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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Hot'Lanta... home of the Falcons!

    Northwestern's quest

    Will this be the year the Wildcats accomplish the unthinkable... can they finally make the NCAA tournament? As you probably know, they are the only power-5 conference team to never make the NCAA tourney.

    Chris Collins has been a miracle worker thus far in his 3 seasons. He took the worst program in all of the major conferences and has made them relevant. 14-19 in his first year, 15-17 in his second, and then 20-12 last year. Want to know the last time Northwestern finished above .500 in the Big Ten?

    1968

    They went 8-6 in the conference that year. The last time Northwestern won more than 8 games in the Big Ten was 1933.

    After starting the season with 2 easy wins over two bad teams, Mississippi Vallesy State and Eastern Washington, they played at Butler last night. Butler is always among the best mid-majors in the land and a likely tourney team. Northwestern came within an eyelash of taking the Bulldogs down, losing 70-68 on a jumper with less than a second left. Regardless of the result, it is a good sign for how competitive NW can be this season. They are in a holiday tournament on Monday and Tuesday, playing Texas in the first game and then the winner or loser of Notre Dame and Colorado the next day. Winning one game would be a decent feather in their cap, especially if they took down Texas.

    Northwestern got Vic Law back this season. The athletic soph missed all of last year with a torn labrum in his shoulder. He's a scorer who makes a difference on defense too. He's averaging better than 20 ppg so far and is ridiculously hot from outside. He's hit 11 of 14 three pointers thus far this season (which is not sustainable). Law is the only top 100 recruit Collins has gotten at NW. He will be key to seeing if Collins can do the unthinkable and take the Wildcats to the Big Dance.

    -Jason "If folks want, I'll update this thread at various times during the season as we track how NW and Collins are doing" Evans
    Last edited by JasonEvans; 11-17-2016 at 04:47 PM.
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Athens, GA
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    Will this be the year the Wildcats accomplish the unthinkable... can they finally make the NCAA tournament? As you probably know, they are the only power-5 conference team to never make the NCAA tourney.

    Chris Collins has been a miracle worker thus far in his 3 seasons. He took the worst program in all of the major conferences and has made them relevant. 14-19 in his first year, 15-17 in his second, and then 20-12 last year. Want to know the last time Northwestern finished above .500 in the Big Ten?

    1968

    They went 8-6 in the conference that year. The last time Northwestern won more than 8 games in the Big Ten was 1933.

    After starting the season with 2 easy wins over two bad teams, Mississippi Vallesy State and Eastern Washington, they played at Butler last night. Butler is always among the best mid-majors in the land and a likely tourney team. Northwestern came within an eyelash of taking the Bulldogs down, losing 70-68 on a jumper with less than a second left. Regardless of the result, it is a good sign for how competitive NW can be this season. They are in a holiday tournament on Monday and Tuesday, playing Texas in the first game and then the winner or loser of Notre Dame and Colorado the next day. Winning one game would be a decent feather in their cap, especially if they took down Texas.

    Northwestern got Vic Law back this season. The athletic soph missed all of last year with a torn labrum in his shoulder. He's a scorer who makes a difference on defense too. He's averaging better than 20 ppg so far and is ridiculously hot from outside. He's hit 11 of 14 three pointers thus far this season (which is not sustainable). Law is the only top 100 recruit Collins has gotten at NW. He will be key to seeing if Collins can do the unthinkable and take the Wildcats to the Big Dance.

    -Jason "If folks want, I'll update this thread at various times during the season as we track how NW and Collins are doing" Evans




    Excellent post: always rooting for Coach Collins. Even though he wasn't RSCI Top 100 in '13-'14, NW guard Bryant McIntosh is a very good college player, averaging 13-14 ppg his first two years in college with a nearly 3/1 A/TO ratio last year. He was an Indiana All-Star his senior year(and a Junior All-Star)on a squad that included Trey Lyles(no.1 in IN that year), James Blackmon(no. 2 in IN), and Trevon Bluiett(no. 11 in state that year/fine career at Xavier thus far). McIntosh was the nation's 22nd ranked shooting guard(so he just missed the Top 100, I guess)and the no. 7 player in IN his senior year. Will be interesting to see how NW does this year as you point out in your post with return of Vic Law.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington, D.C.

    Go Purple!

    I went to Northwestern's opener last Friday, with my daughter, who is a junior at Northwestern (Chicago's Big Ten team, in case you didn't know). The opponent was Mississippi Valley State. Anybody remember Duke playing the Delta Devils?

    The Wildcats are a lot more athletic and a lot quicker than they used to be. Law is a very good athlete, with a nice three-point shot and excellent dunking ability. He doesn't seem to have a particularly good handle. Macintosh starts at the point, but slides over to shooting guard when a freshman named Isaiah Brown comes in.

    I'd say the team is fairly deep, but doesn't have a lot of size. The frontline players are all about 6'8", and not particularly bulky.

    I'm pretty sure they played straight man-to-man the whole game, which was nice to see. They were very up-tempo on offense for the first 10 minutes, ripped out to a big lead, and then got a little bit sloppy.

    I came away from it thinking that they have a shot at an NCAA bid this year. Also, they only have two seniors on the roster, and only one figures to get much playing time: the wonderfully named Sanjay Lumpkin.

    Matt

  4. #4
    Does Butler count as a mid-major?

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Wander View Post
    Does Butler count as a mid-major?
    Butler is a member of the Big East. It's not a power conference in football, but I think most basketball people consider the Big East as a power conference in that sport (it did, after all, produce last year's national champion).

    There are actually three schools that have been eligible for the NCAA Tournament since it began in 1939 that have never played in the tournament -- Northwestern, Army and William & Mary (which will be visiting Cameron soon). The are, of course, a bunch of recent Division 1 teams that never been invited.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    Quote Originally Posted by Olympic Fan View Post
    There are actually three schools that have been eligible for the NCAA Tournament since it began in 1939 that have never played in the tournament -- Northwestern, Army and William & Mary (which will be visiting Cameron soon). The are, of course, a bunch of recent Division 1 teams that never been invited.
    Don't forget The Citadel, which joined the Southern Conference in 1936 (and never left). The Bulldogs have never been to the NCAA's in basketball. Norm Sloan had some decent teams in the late 1950's, but West Virginia (including Jerry West) was a member of the SoCon back then.

    From Sports-Reference.com:

    Citadel Bulldogs School History
    Location: Charleston, South Carolina
    Seasons: 105 (1912-13 to 2016-17)
    Record: 964-1306 .425 W-L%
    Conferences: Southern and Ind
    Conference Champion: 0 Times (Reg. Seas.), 0 Times (Tourn.)
    NCAA Tournament: 0 Years
    Kindly,
    Sage
    'The undefeated Citadel football team plays this week at UNC, but the Bulldogs have won a bunch of close games against fairly weak opponents'
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    I moved. Now 12 miles from Heaven, 13 from Hell
    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    'The undefeated Citadel football team plays this week at UNC, but the Bulldogs have won a bunch of close games against fairly weak opponents'
    So that bodes well for them this weekend.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Hot'Lanta... home of the Falcons!
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    They are in a holiday tournament on Monday and Tuesday, playing Texas in the first game and then the winner or loser of Notre Dame and Colorado the next day. Winning one game would be a decent feather in their cap, especially if they took down Texas.
    I know I am jinxing it, but at the half the Wildcats lead Texas 34-26. The winner gets Notre Dame.

    -Jason "the first two years that Chris Collins was at Duke, Coach K's lead assistant was Mike Brey... I really hope they get to play each other tomorrow!" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    WA State
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    I know I am jinxing it, but at the half the Wildcats lead Texas 34-26. The winner gets Notre Dame.

    -Jason "the first two years that Chris Collins was at Duke, Coach K's lead assistant was Mike Brey... I really hope they get to play each other tomorrow!" Evans
    Psst. There's a 'safe' place for non-jinxing.

  10. #10
    NW up 14 with just over 3 minutes left. Texas's freshman center has been ejected for throwing a punch/chop to the head of a NW player who was laying on the ground. It will be interesting to see how many (few) articles, half-time segments, etc this warrants in comparison to Grayson Allen.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Hot'Lanta... home of the Falcons!
    Quote Originally Posted by Ultrarunner View Post
    Psst. There's a 'safe' place for non-jinxing.
    Oh, I know, but I wanted to really be on the record and risk the wrath of the basketball gods for this one. I was that confident about Chris' boys bringing it home and boy did they!

    This is one of the bigger wins in Collins' career, not because Texas was really good (they are ranked and NW has precious few wins in history over ranked teams), but because this is the kind of quality win that carries real weight with the selection committee. The game against Notre Dame will also be big. Northwestern went 8-10 in the Big Ten last year. But, even if they had gone 9-9 they really lacked any good non-conference wins to woo the selection committee. Thier best non-conf win last season was over Va Tech in the Big Ten/ACc Challenge. So, a blow out win over Texas is clearly better than anything they did a year ago.

    -Jason "getting ahead of myself again, but if NW beats Notre Dame they will probably start to get ranking votes... which would be pretty unbelievable for this program" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    WA State
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    Oh, I know, but I wanted to really be on the record and risk the wrath of the basketball gods for this one. I was that confident about Chris' boys bringing it home and boy did they!

    This is one of the bigger wins in Collins' career, not because Texas was really good (they are ranked and NW has precious few wins in history over ranked teams), but because this is the kind of quality win that carries real weight with the selection committee. The game against Notre Dame will also be big. Northwestern went 8-10 in the Big Ten last year. But, even if they had gone 9-9 they really lacked any good non-conference wins to woo the selection committee. Thier best non-conf win last season was over Va Tech in the Big Ten/ACc Challenge. So, a blow out win over Texas is clearly better than anything they did a year ago.

    -Jason "getting ahead of myself again, but if NW beats Notre Dame they will probably start to get ranking votes... which would be pretty unbelievable for this program" Evans
    Understood. I'm pleased for Chris Collins. He's worked hard.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    This is one of the bigger wins in Collins' career, not because Texas was really good (they are ranked and NW has precious few wins in history over ranked teams), but because this is the kind of quality win that carries real weight with the selection committee. The game against Notre Dame will also be big. Northwestern went 8-10 in the Big Ten last year. But, even if they had gone 9-9 they really lacked any good non-conference wins to woo the selection committee. Thier best non-conf win last season was over Va Tech in the Big Ten/ACc Challenge. So, a blow out win over Texas is clearly better than anything they did a year ago.
    Agreed, and Texas is the perfect early-season opponent for a bubble team like NW. The Longhorns are a young team that's trying to find its way early and will get much better as the season progresses. Like you said, this will eventually look like a quality win over an NCAA tourney team for Collins and Northwestern.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    -Jason "getting ahead of myself again, but if NW beats Notre Dame they will probably start to get ranking votes... which would be pretty unbelievable for this program" Evans
    Close but no cigar. NW was ahead 64-58 late in the game but ND outscored them 12-2 the rest of the way for a 70-66 victory. Still, going 1-1 against Texas and ND is probably still a good result for NW.

  15. #15
    Brutal loss for Northwestern.

    All they had to do was inbound the ball and make some free throws. Instead they panic and turn it over and immediately give up a three point play.

    I'm furious and I'm not even a fan.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington, D.C.

    Yep

    'Twas awful. Taphorn, a senior who had been great in the second half, threw away an inbound pass with less than a minute left, and NW with a lead and still having at least one timeout, and then committed a blocking fould (on a close call) to give ND a three point play.

    I blame Collins, but of course I don't know what he said before the inbounds play.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    Quote Originally Posted by dukelion View Post
    Brutal loss for Northwestern.

    All they had to do was inbound the ball and make some free throws. Instead they panic and turn it over and immediately give up a three point play.

    I'm furious and I'm not even a fan.
    With 19 seconds left, Northwestern is ahead 66-65 and has the ball out of bounds; Notre Dame has no timeouts left. The Wildcats lose, 70-66: intercepted inbounds pass (better: "thrown away" inbound pass). Basket on a drive by ND and a blocking foul on Northwestern. Three-point play puts NW ahead to stay.
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  18. #18
    I believe Northwestern folks prefer NU not NW as an abbreviation.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Hot'Lanta... home of the Falcons!
    Quote Originally Posted by Reilly View Post
    I believe Northwestern folks prefer NU not NW as an abbreviation.
    If they ever actually make the dance then they can tell us how to refer to them, until then I'm going with NW.
    Last edited by JasonEvans; 11-23-2016 at 09:25 AM.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Deeetroit City
    Quote Originally Posted by Reilly View Post
    I believe Northwestern folks prefer NU not NW as an abbreviation.
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    If they ever actually make the dance then they can tell us how to refer to them, until them I'm going with NW.
    Come on, it's a directional school - who cares?

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