Yes or no
- Thread starter DocCatsFan
- Start date
It's good enough. Stronger than last season, but still has enough winnable games. Everyone plays patsies, not just NU.
UNC (ACC), Kansas State (Big 12) and Missouri (SEC) are all Power 5 schools. DePaul plays in a conference which produced a National Champion 2 years ago.
I'm guessing your not because Jim Phillips scheduled it and we don't have Bill Carmody's new team on the schedule because Jim Phillips is being a big baby.
msnow is DISGUSTED by this polls' results. And Doc's so angry about it he says he's taking another hiatus! You will be missed, friend. (tap on the pic to read the whole conversation).
To be fair, the Big East was completely different back then. But I'd still consider DePaul a basketball major.
It's also unfortunate that Virginia Tech, Mizzou, and DePaul were all terrible last year. If they were more representative of their conferences, this schedule wouldn't be nearly as bad. The biggest problem, though, is that the home slate is embarrassing. Not one remotely attractive opponent -- even the one local team is a garbage fire that nobody talks or even knows about.
Very true. Would love to see home-and-home with Marquette, Butler or Creighton every year just to get some good basketball in WR. Not NU's fault that they are due to play on the road in the ACC-Big 10 challenge though....
Or, as my Mom loves to say whenever NU or UNL plays that team, "Chicago is not a state!"
The poll doesn't disgust me at all. What bothered me was realcatfan's reply to it, which was completely unwarranted. I feel it important to clarify that. I was genuinely interested in the poll results.
I have to admit, I'm VERY surprised by the poll. Given the small sample size, you probably can't draw any firm conclusions.....but given the vitriol one another site, I would have through the vote would be exactly the reverse of what it is currently.
RCF must have been having a bad day. No other excuse for his ripping you.
[In the spirit of full disclosure, I voted YES......]
I was and am having a great day. Rumor has it Fitz has landed another commit. It's amazing what him and Collins are doing and that Dr. Phillips has provided the leadership and structure which allows them to do it. I rip Doc-pretend-to-be-CatsFan because he rips Northwestern athletics.
It seems to be Collins' opinion that a young team with a lot of new pieces needs a soft schedule to get its game together.
The speculation that the non con hurts tournament prospects is mental masturbation. Just like the bs that the non con is soft to boost results and the cred of the new staff.
NU finished 6-12 in conference last year. Finish 8 and 10 or .500 and this team has take a major step forward regardless of who it played in non con. NU could play 14 non con games against Chicago State, go 10-8 in conference and its a huge success.
This team has some work to get down before we start dissecting the non con for the tournament committee.
The speculation that the non con hurts tournament prospects is mental masturbation. Just like the bs that the non con is soft to boost results and the cred of the new staff.
NU finished 6-12 in conference last year. Finish 8 and 10 or .500 and this team has take a major step forward regardless of who it played in non con. NU could play 14 non con games against Chicago State, go 10-8 in conference and its a huge success.
This team has some work to get down before we start dissecting the non con for the tournament committee.
Once again, I don't understand how anyone could call this team "young". They will start 3 seniors, including one 24-year old and a 5th year player in Demps. All of the returning players have had significant playing time. All teams have freshmen, and NU with 3 incoming players is at the average. None of the Freshmen are likely to start, at least in the beginning of the season. So while last season you could make a good case for the Cats being young, that excuse doesn't fly for 2015-16.
7 of the rotational players have zero to one year experience.
You know that that NU will start three seniors. Not sure Collins knows that.
This will not be unusual going forward. Assume that NU players stay for 4 years and graduate. There are 13 scholarships available (NU is only using 12 this season). On average, there will always be 7 players with zero or 1 year of experience, if the average recruiting class is 3 players (occasionally there will be a 4th recruit to get to 13). So this is a "normal" year in terms of experience. The anomaly is the current Junior class, which has only 1 natural Junior due to the decommitment of Sina during the Carmody-Collins transition.
NU's average experience is less than two years, and that's with three redshirts on the team getting credit for full years they did not play.
And I'd make the argument that the players with the least amount of experience will be relied upon the most in the rotation.
I think Olah's minutes go down and Collins tries to have him do more with less minutes.
Unfortunately, the crowed three and four spots will also push down my favorite player's (Sanjay) minutes. I'm not sure about Tre. He'll obviously play huge minutes but if Collins goes back to the man to man he may rotate out more.
It's accurate to characterize this team as young, especially when compared to many of the Big Ten teams.
And I'd make the argument that the players with the least amount of experience will be relied upon the most in the rotation.
I think Olah's minutes go down and Collins tries to have him do more with less minutes.
Unfortunately, the crowed three and four spots will also push down my favorite player's (Sanjay) minutes. I'm not sure about Tre. He'll obviously play huge minutes but if Collins goes back to the man to man he may rotate out more.
It's accurate to characterize this team as young, especially when compared to many of the Big Ten teams.
Well, here is the comparison to the rest of the Big 10 (scholarship players only):
NU: 3 seniors, 7 soph/fresh
Ill: 3/5
IN: 3/7
IO: 4/7
MD: 2/7
MI: 2/8
MSU: 3/6
MN: 2/7
NE: 2/7
OSU: 0/10
PSU: 4/7
PU: 3/8
RU: 3/7
Wisc: 0/8
Northwestern is right in the broad middle of Big 10 teams in experience. Ohio State and Wisconsin are the only "young" teams this year, and you could argue that only Penn State and Iowa are more experienced than NU.
The data are here if you care to explore further:
http://verbalcommits.com/schools/illinois
Let's take the first team on your list. Illinois has 9 players on their roster who are either rising Juniors or Seniors. Perhaps a rising sophomore -- Leron Black -- starts some games and maybe a freshman breaks through, but Illinois may not start an underclassman.
The last team, Wisconsin, you show 8 sophomores and freshmen. Wisconsin has 4 rising juniors, one of whom was a redshirt and 3 of the 4 rising sophomores were reshirted. 2 freshmen on next year's roster were redshirted last year.
I did not look at any of the other teams but I would characterize these as "older" and arguable "more experienced" than NU even though on a cursory look the rosters may look younger.
Do NU's rising sophomores have a ton of experience? Yes. Perhaps the most experienced sophomores in the Big Ten.
In other words, "don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up".
OK, we agree to disagree.
There are better facts in my two detailed examples than the sketchy Sr - Soph/Freshman chart pulled off of Verbal Commits.
So, yes, let's drop it.
You're crazy. The three seniors will play the most and will lead the team. They are the team's best players and they will lead us to the NCAA's.
This is not a young team. We have the right mix of experience and talent to make it happen this year.
If NU could play 14 non-con games against Chicago State and then go 10-8 in conference to be called a huge success, aren't you essentially saying that the non-con games are meaningless? If that's the case, couldn't NU play 14 Power 5 schools in the non-con and then go 10-8 in conference and have it be a huge success? I'd wager that the team would be much better prepared to go 10-8 in conference with that schedule than playing Chicago State 14 times.
NU is playing in a tournament with a good chance of playing the No. 1 in the country UNC and a second game against a Power 5 school - maybe Kansas St. or Missouri in a second game of this tournament. NU then will play at Virginia Tech for the ACC-Big 10 challenge. So there will be probably three games against Power-5 schools. This is not unlike prior year's non-conference schedules, with maybe one more game against a Power 5 school at home like Stanford. However, this year's Big 10 is loaded with at least 7 or 8 NCAA bids and if NU goes 10-8 or 9-9 in the conference, their RPI should put them on the bubble and a spot in the NIT at a minimum. Let's not go overboard in thinking that we have not our fair of weak mid-majors in our non-conference schedule to pick up some W's in past seasons.
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