the last 4 games against stud programs, the only we we were going to win was by a huge upset.

And I know this will come a shock, but I completely agree. Maybe the farewell tour is working! Athough to be fair, XBob hyperposting makes the board seem a lot more negative than it actually is.

 

[mikewebb68]

Minny will NOT be an easy game. Nearly won at Indiana today although the Hoosier defensive strategy was very puzzling. The Gophers are not an outside shooting team and yet Indiana continued to play man defense, allowed their guards to isolate, and drive it to the basket. Announcer called it a layup drill in the second half. Then, in the last three minutes, down 67-66, Indiana's defense forced Minny to shoot from outside. They scored one point the rest of the way. Nevertheless, no question that it is a better Minnesota team than we met earlier. We will need to MAKE SHOTS!

Don't know if I would read too much much into the Indiana game. They played curious D as you pointed out, and, on offense, with the exception of Bryant, they seemed lethargic, like they were still hung over from the Wisky game. They also didn't make shots (2-18 from 3). If we were the opponent, it probably would have been an upset. But it was Minny, and they are O for the BIG for a reason. I will give you that they are not as bad as lolRutgers, but halfway decent teams beat Indiana today, and they are not a halfway decent team.

 

[Wrestlerneverdiesasacatfan]

We are decent,but have lost our legs recently. Both the football and hoops teams are very tough Wrestling needs lots of work

 

[Seattle_Cat]

If you weren't following this year's team closely you'd think this is more of the "same old, same old". Almost good enuf but not quite. Has the rest of the BIG also improved and thus our results are the same? Losing to PSU at home is a prime example of the "same old, same old". We seem to always lose to them even tho they are cellar dwellers.