Illinois Alumni Association takes shot at Northwestern marketing slogan

May 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

illini logo

I received a mass email today from the Illinois Alumni Association.

The subject heading: ILLINOIS: Chicago’s Big Ten University

The message content:

Illinois alumni don’t need an expensive roadside billboard to let people know we’re the best public Big Ten university in Chicago!

Instead, make your case in your office space by displaying your loyalty for everyone to see. As we welcome 7,000 new graduates to the alumni family, we know that, together, we can uphold the greatness of our Alma Mater.

DOWNLOAD OFFICIAL ILLINOIS WALLPAPER

Yes another shot is fired across the bow. Hatfield vs. McCoys, Mozart vs. Salieri, Illini vs. Northwestern.

[Read more...]

North Carolina at Indiana, Ohio St. at Duke headlines Big 10/ACC Challenge

May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

indiana-assembly-hall

The 14th annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 27-28 2012 will be headlined by North Carolina at Indiana, with a solid undercard of Ohio State at Duke. and North Carolina State at Michigan stands out as the third biggest match-up.

ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will combine to televise all 12 games of the two-day event.

[Read more...]

Reviewing college football fan sites: Northwestern blogs

May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

NU-football

Modern media publications review movies, television shows and rock albums, but no one reviews blogs, the question is why? Obviously, it’s easy to review static mass media items that aren’t changing once they initially are produced much more easily than the dynamic and the evolving world of blogs.

Of course, some aspects of certain blogs are pretty consistent, and with regular features running all the time, there is enough remaining the same so that one can accurately critique. Obviously, to do a feature like this, the number of blogs out there must be small, and the market size niche- like we have with Northwestern.

[Read more...]

Kain Colter to Kyle Prater: Big 10′s next big pass-catch combo?

May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

kain-colter

What a difference a year makes for Northwestern QB Kain Colter. Last season the backup QB to Dan Persa found himself making the stat sheet as a triple threat. You had to look in three areas of the box score: rushing, passing and receiving, to see the entire scope of his impact on the game.

This year, the starting signal caller job is all Colter’s and his main weapon will be Kyle Prater (if the NCAA waiver goes through). A lot of things have to go right in Evanston, but if they do, NU will have one of the best pitch and catch combos in the Big Ten, and the Wildcats offense could make some noise this college football season.

[Read more...]

Link Bank 5-7-11: Scarlett Johansson, Megan Fox (video), Cole Hamels bashing

May 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

megan fox cheerleader

Scarlett Johansson on how annoying everyday, regular people are when you’re a celebrity. I’m not being snarky. I agree with her.

“I’m constantly surprised by how rude people are. You’ll be having an intimate dinner with a friend and there’s somebody on the table behind with a cameraphone pointing at your face. I think, ‘I would never take a photo of someone without asking.’

“I’m not traumatized by it but I find it can bring out the worst in humanity sometimes.” (TVNZ)

scarlett-johansson

[Read more...]

Recruiting sites: future of college sports media or too much information?

May 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

kyle_prater

In the world of recruiting services, you have Rivals, Scout, ESPNU and Max Preps. And now there’s 247Sports.com, started last year and staffed by a number of former Rivals employees. They’re following the model of Scout and Rivals (who’ve both been around for over a decade) in producing team-specific coverage.

And then there are a ton of independent sites not affiliated with any major network but often act as big players in the local market.

When it comes to the team-specific sites, it’s very hard core. If you want to follow your college basketball and/or college football team year round in extreme detail, then these sites are for you. It’s all the information you can ask for, and some you didn’t.

These services are changing the way sports are covered on both the collegiate and high school level. To help make sense of all of it, I enlisted the help of the Northwestern site managers for both Rivals (owned by Yahoo!) and Scout (owned by Fox Sports): Louie Vaccherof WildcatReport.com and Chris Emma of PurpleWildcats.com

[Read more...]

Chicago Sports Media Watch: Initial Column with Teddy Greenstein Interview

April 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

teddy-greenstein

Welcome to the first ever edition of Chicago Sports Media Watch, the newest and soon to be greatest blog on Chicago Now. What are we about? I think this link can give you a great synopsis. When I was asked to do this blog by CN Director Jimmy Greenfield, I immediately thought of the old Chicago Tribune column “Inside Media” I loved reading as a teen/college student.

This blog will aim to pick up where that column left off, but we’ll also have an emphasis on the media (tweets, blog reviews, message board evaluations, fun with Facebook Statuses, relevant mobile apps etc.) that didn’t exist when Teddy Greenstein and Ed Sherman penned it for the Trib.

So we open with an exclusive from Mr. Greenstein himself. And we’ll look to have Mr. Sherman on very soon.
[Read more...]

Northwestern linebacker Chi Chi Ariguzo: good player, greater name

April 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

chi-chi-ariguzo

Northwestern’s defense was much maligned last season. The pass defense was especially substandard. But at the conclusion of 2012 spring practice, the D was ahead of the offense and it showed a lot of improvement. The secondary will be retooled, so the defense figures to lean on the front seven this fall.

And when you’re coached by a linebacker in Pat Fitzgerald, the linebackers will be a group with a special focus.

“He’s a defensive guy, he likes to see the defense swarm around to the ball. He’s got little pointers here and there for us to get to the ball faster,” said Chi Chi Ariguzo.

The 6-foot-3, 220 pounder, was the backup SAM linebacker behind senior Ben Johnson as a freshman, but this year he should get the starting gig.

[Read more...]

Northwestern football spring game nuggets and observations

April 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

northwestern wildcats football

Spring college football is always interesting for it’s unique scoring system. It’s an intra-squad game and every school does it different. Some schools divide into two teams, others, like today’s Northwestern spring game, go offense vs. defense.

And therefore, Ryan Field in Evanston today featured a “pick-17″ (instead of a “pick-6″) with the points system in place.

[Read more...]

Louisville’s Jared Swopshire transfers to Northwestern

April 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

northwestern-mascot

Things are looking brighter for Bill Carmody in Evanston. Not only will he have one of his best recruiting classes ever coming in, with actual legitimate big men for the first time in a long time, but he also has immediate veteran help on the way to Northwestern.

That would be Louisville Cardinals forward Jared Swopshire, who was a contributor for the Big East power before getting injured and falling lower in Rick Pitino‘s rotation.

According to Scout.com (Purple Wildcats)

[Read more...]

Northwestern Linemen “Jugs Machine” Challenge (video)

April 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

tyler-scott

Get ready for the Jugs Machine! Sounds like a nickname for Pamela Anderson. Wait, she’s kind of a gross thought today, sounds like 1993 Pamela Anderson.

Being a punt returner is serious business. Fielding a high kick is no small task by itself, but it’s made that much harder when you have to concentrate on the ball, and be aware that very large men are speeding towards you with the sole intent of destroying you. But what happens when instead of a fast, low center-of-gravity back is returning a punt, you get the big boys in the trenches doing it?

check out the video below of a linemen jugs machine challenge at Northwestern.

[Read more...]

2012-2013 college basketball preseason top 25

April 3, 2012 By 2 Comments

uk national champs

With the Kentucky Wildcats cutting down the nets last night, we can officially close the book on the 2011-2012 college basketball season.  Hoop junkies like myself are already looking ahead to next season so allow me to present to you my way too early 2012-2013 preseason Top 25.

There are still several factors that could alter a teams roster between now and the start of next season.  Some of the top players are still debating on whether or not to enter the NBA Draft, some teams will lose players to transfer, and five McDonald’s All-Americans remain undecided on their college decision including the top two recruits in the 2012 class; Shabazz Muhammad and Nerlens Noel.

So here is my preliminary preseason Top 25.  I will updated these rankings once the NBA Draft early entries list is complete and Muhammaed and Noels make their college decision.  Leave a comment below if you think a team is too high, too low, not getting enough respect, or if you notice an error in a projected roster.  (Click here for my way too early preseason rankings from last season.)

[Read more...]

« Older Posts