[NU Sports] Getting to the Tournament, IMHO

Thu Dec 1 16:50:03 CST 2011

Hey, I'm a Speech major. what do I know about math, but if you count all of the preseason
games, we could be 13-0 if we win them all - a tall order, but do-able IMHO. (NU
apparently is not counting Robert Morris, but is counting  Texas-PA in their totals so
far, since they are promoting tomorrow's game as a chance to go 7-0. 

But I guess I didn't count a couple of the early games on the schedule, I only pulled the
Big 10 schedule off the NU website.

I still think all those wins at the top are do-able (OK maybe not Minny) but the way we've
played to our competition so far means that we'll be should able to stick with everyone,
even dOSU at home if the wind is blowing from the Northwest.

And I still think that beating State Penn twice, and a win over Ill-noise at home (maybe
even a win over MSU at home)  will go a long way to impressing the selection guys.

rsl

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From: Arthur Miller [mailto:artmiller1 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 12:30 PM
To: Roy S. Lamberton; nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Getting to the Tournament, IMHO

Roy, your math's a bit off--we have 12 non-conference games, for which 11-1 is a realistic
goal.

13-5 in the conference (24-6 overall) would not only guarantee us a slot, we'd be looking
at a seeding in the #3-#5 range.  Alas, 13-5 is way too optimistic, but 10-8 in conference
is by all indications a realistic goal for this year's team.

On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 10:15 AM, Roy S. Lamberton <rstetson at capps-assoc.com> wrote:

Assuming we don't sneak up on Baylor....and get past Creighton - a former NCAA pick, we'll
start the Big 10 Season at 9-1.

We must win the following games, including an 8 game winning streak:
(yes they are presented out of date order)

01/01/12        vs. Penn State * TV     Evanston, Ill.  6:00 p.m. CT
01/04/12        vs. Illinois * TV       Evanston, Ill.  6:00 p.m. CT
01/28/12        vs. Purdue * TV                 Evanston, Ill.  3:00 p.m. CT
02/02/12        vs. Nebraska * TV       Evanston, Ill.  6:00 p.m. CT
02/09/12        vs. Iowa * TV           Evanston, Ill.  8:00 p.m. CT
02/12/12        at Purdue TV            West Lafayette, Ind.    5:00 p.m. CT
02/15/12        at Indiana * TV                 Bloomington, Ind. 5:30 p.m. CT
02/18/12        vs. Minnesota * TV      Evanston, Ill.  6:00 p.m. CT
02/21/12        vs. Michigan * TV       Evanston, Ill.  7:00 p.m. CT
02/25/12        at Penn State * TV      University Park, Pa.    8:00 p.m. CT
03/03/12        at Iowa * TV            Iowa City, Iowa         1:30 p.m. CT

Which puts us at 20-1, 11-0 in the Big 10. If we could somehow split the next 4 on the
list, we'd wind up 22-3, 13-2 in the Big 10.

01/11/12        at Michigan * TV                Ann Arbor, Mich.        5:30 p.m. CT
01/14/12        vs. Michigan State * TV Evanston, Ill.  2:00 p.m. CT
01/22/12        at Minnesota * TV       Minneapolis, Minn.3:00 p.m. CT
02/05/12        at Illinois * TV                Champaign, Ill.         2:00 p.m. CT

That leaves three real toughies (altho MSU won't be easy)

12/28/11        at Ohio State * TV      Columbus, Ohio  4:30 p.m. CT
01/18/12        at Wisconsin * TV       Madison, Wis.   8:00 p.m. CT
02/29/12        vs. Ohio State * TV     Evanston, Ill.  7:30 p.m. CT

Which leaves the Cats at 22-6/13-5 which should be enuff for a bid.

That is not to say that the Big 10 isn't better this year. There were a few stumbles in
the Big 10-ACC Challenge, but overall the "good guys" pretty well handled the competition.

BTW - I think beating Baylor Sunday would go a long way to turning up the heat on NU's
shot at the dance, and the most of the games in the last few weeks of our schedule are
winable, except for maybe that NBA team in Columbus at home on the 29th.

Maybe we can declare that game null because it is on Sadie Hawkin's Day? (See Al Capp's
Lil' Abner)

Go Cats...

rsl