We've largely ignored all the college football playoff news this off-season, mostly because Northwestern seems miles away from ever being anywhere near the top 4 in the country. For those who haven't been paying attention, there's going to be a four team playoff starting after the 2014 season, but the details still need to be ironed out. Most conferences are in favor of the higher seed playing at home in the semifinals, but the Big Ten prefers playing the semifinal games at current BCS bowl sites; basically so the conference champion can still play in the Rose Bowl.

The Big Ten's decision has been criticized by just about everyone involved, most notably by Yahoo!'s Dan Wetzel, who mocked the Big Ten's unrequited love for the Rose Bowl. The arguments for home playoff games are simple and convincing: more money for the schools, less travel for fans, and the potential to see SEC teams playing in a snowstorm in December or January. Are Jim Delany and the rest of the Big Ten really dumb enough to give all that up just for the Rose Bowl?

Black Heart Gold Pants' Patrick Vint argues that Delany is thinking long term and has the eventual goal of strong-arming the ACC, Big East, and all the current non-AQ conferences out of the picture, so that the Big Ten winner will get an automatic bid into the four team playoff, along the winners of the SEC, Big 12 and Pac-12. It's still unclear as to whether such a plan is feasible, but it would fit Delany's MO of making moves that are great for the Big Ten but crappy for college football in general.

Back to topics that might actually affect Northwestern in the near future: Teddy Greenstein sums up all the latest developments:

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This isn't exactly breaking news, but there were minor concerns that Olah wouldn't sign with NU; some paperwork issues relating to Olah's status as a international student caused a lengthy delay in Olah officially committing.

It's quite possible that Jared Swopshire and Alex Olah will be the starters at the 4 and 5 respectively for Northwestern in their 2012-13 season opener, although freshman Kale Abrahamson and transfer Nikola Cerina also figure to be in the rotation.

We've already covered Swopshire, who will be a key player for next year's team. What stood out from NU's press release is that they list Olah as 7 feet, 275 pounds. That's really big. Olah also averaged 18 points, 13 rebounds and 4.6 blocks last season while leading his school to an Indiana state championship in the Christian Schools division. Hopefully he can give NU a much-needed inside presence defensively and on the glass, and break the curse of Carmody-recruited big men.

When Illinois fired Ron Zook after their once-promising 2011 season ended with a six game losing streak, fans (especially bloggers) of other Big Ten schools were crestfallen*. Zook's frequent tactical blunders (such as the time he went for two because he didn't know what the score was) and bizarre behavior at press conferences made him an easy target for jokes. But fear not, Big Ten fans who enjoy bumbling head coaches, new Illinois coach Tim Beckman is adding fuel to the lukewarm fire that is the Northwestern-Illinois football rivalry.

* Yes, Zook did beat Northwestern each of the last two years. Embarrassing.

Back in December, when Beckman was introduced as Illinois' head coach, he had this to say about his new arch rival (per Brian Bennett of ESPN.com):

Beckman wore an Illini-colored orange tie. He said he bought it on Thursday, because at Toledo he had the team burn everything they had that was orange, the color of the Rockets' main rival, Bowling Green. He said he only referred to Bowling Green as the "team down south" and now will only call Northwestern "the team up north." "You'll never see me wearing purple," he said.

I'm not much of a MAC historian, but I was unaware that Toledo hated Bowling Green to the point of burning their clothing like a crazy ex-girlfriend. I'm currently wearing a purple tie, should I be on the lookout for Beckman sneaking up behind me and setting it on fire?

And Beckman, if you're going to refuse to even say the name of your hated rival Northwestern, at least come up with something original. Ohio State already refers to Michigan as "that school up north". Call us "that team of nerds", or even better, "that team of purple poopy-heads". Go all out, Beckman. Put up an anti-Northwestern in your locker room and tell the world you will not stand for the evil Northwesterners. Wait, what's that? He's already done that?

via Jeremey Werner (@WernerConnectFM on Twitter)

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In anticipation of Saturdays glorified practice in front of about 38 people much-anticipated spring game in front of a packed Ryan Field, Sippin' On Purple will be taking a look at each position on the field.

First up, quarterback.

For most programs, losing a quarterback as good as Dan Persa would be cause for concern, but for at least a decade Northwestern has been able to find a new QB to succeed in the starting role. From Zak Kustok to Brett Basanez to C.J. Bacher to Mike Kafka to Persa, someone else is ready to go. And this year, Kain Colter appears to be the man for the job.

Before spring practices started, Pat Fitzgerald stated quite clearly that "if we're playing Saturday, Kain's starting" and when asked if Colter would see any time at wide receiver like he did last year, replied by saying "not in the spring. He's a quarterback."

So there you have it. It would appear, barring injury, that Colter, and only Colter, will be under center for the season opener against Syracuse.

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Nerds!

The podcast makes its triumphant return, but rather than discussing depressing topics like Northwestern revenue sports, we're talking Game of Thrones, both the HBO television show and the book series officially known as A Song of Ice and Fire . At least, pfoley and I are talking; Rodger wants nothing to do with any Game of Thrones talk and has threatened to ban me. You know nothing, Rodger.

To appeal to all audiences, the first 26 minutes of the podcast discusses the Season 2 premiere of the television show with no spoilers. We discuss many topics, including:

- why Joffrey Baratheon has become a cartoonishly cliche villian

- what Littlefinger was thinking when he subtly threatened Cersei Lannister

- why Daenerys Targaryen needs her dragons to get bigger quickly

- what was the deal with the Maester's plan to poison Melisandre? That had no prayer of working.

and many more

Click here to access the podcast.

I have attempted many times to upload the podcast onto here but it isn't working. So follow that link to where it's hosted on pfoley's website. You can either listen to it there, or copy/paste that link into iTunes and automatically subscribe: just open ITunes and copy/paste that link into Advanced ---> Subscribe to podcast... on the main screen.

Again, the first 26 minutes of the podcast are about the TV show only. After that, we get into massive spoilers, that I'll get into after If you don't want spoilers, DON'T LISTEN PAST 26:00 AND DONT READ ANYTHING AFTER THE JUMP OR ANY COMMENTS.

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- In a Chicago Tribune story about Duke assistant Chris Collins being a potential candidate to be Illinois' next basketball coach, Brian Hamilton includes an interesting paragraph about Northwestern:

As for a potential opening at Northwestern if Bill Carmody is ousted, Collins declined comment. But rest assured he would take that call, too, and again examine if the fit is right.

So let's follow the progression: Chris Collins said nothing about whether or not he would be interested in coaching at Northwestern....then an implication Chris Collins would be interested in coaching at Northwestern.

I am a bit surprised to see Collins so publicly in the mix for other jobs, as I was under the impression he was being groomed to take over at Duke when Mike Krzyzewski retires. Whether he'd actually be interested in Northwestern remains to be seen; Illinois is certainly a far more attractive job.

- Speaking of rumor mongering, SB Nation's Andrew Sharp has a fantastic piece calling out Pete Thamel for his hatchet job on top recruit Nerlens Noel.

- SB Nation's Washington Huskies blog UW Dawg Pound has a preview of tonight's NIT game.

Jim Phillips announced today that Northwestern and Stanford will play a home-and-home series in football, with the first meeting in Evanston on September of 2015, and the rematch the next September in Palo Alto. The two schools will also play a four game series beginning in 2019.

Northwestern appears to be getting an early jump on the Big Ten/Pac-12 partnership announced in late December that will see every Big Ten school play a non-conference game against a Pac-12 school starting in 2017. NU will also play a home and home against another Pac-12 school, California, in 2013 and 2014.

This news continues a recent trend of difficult non-conference scheduling from Jim Phillips and Pat Fitzgerald. In addition to Stanford and Cal, Northwestern will play series against Vanderbilt, Boston College, Syracuse and Notre Dame in future years, marking a major change in scheduling philosophy. During their current 5 game bowl eligibility streak, Northwestern has greatly benefited from weak non-conference schedules: NU didn't face one FBS team that finished the season with a winning record in those five years and posted a 17-3 overall record in non-conference play. In the next five seasons, NU will be facing three strong opponents in non-conference play in most seasons along with the usual FCS sacrificial lamb, which will make it much harder to maintain their bowl eligibility streak. Stanford in particular is has made back to back BCS bowl appearances and just signed one of the nation's top recruiting classes.

As a fan, it's exciting that Northwestern will be facing some real teams in non-conference play as opposed to the usual scrubs, but Phillips and Fitzgerald may regret playing so many tough games in September if they're unable to reach the six wins needed for bowl eligibility. If the NU football program improves and is able to compete in these games, then it's a great move to schedule tough. But whether NU will be good enough to beat teams like Stanford and Notre Dame remains to be seen.

Selection Sunday is over, and as everyone except Jerry Palm anticipated, Northwestern didn't make it. This was a perfectly reasonable decision by the committee, as Northwestern had plenty of opportunities to earn good wins and didn't take advantage of them.

However, the committee confounded many observers by selecting Iona for an at-large bid. The Gaels failed to record even one RPI top 50 win, and suffered two bad losses to opponents ranked below 200th in the RPI. After they lost to Fairfield in the MAAC semifinals, the consensus was they had little chance at a bid, even with such a weak bubble. But last night, their name was called, leaving other bubble teams like Drexel shaking their heads. And when Drexel's resume is compared side by side with Iona's, it's nearly impossible to make an argument for Iona.

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With Northwestern sitting squarely on now off the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

If asteroids take out enough other programs, NU could make it.

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Again, this could all be irrelevant as of about 7:30 tonight.

Lots of games and I'm really busy today so not much in the way of explanations, sorry.

East Carolina Pirates vs. Southern Miss. Golden Eagles (-6), Noon central, CBS College

Team to root for: ECU

Conference USA tournament quarterfinals.

Boston College Eagles vs. N.C. State Wolfpack (-12.5), 1 central, ESPNU

Team to root for: Boston College

ACC tournament first round

Oregon St. Beavers vs. Washington Huskies (-4), 2 central, FSN

Team to root for: Oregon State

Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals.

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With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Surprisingly few relevant games today; in fact it's nothing but Big East tournament second round games. I blame the Pac-12 for being terrible.

Connecticut Huskies vs. West Virginia Mountaineers (+2.5), 11 AM central, ESPN

Team to root for: ?

I could probably not even bother including this game, as both teams appear comfortably in by an equal margin. The good news is someone has to lose and possibly fall closer to the cut line.

Seton Hall Pirates vs. Louisville Cardinals (-4), 6 central, ESPN

Team to root for: Seton Hall, reluctantly

A Seton Hall win tonight moves them permanently into the RPI top 50, and NU desperately needs another top 50 win. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

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With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Major conference tournaments start today, meaning lots of bubble games every day for a while. Yet oddly, the most important bubble game today is in the Ivy League.

DePaul Blue Demons vs. Connecticut Huskies (-10), 11 AM central, ESPN2

Team to root for: DePaul

Big East tournament first round. DePaul, despite finishing last in the Big East, showed some heart over the weekend by annihilating Seton Hall. UConn is in decent NCAA shape as of now but can't afford a bad loss.

Providence Friars vs. Seton Hall Pirates (-6), 6 central, ESPNU

Team to root for: Providence

I'm done with you, Seton Hall. You were supposed to be an RPI Top 50 win, Seton Hall. You beat Georgetown, storm the court, look like a lock NCAA team, and then you lie down and lose at home to Rutgers and get clowned at DePaul? That's it, we're through. Take a forced walk of shame, and if you want any of your stuff back, it'll be outside in the cold. That's right, Seton Hall, I've changed the locks.

Jokes aside, Seton Hall would need to win two games minimum in the Big East tournament to get back into the RPI top 50 and I think at this point it's better for NU for them to suffer a third straight horrible loss and fall below the cut line.

Continue reading this post »

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Very quiet tonight: only two games with bubble implications. The calm before the storm, if you will.

Va. Commonwealth Rams vs. Drexel Dragons (+2.5), 6 central, ESPN

Team to root for: Virginia Commonwealth

CAA championship, and it should be a great game. Both of these teams have been playing great basketball for two months after slow starts (Drexel has won 19 in a row and 25 of 26 after a 2-4 start, and VCU has won 24 of 27 after a 3-3 start) and are good enough to deserve a tournament spot (Drexel is 41st in KenPom and VCU is 46th). However, deserve got nothing to do with it. When you're a mid-major in a weaker conference and you take some bad losses early, it does serious damage to your NCAA hopes, and Drexel may never recover from losses to Norfolk State and Delaware. Same for VCU's loss to Georgia Tech in the Charleston Classic all the way back in November.

Both of these teams are on the bubble right now and the general consensus is that VCU's resume is slightly better than Drexel's, as VCU has a 12.4 average seed on Bracket Matrix compared to a 13.1 average for Drexel. So NU fans are better off rooting for VCU to claim the auto-bid.

Western Illinois Leathernecks vs. Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (-8), 6 central, no TV

Team to root for: Oral Roberts

Summit league semifinals. Oral Roberts has almost no chance at an at-large should they lose here but stranger things have happened, so root for them to win this tournament and get the auto-bid.

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Yesterday was a prettay, prettay good day for Northwestern. Besides escaping with a win at Iowa, several bubble teams suffered damaging losses, including Washington, South Florida, Long Beach State, BYU, Texas, Southern Mississippi, and Seton Hall. Well, the Seton Hall loss (a humiliating 28 point #BEATEMDOWN against last place DePaul) knocked the Pirates out of the RPI top 50, leaving NU with a grand total of one RPI top 50 win, so it wasn't all good.

Most importantly though, no one has stolen any bids yet. Murray State survived a serious scare against Tennessee State and won the OVC, and Gonzaga and Saint Mary's both reached the title game of the WCC to ensure no bid thieves there.

Illinois St. Redbirds vs. Creighton Bluejays (-5.5), 1:05 central, CBS

Team to root for: Creighton

Missouri Valley title game. Creighton is a lock for the tournament. Illinois State can only make the tournament with a win, and is coming off an upset of Wichita State, the pre-tournament favorite. Fortunately for us, the great Osiris Eldridge is not walking through that door.

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I can barely even breathe right now, as I can still see Josh Oglesby's inexplicably wide open three heading directly towards the basket, on path to crush our dreams forever.

But it somehow rimmed out, and Northwestern survived. NU was awful the first 10 minutes, excellent the next 25, and then awful down the stretch. In the end though, they did just enough to win.

In a hilarious note involving Northwestern's historical futility, this win marked the first time since 1958 and 1959 than NU swept a Big Ten opponent in consecutive years.

JerShon Cobb was the hero for Northwestern today, scoring a season high 13 and finally looking healthy. Drew Crawford had a tough shooting night at 5 for 15 but still had a huge game with 6 offensive rebounds and 5 steals.

John Shurna had his worst game in recent memory, with just nine points, and he missed two crucial front ends in the final minute. Nice to see other guys step up in his place.

So now we root against bubble teams everywhere for a few days until the Big Ten tournament first round against Minnesota on Thursday. The dream is still alive.

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

This could all be irrelevant in a few hours.

Pittsburgh Panthers at Connecticut Huskies (-5.5), 11 AM central, ESPN

Team to root for: Pittsburgh

UConn is on the bubble and desperately needs this one.

West Virginia Mountaineers at South Florida Bulls (-1.5), 11 AM central, ESPN3

Team to root for: West Virginia?

Both these teams are just inside the bubble the right now. Good news is someone has to lose, bad news is someone has to win. According to Bracket Projects' matrix, West Virginia is in slightly better position right now, so root for them.

Continue reading this post »

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Conference tournaments are underway across this great nation, meaning this rooting interest stuff is about to get serious. The most significant threat to Northwestern's NCAA hopes (well, besides their inability to get stops on defense) is so-called "bid-thieves" who surprisingly win their conference's auto-bid and relegate a presumed conference champion to the at-large pool. Northwestern is hanging on by a thread right now and can't afford any conference tournament upsets.

To signify their importance, any potential bid-thief game from here on out will receive drudge siren red alert status.

Indiana St. Sycamores vs. Wichita St. Shockers (-12.5), 12:05 central, ESPN3

Team to root for: Wichita State

The Missouri Valley conference tournament is underway, and there's an interesting dynamic in play. Wichita State and Creighton are both in the top 25 and lock NCAA teams while the rest of the league has no shot at an at-large bid. So NU badly needs one of Wichita State or Creighton to win this tournament. This here is a quarterfinal game.

Harvard Crimson at Columbia Lions (+7.5), 6 central, no TV

Team to root for: Harvard

Since the Ivy League doesn't have a conference tournament, NU doesn't have to worry as much about bid thieves, but it's still possible for Harvard to not win the Ivy League and get an at-large bid, so we'll root for them just to be sure.

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Kill me now.

Northwestern plays Ohio State in a really important game tonight that I'm incredibly nervous about and my nerves are compounded because I can't abuse any mind-altering substances like alcohol tonight because I have to take an exam tomorrow well I could theoretically abuse alcohol but then I'd do poorly on my exam and have to abuse even more alcohol afterwards and it would be a vicious cycle and I'd probably end up on the street I'm going to wrap up this run-on sentence now.

Game's on BTN at 7:30 central time. Gus Johnson is on the call. It's also senior night for John Shurna, Luka Mirkovic, Davide Curletti and Nick Fruendt, which has been overshadowed by all the NCAA talk.

This is your place to talk about the game. Two rules: don't be a jackass and don't talk about illegal streams of the game that could get SB Nation sued.

Go Cats.

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Before we start, a reminder of just how precarious Northwestern's current bubble position is, via a tweet from SI.com's resident bracket expert, Andy Glockner:

Again, teams right on the cutline or below right now are *not* in good shape. Current bracket projections have zero upsets built in.

So even though Northwestern is currently listed as in by most experts, eventually there will likely be upsets in conference tournaments and it will become that much harder to make it. So we're left with no choice but to root for no Cinderellas. Except us.

Penn St. Nittany Lions @ Purdue Boilermakers (--11.5), 5:30 central, BTN

Team to root for: Penn State

Purdue has all but locked up a bid...unless they somehow lose at home to Penn State. They did get clowned in Happy Valley earlier this year, so who knows.

Marquette Golden Eagles at Cincinnati Bearcats (-1), 6 central, ESPN2

Team to root for: Marquette

Cincinnati looks like they should be a lock with 20 wins overall and 10 BIg East wins already but their non-conference schedule was a total joke and the committee has been known to look harshly on teams with weak non-conference performances. A marquee win over a team like Marquette should elevate them to lock status, however.

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With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

A few games tonight after nothing last night.

Kansas St. Wildcats at Texas A&M Aggies (+4), 6 central, ESPN2

Team to root for: Texas A&M

Kansas State is probably in thanks to their sweep of Missouri but if they fall apart down the stretch they could come up short of the tournament.

DePaul Blue Demons at West Virginia Mountaineers (-13), 6 central, ESPN3

Team to root for: DePaul

West Virginia has lost seven out of nine including bad losses to St. John's and Pittsburgh, but they have enough good wins early in the season to be in for now. However, a home loss to awful DePaul would probably knock them out of the picture.

Continue reading this post »

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

This is a lot more fun to compile after Northwestern wins. As a bonus, I've added the betting line to give you an idea of how the two teams involved match up.

Cincinnati Bearcats at South Florida Bulls (-2), 11 AM central, ESPN3

Team to root for: Cincinnati

We were rooting against Cincinnati earlier this week, but after they beat Louisville they should be safely in. South Florida, on the other hand, desperately needs a win to give themselves a chance to make the tournament, as they're currently just outside the cut line.

Indiana Hoosiers at Minnesota Golden Gophers (-1.5), Noon central, ESPN

Team to root for: Indiana

Minnesota probably needs to win their last three regular season games and at least one in the Big Ten tournament to have a chance at an at-large bid. And if Tubby Smith continues to instruct his team to run the shot clock under 10 seconds before shooting when they have a lead, they'll be lucky to win any of those games. I still can't believe that really happened.

St. Peter's Peacocks at Iona Gaels (-20.5), 4 central, no TV

Team to root for: St. Peter's

Iona passes the eyeball test with flying colors: their trio of point guard Scott Machado (the nation's assist leader), guard Lamont "Momo" Jones (started for Arizona's Elite 8 team last year), and forward Mike Glover (shoots 64% on high usage) would all start for the vast majority of bubble teams. However, in order to get an at-large bid, you need wins over NCAA caliber teams, and Iona's only decent win was at home against bubbling St. Joseph's, and they have several bad losses. Even with a strong RPI of 37, I don't see how Iona gets an at-large bid, but just in case, root for them to lose to a terrible team like St. Peter's.

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With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Before I get to the really long list of bubble games today, let's take a moment to thank Buzz Williams and #10 Marquette for winning at West Virginia last night. It was the ideal situation for a bubble team like West Virginia: a chance to beat a top 10 team at home, and said top 10 team had suspended three starters for the game. But Marquette rallied in the second half to win by one and Buzz Williams was quite excited after the game:

Infinite cocktails to you, Mr. Williams, for possibly bursting West Virginia's bubble and dancing on their grave.

Iowa St. Cyclones at Kansas St. Wildcats, 12:30 central, ESPN3

Team to root for: ?

Both teams are on the right side of the bubble for now, so I have no idea whom to root for. The good news is that one of them has to lose.

LSU Tigers at Mississippi Rebels, 12:45 central, ESPN3

Team to root for: Mississippi

Yes, Northwestern beat LSU earlier this year, but LSU is currently on the wrong side of the bubble so it would be a bad thing if they were to play their way into contention.

UCLA Bruins at Arizona Wildcats, 1 central, no TV

Team to root for: UCLA

Arizona is done with a loss.

N.C. State Wolfpack at Clemson Tigers, 1:30 central, ESPN3

Team to root for: Clemson

N.C. State is hanging on by a thread, a loss here and they're just about done.

Continue reading this post »

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Alabama Crimson Tide at Arkansas Razorbacks, 6 central, ESPN2

Team to root for: Arkansas

Alabama's been in the top 25 much of the season but has been struggling lately thanks to a lack of offense and the suspension of several key players. They still probably get in, but a loss to middling Arkansas would get them closer to the bubble.

USC Trojans at Arizona Wildcats, 7:30 central, no TV

Team to root for: USC, however reluctantly

Fuck you, Kevin O'Neill.

Ok, now that pleasantries are out of the way, a USC win tonight would officially slam the door on Arizona's very thin at large hopes.

Louisville Cardinals at Cincinnati Bearcats, 8 central, ESPN

Team to root for: Louisville

Cincinnati feels like they should be a lock at 19-8 (9-5) but their non-conference schedule was a total joke and they have a couple awful losses.

California Golden Bears at Utah Utes, 8 central, no TV

Team to root for: Utah

Utah has by far the worst KenPom ranking (currently #304) of any BCS team since KenPom had a site, so they aren't gonna win this, but if a miracle occurs and they do win, it will put a serious dent in Cal's at large chances.

Stanford Cardinal at Colorado Buffaloes, 9:30 central, no TV

Team to root for: Stanford

Colorado needs to win out to have a realistic at-large chance.

BYU Cougars at Gonzaga Bulldogs, 10 central, ESPN2

Team to root for: Gonzaga

Gonzaga's in, BYU's on the bubble.

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Holy crap there are a lot of college basketball games tonight. I'm busy, so no explanations, you can probably figure it out on your own anyway.

Nebraska Cornhuskers at Purdue Boilermakers, 5:30 central, BTN

Team to root for: Nebraska

South Florida Bulls at Syracuse Orange, 6 central, ESPN3

Team to root for: Syracuse

West Virginia Mountaineers at Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 6 central, ESPN2

Team to root for: Notre Dame

Temple Owls at La Salle Explorers, 6 central, no TV

Team to root for: Temple

George Mason Patriots at Northeastern Huskies, 6 central, ESPN3

Team to root for: Northeastern

Continue reading this post »

Northwestern is 2-0 when I do these drunk live blogs, so I feel obligated to do another one tonight. This despite the fact I have to be in Framingham tomorrow morning at 8:30 for jury duty, and in case you're unfamiliar with Massachusetts geography, that's a long goddamn way from where I live in Cambridge. I do it because I love you guys.

19:45 - Jordan Morgan already picks up a foul, he's gonna have a tough time on D against this small lineup.

19:12 - Nice help by Cobb there, need his athleticism on defense.

18:32 - Sigh, Shurna. Take the pull up.

17:51 - Crawford limping. Fan fucking tastic.

16:45 - Blah. Awful possession.

16:17 - Crawford was clearly set. Terrible call.

15:37 - I guess Crawford's leg is ok. Holy God, best dunk I've seen since I started watching NU basketball.

14:55- Goddamn it Cobb. I thought you'd gotten those out of your system.

Continue reading this post »

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Lots of games tonight and I'm busy with work, so some of these descriptions will be brief.


Xavier Musketeers at UMass Minutemen, 6 PM central, no TV as far as I know

Team to root for: UMass

Xavier is squarely on the bubble and can't afford losses to non-NCAA tournament teams like UMass.

Kansas St. Wildcats at Missouri Tigers, 6 PM central, ESPN2

Team to root for: Missouri

Kansas State is on the right of the bubble for now, and already beat #3 Missouri once this year, if they beat Missouri again they're in almost for sure.

Continue reading this post »

With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.

Texas Southern Tigers at Miss Valley St Delta Devils, 6 PM central, ESPNU

This game isn't actually relevant to NU's bubble chances but I included it because it is a nationally televised match-up of two teams NU beat earlier in the season. Normally games against SWAC teams are RPI killers, but these two are a combined 23-4 in the SWAC and thus aren't really hurting NU's profile. In fact, the Delta Devils have been running roughshod over the SWAC; they're currently 14-0 and looking pretty good to run the table. Jerry Rice must be proud.

Connecticut Huskies at Villanova Wildcats, 6 PM central, ESPN

Team to root for: Villanova

UConn is looking pretty good as of now, even with a 6-8 conference record. They have strong RPI numbers and several good wins (Florida State, Harvard, at Notre Dame), but a loss to 11-15 Villanova would put a dent in their at-large chances. They've also had some locker room issues, as guard Shabazz Napier publicly questioned the heart of some of his teammates after a recent loss to Marquette. Another loss tonight could send them spiraling into the NIT.

Baylor Bears at Texas Longhorns, 8 PM central, ESPN

Team to root for: Baylor

Texas is probably on the wrong side of the bubble right now after suffering a bad loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday, but a win over Baylor would vault them right back into the mix.