Facing the Hoosiers and a whole lot of history

make no mistake, this Indiana team is bad. they have 5 D-I wins, and aside from their lone conference victory over Iowa, their best wins are over #118 Cornell and #133 TCU. but you know they'll be hungry after coming oh-so-close in Evanston on January 28. and considering they finish at home with Michigan State, the crowd will be in full force against NU in an effort to get one last home win this season.

Assembly Hall is the ultimate house of horrors for Northwestern basketball. NU has never won in that building, losing by an average margin of 20.5 (15 under Carmody). the worst defeat was by 52 during IU's 1987 national championship season. the closest to a win Northwestern has come was the 1999 NIT team, which lost by three, 81-78. Esch had 27 pts, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for the first ever triple-double in Assembly Hall. that was a tremendous game where NU used a 24-8 run to tie the game with three minutes left before the late William Gladness banked in a shot-clock-buzzer-beating three.

in the Wildcats win last month, the stats for both teams (FG%, 3PT%, TOs, fouls) were almost identical, so this one figures to be close as well. Moore and Coble need to shoot the ball well, and it will be interesting to see if Rowley can do some things inside.

meanwhile, Jim Phillips better move quickly to lock up Coach Carmody. it is only a matter of time before Michigan State makes him a formal offer to be head coach designate.