It's Monday. My head hurts. Lezz do it.
- BASKETBALL. NU is on the front page of ESPN.com's college basketball section with this thing that you should watch and read. NU starts off the year Wednesday with an exhibition game against Robert Morris, and I've been excited for few things as much as I am excited for the upcoming Northwestern basketball season. Suffice it to say there will be coverage on this site: same old stuff that I gave y'all for football, game threads, all that good stuff. I'll talk about it in the upcoming days, and by next Friday's home opener I'll give y'all good stuff.
- By the way, the autotag function on SBnation thinks I'm talking about Robert Morris, a running back for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. Click that link.
- Mike Kafka: not dead. The Trib talked to Kafka's dad, which is an interesting choice of people to talk to, but he says Mike's fine, and, MIke himself agrees in the Daily Herald. However, the two-deep says Kafka OR Persa, so, damn it all.
- So, bowling: Hail to Purple doesn't like our chances, downgrading us to 40% from 54%, but I do. If PSU and Iowa keep winning, we'll need to be top 8 in the conference to be guaranteed a bid if we win one more game. Those two did their job this week, so let's look: right now there are four teams who are bowl eligible in the conference (Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State, Wisco), one who is mathematically eliminated (Illinois) (MAJOR CORRECTION: the boys from Champaign could still make it to a bowl. Laugh all you want.) one who, real recognize real, isn't getting in (Purdue) and five others. Us, Michigan, and Minnesota have five wins. Minnesota has South Dakota State in two weeks, so they'll get in. UM has oof games against Ohio State and Wisconsin in the final two weeks, but in all likelihood they'll beat Purdue next week and guarantee bowl eligibility. MSU needs two, but they play Purdue in two weeks and Western Michigan in two weeks, so, they will also most likely get in. But Indiana, on the other hand, needs to pull out two wins against Wisconsin, Penn State, and Purdue. And at this point in Indiana football, I'm not even sure they'll get the dub against Indiana. Them, Purdue, and Illinois under the six-win barrier puts us at least in Detroit if the conference's top two can stay BCS-worthy.
- Coach Fitz intense-o-meter. Fitz showed his intensity by actually turning around and pumping his arms up during a pivotal third down last week, and also by generally stalking around the sidelines slapping and yelling at people like a crazed lunatic, but I'm guessing the win deflated him from a record high (since this site) 7.8 intensity level. This week, for a practically unwinnable game against Iowa, Fitz is a 4.4, which includes symptoms such as the ability to crush a beer can on your forehead with both your right and left hand simultaneously.
- Oh, and power poll:
- Iowa
- Penn State
- Ohio State
- Wisconsin
- Minnesota
- Michigan State
- Indiana (I know. I know this is stupid.)
- Michigan
- Northwestern
- Illinois
- Purdue
-
Peace. Iowa's got some good names, so stay tuned.