First off, congratulations to the Cats for their 90-65 victory over North Carolina A&T, a game in which they attempted 47 threes. Drew Crawford had an outstanding game, and the Cats showed very little rust after almost two weeks off (the exception being Shurna).

This is the first installment of a weekly feature over-analyzing the week in college basketball, and what it means for Northwestern's tournament hopes. So let's get to it.

The Good:

Wisconsin beating Marquette.

The Pac-10 continuing to struggle (most think the league will receive only one or two bids, which opens up more room for teams like the Cats).

Purdue coming back to beat Alabama (imagine if Purdue comes into Welsh-Ryan undefeated and we beat them).

Indiana knocking off Pittsburgh.

The rest of the Big Ten doing fairly well (except Iowa).

The Bad:

Notre Dame losing to Loyola Marymount (that's a killer).

Iowa losing to Iowa State (yes, we beat the Cyclones, but we play Iowa twice).

Butler losing to Georgetown.

Temple knocking off Villanova, and Xavier beating Cincinnati. The reason this is bad is that Temple and Xavier may be bubble teams at the end of the year, while the Wildcats and Bearcats are probably tourney bound despite these losses. Plus, it hurts Notre Dame's RPI, which in turn hurts Northwestern's.

The Neutral:

Butler beating Ohio State (we'll wind up playing both teams once, so it really doesn't matter).

That's all I can think of. According to cbssports.com, Northwestern's RPI is now 40. That's not bad at this point in the season. I'm feeling pretty good about NU's chances right now. How about you?

Note: I realize I'm analyzing this to death. But what else is there to do in between games?