Who actually hates Northwestern basketball?
Nobody does.
Of course, sometimes it really feels like God hates Northwestern basketball, given all the misfortune, injuries, bad breaks etc. that that have been known to ravage the program. Saturday night, in the inaugural Chicago Legends, they made a new enemy- Morgan Miller, the wife of Dayton Coach Archie Miller.
Morgan Miller did not take the Flyers 67-64 loss to Northwestern well at all. Check out what she Tweeted:
ICYMI: Morgan Miller, wife of Dayton head coach Archie Miller, tweeted this (then deleted) yesterday. #Northwestern beat #Dayton, 67-64. pic.twitter.com/JgmKUKiKEN
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) December 18, 2016
Wow! Talk about a less than sportsmanlike display!
It embodies the term “sore loser,” and overreaction to a non-conference loss on a neutral court.
Miller went ALL CAPS, implying that she’s YELLING, at Northwestern, a team that has never reached the NCAA Tournament in its entire history.
She really should be above such Twitter-bombs, or at least get those microblog assaults grammatically correct, as “nowhere” is one word. The Flyers went to the Elite 8 in 2014; she should have much more class than that.
Meeting at Chicago’s United Center tonight in the opening tilt in the inaugural Chicago Legends, Northwestern crushed Dayton in the first half 40-17. The first twenty minutes were even more lopsided than that score sounded, but the second twenty minutes were a total 180, with the Flyers thrashing the Wildcats 47-27 in the second half. Of course the end result is still an L, but there’s no shame in losing to Northwestern.
They’re a very solid team. If you believe half of what Chicago State Coach Tracy Dildy says, NU is a remarkably elite team.
Despite this game being played in a city that borders Evanston, the home of the Wildcats, the crowd was overwhelmingly pro Dayton. Tickets sales were so dominated by rabid Flyers supporters that when the second game, between Illinois and BYU, commenced, the atmosphere within the venue severely deflated.
(for what it’s worth, Morgan Miller later made this Tweet, for what it’s worth)
https://twitter.com/BballWife4Life/status/810306262705512448
It was extremely embarrassing for a program that claims to be “Chicago’s B1G Team.” How can a program from another time zone come in and make this contest their home game and a road game for Northwestern? Northwestern Coach Chris Collins was asked a tough question about the dreadfully inexcusable attendance, but his response was just to evade and spin, in a manner that would make a politician from either of the two major parties proud.
“I take great pride in being from Chicago,” said in the postgame.
“Whether we are what we are or not what we are, we viewed this as an awesome opportunity. Our school’s really close from here. We consider this a home game. We bussed here in 30 minutes. So it’s pretty close to home. So I just, you know, I couldn’t even tell you about the fans.”
“I was locked into the game. I know Dayton has a great fan base. They probably have a lot of people here. I’ve grown up watching them play. And they sell out their building every night. They have a great program and a great fan base, and that’s something we aspire to have.”
“You have to win, though. That’s my answer to everything.”
Collins choose to espouse empty coachspeak platitudes, instead of make a call to his fan base to show up and show out. I guess you have to understand where he’s coming from, as that approach is probably in the best interests of himself and his program. No official attendance figures were released, but but fans and sportswriters in attendance estimated that about only 100-250 NU fans decided it was worth showing up to.
Northwestern took the floor in outfits emblazoned with the “Chicago’s B1G Ten team” slogan dressed with the slogan, but it’s a completely meaningless catch phrase when so few of their fans won’t even venture south of Howard Avenue.
Tremendous kudos to the Dayton fans though, who are extremely passionate; perhaps none are more so than Morgan Miller.
It’s just tonight she took that zeal way too far.
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, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.