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In what essentially turned into a three-point shooting contest, Northwestern was able to beat Nebraska in the battle from beyond the arc, taking down the Huskers 84-74.
The Wildcats shot 45.2 percent from three (14-31) and 12 of their first 13 shots came from beyond the arc. The Huskers relied on the three as well, hitting on 11 of 26 shots for 42.3 percent on the night.
Happy National Signing Day. Northwestern’s 21 commits (the largest class of the Pat Fitzgerald era) hail from 10 states. The Wildcats signed 13 of their 21 players from three states—five from Pennsylvania, four from Illinois and four from Ohio. Scout ranks the class 5th in the Big Ten, 44th in the nation. Those numbers are higher than usual in Evanston.
In addition, Northwestern announced this past weekend the addition of highly touted wide receiver Kyle Prater (Maywood, Ill./Proviso West), who is transferring to Northwestern from USC. More on Prater here. His presence beefs up the class quite a bit. And there’s some top prospects in it, we’ll highlight the highlights of it.
Let’s start with the jewel of the class.
The Big Ten is having one of the most memorable basketball seasons we’ve seen in some time. The conference leads the country with five top-25 teams and ranks number one in the RPI/Sagarin ratings.
Along with being regarded as the best conference in the nation, the Big Ten is full of intriguing stories. Here are the top five on the year thus far: [Read more...]
It is kind of hard to believe that Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament is only six weeks away. It is becoming time when college basketball teams are separating themselves as either tourney contenders or pretenders. Here is The Sports Bank‘s latest Bracketology? I have more than held my own the past couple of years against ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and with my extreme college hoops nerdom, plan to do so again this year. Check back every week for an update.
UPDATED: 1/30/12
In Tuesday’s 66-64 loss to Michigan, Purdue senior Robbie Hummel missed a big shot at the end of the game to send the Boilermakers to their second straight loss and third in the past four games.
(Guest post by Kevin Trahan of bigtenorbust.com, purplewildcats.com and the Daily Northwestern.)
On Saturday, he made sure he didn’t repeat that performance, sinking Northwestern with a tough floater with 8.1 seconds left en route to a 58-56 win.
Pat Fitzgerald is having a great non college football Saturday. He got a big w this afternoon as Northwestern University announced the addition of transfer wide receiver Kyle Prater to the Wildcats program.
A product of nearby Proviso West High School (not to be confused with Proviso East, which produced Illini legend Dee Brown) Prater comes home after redshirting one season at USC. Prater battled injury and caught one pass for 6 yards.
He’s HIGHLY decorated though.
This what #9 Michigan State has given up in scoring in their four losses: 67 to North Carolina, 74 to Duke, 81 to Northwestern, 6o to Michigan.
In their 16 wins, they’ve held everyone under 70 with the exception of Lehigh; a game they won 90-81. The losses to the Wolverines and Tar Heels were much more on the offense than the D, but the pattern is still obvious: when the Spartans play defense like a traditional Tom Izzo team is known to do, they are elite.
They look like an Elite Eight, Final Four team. But when they have those occasional defensive lapses, which have been few and far between, they look like an ordinary team.
With conference play underway, we begin to get a better feel for how college basketball teams stack up in our Bracketology? I have more than held my own the past couple of years against ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and with my extreme college hoops nerdom, plan to do so again this year. Check back every week for an update.
UPDATED: 1/23/12
RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) is an algorithm based on opponents’ winning percentage, opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage, and opponents’ opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage. This is the truth, I’m not trying to sound like Dr. Seuss here. So RPI is like the BCS, a very controversial number that certains groups of people ascribe meaning to; other groups of people resent.
That fact is, RPI is taken very seriously by the NCAA Tournament selection committee, and from a numerical standpoint, it’s all about “who have you played?” Then there’s the eye-test with RPI, which asks “who have you beaten?”
And these numbers are what gives the Northwestern Wildcats a stronger than you think tourney profile. A 12-5, 2-3 in conference team with two 28+ point losses doesn’t seem like a good candidate to go dancing at first glance. But when you look at their #30 RPI and strength of schedule, the picture completely changes.
Was this a huge upset? On one level, yes. Any time the most prominent college basketball program in the Big Ten falls to the program with the least amount of tradition in the conference, it’s huge!
Not to mention it ended the biggest win streak that prominent
On the other hand, Northwestern came in with a RPI of 28 while Michigan State’s number is 6, so it’s not that big of a spread.
Also, last year’s meetings were an OT defeat in East Lansing and a one possession final score in Evanston.
However, when Northwestern defeated Michigan State 81-74, this one seemed to look like a “season definer.”
With conference play tipping off, we begin to get a better feel for how college basketball teams stack up in our Bracketology? I have more than held my own the past couple of years against ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and with my extreme college hoops nerdom, plan to do so again this year. Check back every week for an update.
UPDATED: 1/9/12 [Read more...]
