Since we're about halfway through the season, I thought it was time to hand out some hardware. Who would've thought we'd be 12-3 at this point without Coble? Well, it's because of the guys I'm about to hand these awards to.

Player of the First Half: Michael Thompson

While a case could be made for John Shurna, "Juice" Thompson's play this season has been even more important to the Cats' success. He's averaging just under 15 points a game, which is pretty good, but his 4.5 assists per contest are what won him this award. Plus, he has an insane 2.8/1 assists to turnover ratio.

Breakthrough Player: John Shurna

No contest. While Crawford has been good, Shurna has taken his game to a whole new level. He's the Cats' leading scorer, averaging over 17 a game. The three point shooting leaves a little to be desired, but his inside presence has been a major help after Coble's injury.

Player Who Annoys the Other Team the Most: Jeremy Nash

Nash has been a nightmare for many teams defensively at the top of the 1-3-1. He averages 1.7 steals per game, which is great, but even when he doesn't personally record the steal he's made other teams' lives a nightmare. Keep it up, Nash.

Newcomer of the Year: Drew Crawford

Marcotullio has been in a slump lately, and Crawford won the Michigan game for us almost by himself. It's going to be fun to watch him develop as a player over the next few years, regardless of how this season turns out.

Performance of the Year: John Shurna in the Chicago Invitational Challenge

Shurna scored 25 against Notre Dame and 23 against Iowa State. Those two wins were so big for the Cats, and the Notre Dame victory could be one of those "signature wins" that gets the Cats into the tournament. It couldn't have happened without Shurna.

And finally, on the flip side...

Player Who Deserves Less Playing Time: Kyle Rowley

Sorry, Kyle, but you're killing us out there. Rowley is the only player playing double digit minutes who has an assist to turnover ratio of less than one. He looks lost every time he has the ball, and frequently misses easy layups. His free throw shooting is awful as well. I realize his size is a good thing, but he needs to step it up. Or else Carmody should be giving Luka Mirovic even more playing time.

Go Cats!

This concludes my preview of Northwestern's Big Ten schedule. The last 9 games of the 18 game schedule are, thankfully, much easier than the first nine. Here we go.

February 2nd vs. Michigan: Michigan always gives the Wildcats trouble, and I predict that trend will continue. This one gives me a bad feeling.

February 7th vs. Indiana: Does anyone else remember the nerve wracking game Indiana gave our Cats last year. Yeah, me too. But hopefully the Hoosiers' freshmen continue to play like freshmen. I like our chances (particularly at home).

February 10th at Iowa: If we lose a game to Iowa this year, we aren't worthy of the NCAA tournament. Both games vs. the Hawkeyes look like easy wins (but you never know).

February 14th vs. Minnesota: We beat the Gophers at home last year, and I expect us to do the same this year.

February 17th vs. Penn State: Just don't let Talor Battle beat you, and this one should be an easy win.

February 21st at Wisconsin: Almost nobody beats the Badgers in Madison, so why should we be any different?

February 25th vs. Iowa: See previous Iowa comments.

February 28th at Penn State: We always struggle at Penn State (see last year's game). But this year's Cats seem... different. For whatever reason, I don't expect us to drop one against them this year.

March 6th at Indiana: This one could be much tougher than it ordinarily would. It's the last game of the regular season, and it's in Bloomington. But, once again, the Cats should get it done.

Prediction: 7-2 in the final nine games, 10-8 overall.

If we beat Texas Pan American and Chicago State in the non-conference as well, that brings us to 22-9 overall. One win in the Big Ten Tournament would just about seal a bid for the Cats. Since we'd be a 6 or 7 seed in the tournament, we'd probably face Indiana or Iowa in the first round. Beat them, and we're going dancing. Dare to dream, folks.

With the Central Connecticut State game over and done with, Northwestern is now 10-1. They may well be ranked heading into their Big Ten opener at Illinois.

The team has been a pleasant surprise so far this year. When Coble went down, many (including me) wrote the Cats off for dead. But can they navigate a tough Big Ten schedule to make the NCAA tournament for the first time ever?

In a word, yes. But it won't be easy. Here's a look at the first nine games of the Big Ten season, and how I think Northwestern will fare in them.

December 30th at Illinois: I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the Cats will win this one. Bruce Weber's a good coach, but the Illini haven't played very well this season. We may be catching them at the right time.

January 2nd vs. Michigan State: Welsh Ryan will be rocking for the Cats'home opener. If my prediction about Illinois is right, Northwestern will be playing with a tremendous amount of confidence. But Michigan State will win. I'd be astonished if Izzo lets the Cats sneak up on the Spartans like we did last year. It'll be close, though.

January 10th at Michigan: Michigan's been terrible so far this year. But they'll beat Northwestern in Ann Arbor. Count on it.

January 13th vs. Wisconsin: We have to split with the Badgers. Since we won't beat them in Madison, this is a must win. I think the Cats will get it done.

January 16th vs. Purdue: If Purdue's offensive woes continue, we have a chance. But don't bet on it.

January 19th at Ohio State: Does anyone know when Turner will be back? If he's still hurt when the Cats play this one, they'll win. Even if he isn't, the Cats still have a chance. I'm not sold on the Buckeyes.

January 23rd vs. Illinois: The Cats always lose at least one game they should win. This will be that game.

January 26th at Minnesota: We could pull the upset here, but I don't think we'll beat the Gophers on the road.

January 30th at Michigan State: Will lightning strike twice in East Lansing? I doubt it.

Projected Record: 3-6 through the first nine games.

That sounds bad, but it really isn't. We get to play Indiana, Penn State, and Iowa twice in the final nine games. Plus we get Michigan and Minnesota at home. We should be able to get 6 wins out of that, which would get us to that magic 9-9 mark. The key is to not lost hope during this brutal opening stretch. Go Cats!

First off, that was a great win for the Cats (apart from that stupid running out the clock strategy, which doesn't work). Barring some unforeseen catastrophe when Central Connecticut State comes to Evanston on Tuesday, we will be 10-1 (and likely ranked) heading into the Big Ten opener at Illinois. With that in mind, here's what happened to the rest of the hoops world (and what it means for the Cats).

Butler's last second win over Xavier was huge on two levels. It means Butler will still be ranked this week, which is good for Northwestern (since our only loss was to the Bulldogs). It also means that Xavier may struggle to get an at-large bid if they don't win the A-10, which opens up another potential spot for our Wildcats. This one was huge.

Notre Dame beating UCLA, though everyone expected it, was huge. We need the Irish to play well in the Big East as well.

We've also got a couple of big games today. Iowa State takes on Bradley, and NC State plays Wake Forest. Everyone here should be pulling for the Wolfpack and Cyclones.

Meanwhile, the Big Ten had a fairly lousy Saturday (apart from the Cats). Michigan State and Purdue both won, as expected. Iowa barely beat Drake, which is good. Indiana and Ohio State also beat weak opponents.

But Michigan lost to Kansas (not surprising). And Illinois suffered a crushing loss to Georgia. That one hurts, folks. If Illinois continues to struggle, we have to beat them at least once (which won't be easy).

So it was a mixed bag this week (like most weeks). Let's pull for Iowa State and North Carolina State. And let's hope the Cats continue to play well.

First of all, I'm obviously thrilled that we're 9-1. Come Monday, Northwestern may well be ranked in the polls (big wins by Butler and Notre Dame today help the Cats' resume). But this has to stop.

If you watched the game today, you know what I mean. This whole "taking the air out of the ball when we're ahead" thing has to stop.

Does anyone remember the Purdue game? I'm referring to the one we lost. What about the Illinois game?

We were fortunate today. After having a 10 point lead, we allowed Stanford to get back into the game by taking the foot off of the accelerator. In the blink of an eye, it was a 1 point game. I almost started sobbing.

Fortunately, Michael Thompson hit a big 3, and the Cats finally hit some free throws to ice the game. But we won't be so lucky next time. You can count on it.

Teams like North Carolina and Kansas can milk the clock the way we tried to, because they have players that can create their own shot with 5 or less seconds to go on the shot clock. But the Princeton offense is the type of offense that "probes" the defense. Waiting until there's 10 seconds or fewer to try to score is just insane. When NU does that, they usually wind up with a contested jumper instead of a back door layup or an open 3.

If Carmody keeps doing this, we will lose at least one game during Big Ten play that we should win. Maybe more. Haven't you learned your lesson from last year, Cats?

First off, congratulations to the Cats for their 90-65 victory over North Carolina A&T, a game in which they attempted 47 threes. Drew Crawford had an outstanding game, and the Cats showed very little rust after almost two weeks off (the exception being Shurna).

This is the first installment of a weekly feature over-analyzing the week in college basketball, and what it means for Northwestern's tournament hopes. So let's get to it.

The Good:

Wisconsin beating Marquette.

The Pac-10 continuing to struggle (most think the league will receive only one or two bids, which opens up more room for teams like the Cats).

Purdue coming back to beat Alabama (imagine if Purdue comes into Welsh-Ryan undefeated and we beat them).

Indiana knocking off Pittsburgh.

The rest of the Big Ten doing fairly well (except Iowa).

The Bad:

Notre Dame losing to Loyola Marymount (that's a killer).

Iowa losing to Iowa State (yes, we beat the Cyclones, but we play Iowa twice).

Butler losing to Georgetown.

Temple knocking off Villanova, and Xavier beating Cincinnati. The reason this is bad is that Temple and Xavier may be bubble teams at the end of the year, while the Wildcats and Bearcats are probably tourney bound despite these losses. Plus, it hurts Notre Dame's RPI, which in turn hurts Northwestern's.

The Neutral:

Butler beating Ohio State (we'll wind up playing both teams once, so it really doesn't matter).

That's all I can think of. According to cbssports.com, Northwestern's RPI is now 40. That's not bad at this point in the season. I'm feeling pretty good about NU's chances right now. How about you?

Note: I realize I'm analyzing this to death. But what else is there to do in between games?

The NCAA is considering expanding the NCAA tournament field from 65 to 96. Under this scenario, the 32 top teams would receive a first round bye. To this proposal I have only one word.

NO!

No, no, no, no. no. I'll leave the reasons why this is a terrible idea to other people. The "Sporting News" website has a couple of good opinion pieces (both of which mention Northwestern, by the way) about this (one endorses it, the other opposes it). I'll just leave you with one thought: suppose this system had been in place last year. Northwestern would have made the tournament. But what's so great about that, if 95 other teams also made it. When Northwestern finally makes the NCAA tournament, I for one want it to mean something.

Also, it would destroy the regular season and make it harder for Cinderella teams to emerge come tourney time. I'll be creating a site at some point where those who agree with me can make their voices heard. We've got to make this clear to the folks in power: if you expand the tournament, we won't watch.

Comment if you're with me. If enough people threaten to revolt, hopefully this won't happen.

Northwestern is now 3-1 in their "tough" non-conference games, with one more remaining (Stanford). Since it's never too early to dream, let's take a look at the Wildcats' tournament chances.

Before the season started, there were three things Northwestern needed to do to make the tournament (in my opinion).

#1: Split with Butler and Notre Dame. Check

#2: Win all of their other non-conference games. They have a really good chance at doing this.

#3: Go .500 in Big Ten play.

That last one's going to be tough without Coble. The early Big Ten schedule is brutal. But here's an early look at how it might go down.

2 wins over Indiana

2 wins over Iowa

2 wins over Penn State

Split with Illinois

Split with Wisconsin (we need to win at home, since the Badgers are almost unbeatable on the road)

Split with Minnesota or Michigan

It won't be easy, but judging by what I've seen of this team, they can get it done. I put their chances at slightly below 50%, to be realistic. What do you think? Let your thoughts be known in the poll. Good luck, Wildcats!