Photo: NU Athletic Communications
2009 ended in historic fashion for the Northwestern Wildcats Men’s basketball team.
2010 smacked them back to reality.
The ‘Cats concluded their 2009 non-conference slate with lopsided wins over North Carolina A&T, North Florida, and Central Connecticut State. They had a thrilling victory over Stanford in a battle of the ‘we’re good academic schools that also want to be good at sports’ schools.
Those victories allowed Northwestern to just squeak into the Top 25 on December 28th. Ranked 25th in the Associated Press Poll, the ‘Cats had a number next to their name for the first time in 40 years.
The historic ranking finally garnered some well-deserved buzz and publicity for the team. With the football team heading to the Outback Bowl the same week, it was arguably the biggest week in the history of Northwestern Wildcat athletics.
Oh, and did I mention that back-to-reality bit?
NU fought hard in their first Big Ten battle down in Champaign, but fell short in overtime to the Illini 89-83. Some big ugly dude named Mike Tisdale dropped a career-high 31 points, and Juice Thompson was nowhere to be seen most of the game.
Alright, an overtime loss in a hostile environment can be seen as a moral victory. Northwestern came back to Evanston to take on #11 Michigan State, a real test of how good NU can be this year without star Kevin Coble. Test failure. The Spartans dunked all over the ‘Cats and while it was close for the first 15 minutes, NU looked outmatched against the team they upset in East Lansing last season with the final score of 91-70.
And that historic Top 25 ranking that got everyone talking? Not only is it gone, but NU isn’t even getting a vote. An incredible fall from grace for a team few believed to be 10-1 to start the season. That hasn’t stopped national sports media from jumping on the bandwagon of the underdog story that is Northwestern basketball.
The ‘Cats are now 10-3 (0-2) and take on Texas-Pan American on Thursday before a huge game in Ann Arbor against Michigan on Sunday. They probably need to go 9-9 in conference to get that first NCAA Tournament bid, well, ever.
The bright spot in the two losses was forward John Shurna who has more than picked up the slack after the loss of Coble. He won Big Ten Player of the week and is getting press all over the college basketball world.
Shurna has been a stud while Juice has been shut down. Freshmen Drew Crawford and Alex Marcotulio have shown positive signs, but also reminders that they are still freshmen. The ‘Cats still need some work from their bigs (Luka Mirkovic and Kyle Rowley) to compete in the Big Ten.
We will give you continuing basketball coverage this season as the ‘Cats attempt to make history in making their first ever NCAA Tournament. Also, look for IM basketball coverage in a couple weeks. If you still feel behind in the times when it comes to NU basketball, check out our preview from November.
Oh yea, while you were gone there was some pretty big football news.
But would I really take this space to talk about the Outback Bowl…
