Northwestern basketball is almost certainly making their first NCAA Tournament in the entire history of the program this season; and 99.999% of the media coverage will take/has already taken the same exact tone.
It’s the feel good, underdog, Cinderella story angle.
The 0.001% is the hater angle, and it belongs to Will Leitch of Sports on Earth, who wrote a piece that we will cover in detail in just a bit. Personally, I just don’t have very strong feelings either way. I guess I’m more of a moderate, a centrist perhaps.
Of course, real life often prohibits one from being a pure centrist on anything, as the band Rush famously told us “even if you choose not to choose, you still have made a choice.” Eventually, if you are someone invested in March Madness, then you must pick a side, and I would rather Northwestern basketball end their 78-year-drought than not.
I know in lurid, graphic detail just how much their tiny, but engaged fanbase has suffered through over the years, and it’s high time they get their dessert now, after many years of eating their vegetables. I would rather the Northwestern basketball fan friends in my life be happy than devastated come Selection Sunday.
However, it just doesn’t move me very much.
Here's the play that will go down in #Northwestern lore, likely securing the program's first NCAA Tournament berth. @NUMensBball @WGNNews pic.twitter.com/Oil41KSezv
— Josh Frydman (@Josh_Frydman) March 2, 2017
And if you know #Northwestern's bball history, you'll know this isn't hyperbole. https://t.co/3wKBO7ow1I
— Joey Powell (@Joey_Powell) March 2, 2017
Can't fault them. Means more than a random upset. https://t.co/ZYc7K1V0rv
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) March 2, 2017
Just visited WGN TV studios to join CLTV “Sports Feed” with Jarrett Payton (son of Walter himself) to talk college hoops and we spent a good deal of time talking Northwestern basketball. View the video at this link.
Wednesday night brought the biggest play in Northwestern basketball history. Period. And to the militant defenders of court-storming protocols, shut up, and go find more significant meaning in your life. NU had a big moment last night, so just relax and let their niche audience enjoy it.
Collins, one of ten finalists for the Naismith coach of the year award, has led the team to a school-record 21 wins. The team’s 10 Big Ten wins are the school’s most in conference play since 1932-33, guaranteeing their first winning season in league play since 1967-68.
Moving on to the Leitch article. I disagree with quite a bit of it, but on these next two points Leitch is pretty much unassailable. He’s dropping truth bombs in bullet points four and five.
4. The journalists will be insufferable if Northwestern makes the tournament. We see this a little bit each year when Syracuse makes the tourney, but oh man, it’s going to be awful if Northwestern gets in. Those Medill kids will make sure you will not be able to escape Northwestern. Michael Wilbon, Darren Rovell, Stewart Mandel, J.A. Adande, Jon Heyman, Christine Brennan, Mike Greenberg, Rachel Nichols, John Heilemann … they’re going to be the worst.
Northwestern is an incredibly expensive, upper-tier, elite-class private school in the wealthy suburbs of Chicago, and if Northwestern makes the tournament, every alum in the media is going to try to convince you they are the most likable plucky underdog story that has ever existed, the 1980 USA hockey team crossed with Hickory High multiplied by Rudy. Trust me: You do not want this.
https://twitter.com/griersonleitch/status/835150921004904451?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
5. The Chicago’s Big Ten Team thing. A few years ago, Northwestern, with Trumpian gusto and lack of fealty to reality-based analysis, decided it would brand itself “Chicago’s Big Ten Team.” This is roughly analogous to claiming that Rider is New York City’s college basketball team. A few years ago, The New York Times put together a map, using Facebook data, of every region across the country and what college football teams they cheered for. Go look at that map now. Go look at Chicago.
You see Notre Dame there. You see Illinois there. You see Michigan there. You see Ohio State there. You even see Wisconsin there. The one thing you absolutely do not see there is Northwestern. Scroll around in areas surrounding Chicago, the north and south suburbs, the west suburbs, Northern Indiana. You won’t find Northwestern anywhere. The only place you will find Northwestern is in Evanston … and only then when click directly on Ryan Field, where Northwestern plays. Check out what pops up when you click the area directly west of Ryan Field:
Northwestern is not only not Chicago’s Big Ten Team, it is likely it is not even Evanston’s Big Ten Team.
Regarding Leitch’s point four, I have absolutely no problem with a media member getting excited during tournament time and proverbially waving the pom pons. I do however have an issue with those media members expecting you the viewer, reader or follower to care as much as they do about their team, and you better believe that’s what’s coming.
While there are numerous Syracuse alums in the sports media world as well, they just do not call as much attention to it as NU alumni do.
Perhaps that’s because they are better at “acting like you’ve been there before.” It’s because they have!
Confirmation Bias of the “Hometown Boy Makes Good” Narrative
It’s not just national media that will (and already do) go straight puff piece in their Northwestern basketball coverage. Almost all local media in Chicago take the same exact approach to covering Northwestern- ignore them most of the time, and then treat with kid gloves when they succeed.
Also, you have the classic “hometown product” narrative.
Northwestern basketball coach Chris Collins hails from the northern suburbs, and you obviously already know that he’s the son of former Chicago Bulls Head Coach Doug Collins.
This all provides more fodder for NU to consistently cling to their “Chicago’s B1G Team” marketing mantra, despite all the evidence piling up against it.
When Northwestern basketball achieved one of their signature wins this season, at the United Center versus Dayton on December 17th, Flyers fans outnumbered Wildcats supporters approximately 25-30:1. With no official attendance numbers released, estimates indicated that about only 2-350 Northwestern basketball fans showed up for that contest.
Attendance was similarly disappointing for the 2015 football contest versus Illinois at Soldier Field. It was especially dismal when you consider how that NU team was playing for the school record in single season victories and a potential New Year’s Six berth.
NU fans haven’t shown an interest in venturing south of the Howard Avenue suburban/city border for a sporting event.
Thus, it will be interesting to see what happens next season when Northwestern basketball heads way out by the airport to play their games in Rosemont while Welsh-Ryan Arena undergoes a $110 million upgrade renovation.
In general, the Northwestern basketball makes their first ever NCAA Tournament story will be one where supply far exceeds demand. As has been documented, there will be a huge demand among media for coverage of these stories, but their fanbase remains tiny in numbers.
It’s a classic example for sports media supply and demand curves, with supply greatly outpacing consumer demand.
Perhaps that’s just the Michigan State MBA in me talking. It’s probably also worth mentioning that Illinois is my alma mater, just like Leitch did in his piece. In fact, Leitch and I missed each other at the Daily Illini by just a few years.
Maybe my being a B1G alum times two has a lot to do with why I don’t have strong feelings either way on Northwestern basketball finally ending their tourney drought. Thus, I’ll have to settle for being just a non-partisan, objective observer and reporter of their postseason run. I can watch the games as a cold, dispassionate pragmatic technocrat thinking about supply and demand equilibrium.
In the spirit of Sideshow Bob’s famous “I’m aware of appearing on television in order to condemn it,” yes indeed I’m aware of the irony of writing in blog style with “I,” “me” etc. in order to claim status as a fair and balanced pundit on Northwestern basketball.
Therefore, go Cats.
I guess. Maybe. Perhaps. Possibly. I don’t know. If you want.
Up to you. I’m cool either way.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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