Pat Forde remains unimpressed

Alex Marcotulio and Luka's facemask appeared briefly on ESPN's college basketball page today. unfortunately the picture was paired with "the Northwesterns of the world are downright sad."

Pat Forde submitted his list of college hoops' underachievers, and Northwestern has moved to the #1 spot. (As Loretta already pointed out, three of the top four are Big Ten teams.) here is what he had to say about NU:

1. Northwestern: Being an egghead school is a proven impediment to winning national titles for everyone but Duke -- but plenty of egghead schools have at least experienced some success. Stanford has gone to a Final Four and been a No. 1 seed several times, and Vanderbilt has become an annual contender in the Southeastern Conference.

Then there is Northwestern.

Despite proximity to a slew of talent, the Wildcats are famously still waiting for their first NCAA tournament invitation. Not first victory; first berth. That's pathetic.

I'm not posting this because it's terribly interesting or tells us anything we don't already know. i just want to point out that when Forde wrote this column four years ago, Northwestern was #5 on the list. so while NU has made three straight NIT tournaments amongst its most successful seasons ever, it has somehow fallen even further behind expectations, at least according to Forde.

On the plus side, one member of the media thinks Jimmer Shurna will lead us to the promised land next season.