Northwestern should be ranked ...

B

Barton Hills

1,000+ Posts
If you guys get a chance, check out the Northwestern basketball team. Damn, that's a fun team to watch.They're now 13-4, coming of a big win vs #6 Purdue, all this after losing their best player (Kevin Coble) at the beginning of the year. Should be ranked IMO. They remind me of the Beilein teams with Gansey, Pittsnogle, Herbert, etc. Well coached, back-door cuts, long range bombers. I hope they make some noise this year and make the Dance ... they are the ONLY school in the major 6 conferences to NEVER make the NCAA field.

Quality wins ...
Notre Dame
Iowa St
NC St
Stanford
Michigan
#6 Purdue

Losses ...
#10 Butler
Illinois
#11 Michigan St
#16 Wisconsin

They play @ #25 Ohio State tomorrow night ...
 
They're pretty good this year, but ranked? On that list of quality wins, only one opponent is possibly worth ranking at present, and that's Purdue, which is in a woeful funk, has now lost three straight, and dropped out of the top ten. And watching this highlight video with the Wildcats getting a bazillion layups, I can't imagine why Purdue should be in the top twenty.

The Link

Wins over ISU, NC State, Stanford, Michigan and Notre Dame are a good body of work, but Notre Dame is the only team on that list that even gets in the "also receiving votes" category, and only in one poll, I might add.

Northwestern's biggest problem may be it has only three more games against ranked teams, all on the road (at OSU, MSU, and Wisc). If they don't win at least one of those three, they are likely to miss the tournament again.

But that was a fun video to watch.
 
I could see that, but they also have 10+ games against very average competition, once you take out the remaining ranked opponents. They narrowly missed the NCAA's last year at 17-13 ... if they get to 20 wins (which is pretty likely) in 2010, they'll be hard to keep out.

I'll be pulling for them. I like scrappy teams that win below the rim.
 
That's college basketball. Beat a top ten team one week, get slammed a few days later.

The Wildcats have two more shots at a signature win--in East Lansing and in Madison. If they win one of those two and stay better than .500 in conference, they'll have a good chance.
 
Well NU beat Illinois at home over the weekend ... big week coming up. They have a road game with Minnesota tonight (10-1 at home), then travel to East Lansing on Saturday.

They need to take one of these games.
 
While I think they need another good win, their schedule bodes well for final conference standings, as they have played 6 of their 7 conference games against the 5 teams with winning records in conference. Only 2 of their remaining 11 conference games are against teams with winning records in conference.
 
Northwestern with its last chance today, playing in Madison. Two disappointing losses to Big Ten bottom teams (at Iowa, then inexplicably at home to then winless Penn State), have NW at 6-8 in conference. All other conference games are winnable, so a victory today could see them finish 10-8 with wins over Purdue, Wisconsin, and Illinois, but I'm not expecting Wisconsin to lose focus.
 
Wisconsin closes the half with a 12-2 run to go up 14. That's probably it for Northwestern unless they win the Big Ten tournament.

I wouldn't count them out next year, though. Of their 7 players who log more than 9 minutes a game, only one is a senior. They should be pretty good next year, especially if Coble comes back after missing this year with the injury.
 
So, you're saying that quality win over Iowa State may not be enough?
wink.gif
 
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