[NU Sports] basketball futility

[Joe Thiegs]

Alan--I'm not too upset about the loss to UNC-Wilmington.  A few years ago I
watched the Seahawks beat better teams than I would expect NU to be this
year.  They've gone to the NCAA tournament three times (and the NIT once) in
the last six years.  On my lone trip to Vegas (in March of 2002) I saw that
they were No. 12 seeds pitted against No. 5 USC.  Having watched
UNC-Wilmington upset the Gophers in Williams Arena earlier that season, I
figured they and their star guard, Brett Blizzard, were a good bet to knock
off the Trojans.  Rather than bet against the spread (don't remember what it
was), I saw the money line of something like +390, knew better, and
quadrupled my admittedly modest wager as UNCW shocked 'SC and a fair number
of people in the sports book (but not me).  They lost by nine points in the
next round to championship game-bound Indiana.

This year they are undefeated so far (obviously) and have a great player in
senior shooting guard John Goldsberry.  Keep an eye on them throughout the
season.  I don't think they'll hurt our RPI too badly.

-Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Abrahamson, Alan
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 1:43 PM
To: 'nwu-sports at tssi.com'
Subject: [NU Sports] basketball futility


 This sentence from this morning's Tribune says it all:
 "Under Carmody, the Wildcats' 29-31 record the last two seasons is their
best two-year stretch since Rich Falk's teams went 32-36, including an NIT
berth, from 1982 to '84."  Just to pile on, this sentence, from later in the
story: "Northwestern is beginning its second century of basketball, still
looking for its first NCAA tourney berth."  Ugh.  Yech.  Ptooey.  It is
abominable that we have been so bad, and for so long.  
 What's fair for the goose, etc.: I do not think it the least bit
unreasonable to hold the men's basketball team to the same expectation as
the fb team. (In this case, however, I mean the bb version of eight or nine
wins -- like, 20. I don't literally mean eight or nine!)  I readily, happily
concede that the team seems to be getting better under Carmody.  Let me just
say, however, that I expect them to make the NCAA tourney. It's about time.
And this is the team -- with seven seniors.  I applaud the wins over Leigh
and Charlotte. But losing to Wilmington? 
 
 

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