[NU Sports] How close were we?

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

I think the more time we have to look back on this season, the more the pain of losing winnable games down the stretch will disappear and an appreciation of the accomplishments will grow (hopefully this is that season we look back on in 12 months as getting us ready for the tourney) ...

but I think one question will haunt Carmody and the Cats until next March.

Just how close were we to breaking into that Big Dance?

The losses to frickin' PSU, Iowa and Indiana left NU out of the bubble talk in the final weeks, but overall, we have 20 wins.

Illinois doesn't have 20. Minnesota just got to 20. They now both appear to be in the dance.

Would one more have done it? Two? Two (a .500 league mark) probably would have, I think. Especially considering the Notre Dame win (plus NC State, Iowa State and Stanford all showed they were capable of an upset or two and not that bad) ... and how all of our losses aside from those fatal final four came to what now appear to be NCAA teams.

Two games. Win that OT game at Indiana and take care of business at home against frickin' Penn State. Two games. And you gotta believe that having Coble gets us at least two more wins.

We should be kicking ourselves all off season. And hopefully we do - knowing that it was THAT close. And that can be our motivation for the run next season.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
==========================