Shurna, & not much else, barely enough to get by UTPA

yikes. that was brutal. while a win is a win, this one certainly did nothing to boost NU's sagging confidence. you can read the gory details here, here and here.

they better shake it off quickly though, as Sunday's trip to Ann Arbor is one of two winnable (according to me) games left this month- the other being home vs. Illinois on January 23. last season the Wildcats showed that they're capable of knocking off teams like Michigan State and Purdue, but i'm certainly not going to count on those types of wins, considering how the team has struggled in the past week.

Juice is a little banged up right now, and it appears Carmody has no confidence in his bench, as four starters played 31 minutes or more last night. of course, the bench isn't really giving him a reason to be confident. Marcotullio went 0-5 from the floor with four turnovers while Curletti and Rowley combined in 16 minutes for more fouls (5) than than rebounds (4) or points (3).

probably the biggest disappointment from last night is Lindsey Willhite's note that NU wasn't effective in the 2-3 zone. at least Carmody recognizes that a 1-3-1 backline of Michael Thompson will not be effective against JuJuan Johnson, DeShawn Sims or the Buzzcuts, but if NU can't stop anyone with the 2-3 either, then what's the difference?