Nice job, Northwestern

[tower912]

Big win on the road.   Chris Collins looks more like his dad every year.

[T-Bone]

Amen! Nice job Cats. My big 10 team.

[GGGG]

So can we take some solace in Northwestern? Collins is in his fourth year and it looks like they have finally turned the corner and are going to make the NCAAs.

Last year looked like it was going to be their year but after they beat UW in Evanston to go 15-3, they ended up losing eight of ten and not even making the NIT.

So can I sincerely feel good about this? Or is this just a false parallel?

[wadesworld]

So can we take some solace in Northwestern? Collins is in his fourth year and it looks like they have finally turned the corner and are going to make the NCAAs.

Last year looked like it was going to be their year but after they beat UW in Evanston to go 15-3, they ended up losing eight of ten and not even making the NIT.

So can I sincerely feel good about this? Or is this just a false parallel?

It guarantees nothing but it means that sometimes building up a bare cupboard takes a little time.

Mike Brey loves to say, "Get old and stay old." Wojo's "old" are still guys he either didn't recruit himself or he brought in as a stopgap. None of "his guys" are old. Will Cheatham figure it out, will Howard and Hauser develop? Will Froling or Heldt be good enough to hold down the middle? TBD. Unfortunately next year we are still fairly young. But after that we should be able to get, and stay, old with Wojo's guys.

[Tugg Speedman]

Bucky was getting no love before this loss.  Couple this loss and not being on the seeding list yesterday and I think the voters are going to abandon them and they should tumble a lot of places down the ranking list. 

Add to this they only have one ranked team left on the schedule, #22 Minn next week.  So they really don't have a lot of chances to impress.

Bottom line, as of now Bucky is looking like a 6 to 8 seed meaning they have to beat a 1 to 3 seed to get out of the first weekend of the Tourney.

On the other side, Northwestern can cancel their spring-break plans, they are going to the tourney for the first time in school history.  (yes, NU has never been to the big dance!)

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

So can we take some solace in Northwestern? Collins is in his fourth year and it looks like they have finally turned the corner and are going to make the NCAAs.

On the other side, Northwestern can cancel their spring-break plans, they are going to the tourney for the first time in school history.  (yes, NU has never been to the big dance!)

These two statements together do not make me feel better.

[GoldenDieners32]

So can we take some solace in Northwestern? Collins is in his fourth year and it looks like they have finally turned the corner and are going to make the NCAAs.

Last year looked like it was going to be their year but after they beat UW in Evanston to go 15-3, they ended up losing eight of ten and not even making the NIT.

So can I sincerely feel good about this? Or is this just a false parallel?

Since he is in his fourth year do we wait until wojo fourth year?

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Great win. Somewhere two years ago I'm pretty sure I predicted that when MacIntosh and Law were juniors, that they'd make the NCAA tournament.

Too lazy to go search through my posts but just take my word for it

Also said to someone while watching a game last year that Scottie Lindsey may actually be the best player on this team.

[Herman Cain]

I am not keen on Northwestern doing well. They compete with us for talent. 

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I am not keen on Northwestern doing well. They compete with us for talent.

They really don't. The only recruit I can think of that's had any interest in both schools is Falzon.

[Tugg Speedman]

They really don't. The only recruit I can think of that's had any interest in both schools is Falzon.

Henry Ellenson visited both too.

That said, I think that Bucky loses more as NU probably calls on the same traditionals from IL that Bucky has had so much success with (i.e., Kaminsky and Happ).  The Illini lose too as they their recruits have yet another option to consider.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Henry Ellenson visited both too.

That said, I think that Bucky loses more as NU probably calls on the same traditionals from IL that Bucky has had so much success with (i.e., Kaminsky and Happ).  The Illini lose too as they their recruits have yet another option to consider.

I would only call one of NUs starters "traditional" and even McIntosh barely fits that description. He has some flair to his game I Anyways, really besides the point. Good for Northwestern and if that induces recruiting battles, then so be it. Though we havent had a recruit from Illinois since Steve Taylor I believe.

[BobWildLoyalist]

I am on the bandwagon. Really the only Big Ten team I like.

[warriorchick]

No offense, but if I am a smart kid with zero chance of making the NBA and my choices are between Northwestern and virtually any other reasonably competitive team, I am going with the one where I get a degree from Northwestern out of the deal.

[wadesworld]

No offense, but if I am a smart kid with zero chance of making the NBA and my choices are between Northwestern and virtually any other reasonably competitive team, I am going with the one where I get a degree from Northwestern out of the deal.

Why?  1) That's not how athletes who are recruited by even (historically) bad B1G teams for a full scholarship think, everyone thinks they're making it to the pros.  2) If you're smart then you can go wherever you want for undergrad, get good grades, and then go anywhere you want for grad school (the fact that you balanced being a full time scholar athlete and still had great grades, plus your presumably high test scores, will win you a lot of favors).

If you play a sport that does not give you a chance to make (significant) money professionally (take men's volleyball, for example) that is when you're looking to get a degree from a great school, so the kids who can get accepted into a school they otherwise wouldn't be able to without their athletic ability can take huge advantage of that opportunity.  And that is why really good schools are typically really good in the non-major sports.  Swimming, volleyball, soccer, lacrosse...schools like Duke, Stanford, Notre Dame, etc. all dominate those sports, because those athletes know there isn't much money involved after it, and they can't get a degree from those great schools to make a ton of money without their athletic talent, so they take advantage of it.

[EaglesNest]

Saw Northwestern play at the kohl center yesterday and was very impressed. Law and Pardon are some serious athletes and McIntosh has scored 25+ on Wisconsin twice.  Northwestern played with a ton of energy and can't remember seeing another team this year look like they were having more fun than Northwestern.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

No offense, but if I am a smart kid with zero chance of making the NBA and my choices are between Northwestern and virtually any other reasonably competitive team, I am going with the one where I get a degree from Northwestern out of the deal.

Had a buddy who was quarterback for our high school team. Led us on a deep run in the playoffs and ended up losing in the state championship. Had offers to play for Minny and Bucky. Ended up going to Brown because he had the grades and wanted the education. Didn't technically get a free ride for football but Brown worked it so he didn't pay anything.

[warriorchick]

Why?  1) That's not how athletes who are recruited by even (historically) bad B1G teams for a full scholarship think, everyone thinks they're making it to the pros.  2) If you're smart then you can go wherever you want for undergrad, get good grades, and then go anywhere you want for grad school (the fact that you balanced being a full time scholar athlete and still had great grades, plus your presumably high test scores, will win you a lot of favors).

I didn't say that's how everyone thinks; it's how I think. And you can still go to grad school; my guess is you can get into a better one with a degree from a better school.

If you play a sport that does not give you a chance to make (significant) money professionally (take men's volleyball, for example) that is when you're looking to get a degree from a great school, so the kids who can get accepted into a school they otherwise wouldn't be able to without their athletic ability can take huge advantage of that opportunity.  And that is why really good schools are typically really good in the non-major sports.  Swimming, volleyball, soccer, lacrosse...schools like Duke, Stanford, Notre Dame, etc. all dominate those sports, because those athletes know there isn't much money involved after it, and they can't get a degree from those great schools to make a ton of money without their athletic talent, so they take advantage of it.

Isn't that basically what I just said?  I said if I had zero chance of playing in the NBA. 

[augoman]

In another thread I made the point that Northwestern won the game with great defense, particularly on Happ.  Perhaps Wojo could learn a bit from Collins as they had the same prep at Duke and one team plays shut down D and the other plays matador D.
That being said NU has long been my second favorite basketball and most favorite football school due to daughter's attendance and the school's appeal.  The smallest and the only private school in the B?G, they frequently beat UW-Madison in football.  Now they have enjoyed the same success in bball, too.  I miss attending their games.  Happy for them.

[wadesworld]

I didn't say that's how everyone thinks; it's how I think. And you can still go to grad school; my guess is you can get into a better one with a degree from a better school.

Isn't that basically what I just said?  I said if I had zero chance of playing in the NBA.

You said if you were a smart athlete who couldn't make it to the NBA you'd go to Northwestern.  I'm saying how it often happens is if you don't have great grades but are smart enough to know there isn't money in the sport that you play then a lot of those athletes will use the fact that they have that athletic ability to get into a school that they otherwise would not be able to get into.

It's actually the exact opposite of what you say you would do.  In a lot of non-revenue college athletics you don't get a full roster full of athletic scholarships to hand out, so athletes only get partial scholarships.  The kids who don't have the grades to get into certain schools will wind up there based on their athletic abilities, while the really smart kids who might only be a decent but not great recruit based purely on their athletic ability become some of the most sought after recruits in the country because they can get academic scholarships that exceed anything they would get for athletics so coaches get a decent player who uses 0% of their allotted athletic scholarships.

I coached a kid in volleyball when he was a junior who just started playing the sport in high school.  He was an athletic 6'7" but really raw.  When college coaches saw him early in the year they wouldn't have even thought about him.  By the end of the year he got pretty fundamental and was "the man" on a team that finished top 10 at Nationals.  By midseason some lower level coaches were taking notice.  When word got out that he was a straight A student he suddenly had quite literally every D1/2 (combined for men's volleyball) coach trying to get a word in with him.  He was getting recruited harder than kids who I had coached 3 years prior that were 2 time Nationals MVP, polished, sure fire studs (3 of them won back to back NCAA National Titles), etc.

Stanford was his dream school, so he did wind up there, but a lot of times you'll see incredibly smart kids going to Pepperdine or USC or otherwise not as good of schools when they could go to Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, or NYU.

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

I didn't say that's how everyone thinks; it's how I think. And you can still go to grad school; my guess is you can get into a better one with a degree from a better school.

Isn't that basically what I just said?  I said if I had zero chance of playing in the NBA.

You know what I personally agree with you 100%. 

I think it is easier said than done however....I know one individual who personally was going to use this logic but still decided to play at a higher level for a better program - even though the NBA prospects are not great.