Hey, folks. (I know only 80-year olds actually start off conversations with "folks" but, deal with it.) I got a legit preview of Purdue coming up, but first, some quick news:
- Northwestern has an updated depth chart for the Purdue game (as they do for, well, every game) and we're Stephen Simmons-less this week, which is great, because I hate efficient running attacks. Not many changes to speak of on the chart - a few second-stringers have been swapped out with injuries, but nothing major.
- Grahamfiller10 of Rivalry, Esq has a freakin' phenomenal post on Corey Wootton, because SBNation does it big. He basically just watched Corey all game long, and wrote about it. His conclusion is that Corey isn't a step slow from last year, but is drawing way to much attention, and nobody else on the defense is good enough to bail him out and force opponents to stop double teaming him. This would seem like encouraging news, but when you think about it, it's not - if Wootton is up to speed, it means there won't be a Wootton resurgence as the year goes on as many of us have been expecting.
- Also, Syracuse blog Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician, saw something weird going on with CBSsports' ranking of all 120 D-I teams. I also noticed Northwestern a few spots too high, but I wasn't going to say anything about it, because clearly not even the CBSsports people care enough to make it make sense. (Or to update it, considering they actually didn't move Northwestern at all after they lost to Minnesota. They were 71 last week, and they're still 71 this week. I mean, it's gotta be hard adjusting all those teams every single week. I guess that's why CBS is the only organization silly enough to actually do something like this, which would be cool, if they put any effort into it.)
- The other day I told you that we had offered a basketball scholarship to a freshman. Well, someone at the NU basketball department is taking a heavy dose of crazy pills, because, turns out, in addition to that guy, we've offered scholarships to two other freshmen, named Jabari Parker and Alex Foster, both from Chicago. Look, I guess this is how college basketball recruiting works, but, still. I saw "Class of 2013" and immediately thought of all the freshmen I see around campus wearing their class of 2013 shirts - then realized that this was someone in the high school class of 2013. Jesus. That, friends, is what we in the business refer to as "creepy". They'll be freshmen in college when recent recruit Jershon Cobb is a senior. I suppose it's good to see NU competing with other schools like Illinois and Purdue for guys, but if you don't mind, this will be my personal last post on Northwestern's basketball class of 2013 until 2011 at the earliest.
In other news, I got a post coming up later, so stick around.