High hopes on the "look" of this team

the Daily Herald remarks on the height and athleticism of this roster. it is also mentioned that Barry Gardner and Joe Branch stopped by for practice. Joe was a good guy who went on to Rice's coaching staff and now works for the NBA, but i still laugh thinking about how he was good for one - and only one - good play per game. after a dunk or a made three-pointer, the NU home crowd used to yell at the coaching staff to take him out because they knew it was only downhill from there.


the espn/blue ribbon preview is only available to insiders but walks through the roster in great detail. i know we're all excited about these freshmen, but here is something i don't want to read about my starting center: "he has lost considerable weight since moving to America."

the late commitments of the big men have overshadowed John Shurna, who averaged 23 and 12 at Glenbard West and won the state' s large-school slam-dunk contest. it will be interesting to watch him paired up with Coble.

Midnight Madness is here

espn is getting back to the good old days by televising four hours of Midnight Madness tonight starting at 9pm ET on ESPNU. the NCAA officially allows practice to begin at 7pm - not that you'd know it by looking at NU's website. all they want to talk about is hosting career fairs as part of basketball games.

but i can't bash NU for not having an event tonight. while Jay Wright and Billy Gillespie have the luxury of enthusiastic students and a packed house, even places like Purdue and Illinois are wary of committing to a big event without a guaranteed capacity crowd. NU can't get fans (students or otherwise) to show up for regular season Big Ten games, so i don't like the chances of people showing up for practice on a Friday night in October.

this week, the tribune, daily herald and sun-times published brief looks ahead to the season. general consensus seems to center around two themes:

1. NU returns their nucleus of Thompson, Coble and Moore, so they will be better. i don't necessarily agree. yes, it will be good to have Coble for the entire season, but it's not exactly like these guys lit the league on fire last year. a year more experienced is a not a year taller or faster. however, i will use Tavaras Hardy as an example of improvement over time. he went from fouling out with 0 points and 1 rebound as a freshman to a pretty darn serviceable player as a senior.
   
2. Kyle Rowley and Luka Mirkovic are tall, so NU won't get killed on the boards again. while certainly the 'cats will get more rebounds this year, by accident if nothing else, we don't need to remember too far back to find tall guys who couldn't do squat for us. i'll wait until i see them play before i declare the freshmen as our forward/center saviors.

A mildly optimistic preview

here is a brief look ahead to the NU hoops season, courtesy of the Daily Herald.


i'm not overly excited, considering the biggest compliments are the 3-point shot of one of our big guys and that Mike Capocci, according to coach, "seems more than a year older."

Bruce Weber must be getting desperate

feeling the heat in Champaign, Bruce decided to hold an illegal (but technically allowed) public practice after the football game on saturday. for his sake, it is a good thing he scheduled this for a Minnesota game and not Northwestern. his players would have been in danger of getting hit in the face by another overthrown pass by CJ Bacher.