Loss to Brown, the aftermath

i'm sure many of you are wondering why i won't let this game go. "but Coach, we suck and we lose a bunch of games every season..." but this one really bothers me, i think more symbolically than anything else. a chicago guy brings his Ivy league team into Evanston and beats us, with a Loyola Academy guy leading the way. while NU basketball success has not come close to Duke, Stanford and Penn/Princeton, at least we had cornered the market geographically. a hoops-playing nerd could pick NU over Wash U or Chicago since those programs aren't Division 1. but now any of those recruits who may have been in the stands or watching on TV see they may have more attractive options elsewhere.

this team has been outrebounded by an average of 19 per game in their 0-4 start. and they haven't exactly been facing a murderer's row either - at best Stanford and UVA are mid-level seeds. i don't think anyone in the big ten will be great this year, but it is tough to see anyone being as terrible as the 'cats.

12/3 Ed. note: they lost at home last year to cornell. i forgot about that.

AD change imminent

i will always like mark murphy because of that letter he sent to Stan bashing Hawaii. here is the summary according to the Chicago Tribune. basically everything is positive except for men's basketball:

"If he goes, Murphy's four years as Northwestern's athletic director will be marked by his decision to hire former NU star Pat Fitzgerald after the death of Randy Walker, decent play on the football field, outstanding graduation rates, a stagnant men's basketball program, a flurry of success by the softball and women's lacrosse teams and new locker rooms for men's and women's basketball."

I'll get to it, I promise

i'm sure all my faithful readers out there are anxiously awating my thoughts on the fiasco last Saturday. to be honest i didn't see the game and have not read about it yet, but i promise i will deliver later this week. i will also probably miss tomorrow's national broadcast debut as we get slaughtered in the ACC challenge, but i will watch it later in the week via TiVo and give you my detailed analysis.

but for now let me say this: every fired coach in every sport has a breaking point. he or she doesn't necessarily get the axe right then, but for each there is a point where we can look back and say, "yep, that game/incident right there. that was the beginning of the end." of course none of us know what the rest of the season will bring, but losing at home to an ivy league program, an ivy league program traditionally inferior to the one you left for NU, an ivy league program now coached by one of your former assistants... well, let's keep November 24 2007 circled on the calendar.

now i'm off to boo Joey Porter in the rain.

Maybe this nonsense will finally help NU get to the postseason

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3110361

i can't imagine how bad the teams will be that get selected for this. i also can't imagine why and where people will watch it. espn already has the NIT, so maybe this will end up on something like CSTV and seen by me and no more than six other people. whose idea was this? is there really a big demand for a 6-10 ACC team vs. the fourth place team from The Valley? actually, seeing that potential matchup in writing makes me realize NU has no chance of making this made up tourney.

Cleveland Still Sucks

i know this is not in any way related to Northwestern basketball, but i couldn't resist.