Previewing NW Bball

Submitted by robbyt003 on

ClearEyesFullHart has been slacking, so I'll do my best.  I hope this feeble attempt will motivate him to do these again.  

 

Their leading scorer is Senior guard Reggie Hearn (out for todays game) at 14.5 ppg.  Their second leading scorer was Drew Crawford at 13.5 ppg, and as most of you know, he is out for the year.  Losing Crawford is a huge loss for the wildcats, he was an All BIG caliber player.  
Their leading rebounder is Senior forward Jared Swopshire at 6 per game.  He's listed as 6'8" 210 lbs.  their second leading rebounder is Reggie Hearn.  
They do have a big center in Freshman Alex Olah.  He's listed at 7'0" 275 lbs, but he's only averaging around 21.8 minutes per game.  
 
They have 4 losses on the year:
Maryland( 12-1) at home. 77-57
Illinois-Chicago (10-4) at home. 50-44
Butler (11-2) at home. 74-65
Stanford (9-4) at home. 70-68
 
Wins that stick out to me
@ Baylor (8-4) 74-70
 
Northwestern has always played Michigan tough, but I think we are much too athletic this year and they won't be able to keep up with us.  Plus all of their losses this year are at home, so for some reason they're not playing well there.  
Prediction. Michigan 68 Northwestern 52
 
PS. Did anyone notice Illinois lost at Purdue last night.  68-61
 
edit - thanks cthate
The Wildcats will be without senior Reggie Hearn and freshman Sanjay Lumpkin when they host No. 2 Michigan in their Big Ten opener on Thursday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena. 
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Basketball

Needs

January 3rd, 2013 at 11:44 AM ^

Purdue looked decent last night. Illinois is going to struggle if their secondary shooters don't stop shooting so many 3s (which amounted to almost half of their shots), but Purdue looked solid enough to give good teams trouble at Mackey. They may be figuring out their roles after losing Hummel and a few other guys. Our end of season game there could be a huge trap game, sandwiched between home games against MSU and IU.

As for the game tonight, I'll be shocked if it's close. NU is just too beat up to stay with us, even with THJ out. This game will be a good test of the defensive discipline of the freshman. If Stauskas and GRIII are getting killed by backcuts, it may be reason to worry.

Joined: 08/05/2008

MGoPoints: 11631

superstringer

January 3rd, 2013 at 2:44 PM ^

All those people who mistakenly thought 2012 was "end of the world" based on the 5000 year Mayan cycle were slightly off...

The actual prophecy was, 2012 would be the end of the 5,000 year cycle of Hummel's career at Purdue.

Joined: 02/04/2009

MGoPoints: 17936

WolverineHistorian

January 3rd, 2013 at 11:52 AM ^

What Purdue did to Illinois last night is confirmation that you can't take any game lightly.  And like you said, Northwestern has played us annoyingly close the last couple years, it doesn't matter if the game's at Crisler or their little high school arena. 

I guess I didn't pay enough attention to the Wildcats, though.  I didn't know they won at Baylor.  That's an impressive road win.

Joined: 08/10/2009

MGoPoints: 55442

Wendyk5

January 3rd, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^

Our next door neighbor, who is also a Michigan alum, came up with tickets - $10 each in the floor section right behind the basket. I got 8 of them, so I invited my whole family, all Michigan fans and alums. BUT - and here's the rub - the tickets were procured through our elementary school, who made a deal with NW. We are all requested to wear purple, and cheer for NW because we'll likely be on TV in those seats. I assume this is because the students aren't back yet from winter break. So....my daughter will wear her one Northwestern t-shirt. The rest of us will forego our maize and blue for seats to the game. And we will try not to cheer too obnoxiously for Michigan.

Joined: 11/20/2008

MGoPoints: 67495

LSAClassOf2000

January 3rd, 2013 at 12:25 PM ^

The loss of Hearn tonight could be devastating to Northwestern, as he is one of the three players that literally account for 51% of all their points to date (that included Crawford, who is of course out for the season now), with Hearn himself being responsible for 20% of their total points. I have to think that Michigan wins by a comfortable margin over the somewhat infirmed Wildcats based on that, but as others have mentioned, we've had some brushes, including a win by all of two points last year. Going back further, wins by margins of nine and twelve as well, so in the recent past, these have definitely been competitive games.

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130560

mistersuits

January 3rd, 2013 at 2:58 PM ^

Past performance will have no bearing on tonight's game. We are fortunate our freshman can ease their way into road games with @Bradley and @Northwestern because the next one is @Ohio and we're going to need everyone healthy and ready for that game.

Also, Iowa at home scares me... but not Northwestern this year, especially tonight.

Joined: 01/27/2010

MGoPoints: 4522