Heading into this season, the average Northwestern basketball fan likely looked at the 2016-17 campaign like a game of blackjack- hit 21 and you’re a winner. After all, last season saw the Wildcats win 20 in the regular season for the very first time in school history.
NU unfortunately fell to Michigan in the B1G Tournament (the famous Tre Demps postgame “they want the rich to get richer” rant), and thus the school record for single season wins remains 20. Like a college kid with a terribly unbelievable fake ID, they can’t wait to reach 21.
The Cats got victory no. 19 in elite fashion, upsetting the #7 Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center 66-59 Sunday night. Not only was it an amazing signature win, at a place that is truly an impenetrable fortress to visiting opposition, but they also accomplished it without their alpha dog.
Scottie Lindsey, the team’s best player, missed his third straight game due to mononucleosis. There’s talk he could return tomorrow night when Northwestern basketball hosts #23 (in the AP poll and in RPI) Maryland. Should NU win Wednesday night and then again on Saturday versus Rutgers, they’ll hit “blackjack.”
However, they cannot stop there.
Two nights ago, Northwestern basketball won the most challenging game on their B1G schedule, and probably the most challenging game on any B1G team (other than Wisconsin, RPI 22) of course, ‘schedule this season.
However, the B1G is very much down this year.
Forget all the alternative facts incessantly espoused on BTN (even on Saturday, one of the announcers for the Penn State-Illinois game was claiming that the Illini were still alive and kicking for an at-large NCAA Tournament berth…it’s seriously dangerous and evil to dumb down your audience like that).
It’s a weaker league this year and the bracket reveal this past Saturday verified this truth. No B1G team, not even Wisconsin, had a top four seed in any region, and if that holds, it would be the first time this has happened since 2003.
Purdue has the highest RPI of any B1G side and they’re at #19. The message is clear, if you’re in the B1G, finishing at .500 or just over .500 isn’t enough to make the NCAA Tournament. Northwestern is currently 8-4 in the league and they must finish 11-7 or better to safely clinch a berth without sweating on selection sunday. It’s not the Wildcats’ fault that the league is down, and credit them for taking care of their own business.
With a RPI of 34 (they have two wins over teams in the low 30s- Dayton and Wake Forest, to accompany the Wisconsin win), they must continue TCB.
It’s still possible the committee will select them (Northwestern is currently a #9 seed in our latest bracket projection) even if they finish 10-8, but the bracket reveal didn’t just a message to the teams at the top of the B1G, it sent a strong message to all the bubble teams and those in the middle of the pack as well.
While no one expects NU to run the table the rest of the way, should they win tomorrow night and Saturday, they would head into the final stretch of four games (@ Illinois 2/21, @ Indiana 2/25, Michigan 3/1 and Purdue 3/5) with 21 wins.
Factor in the B1G Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, and the opportunity for Northwestern basketball to win 25 games (or more) is a very distinct possibility.
In any year but this one, that sentence would be an incredibly hot take.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and Bold, contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication, CGTN America, WGN CLTV News and KOZN.
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