Sorry for the posting delay - stuff is mad real around here.
Before this post begins, I'd like to thank a random, anonymous women I've never met before in hopes she reads this site.
I went to the game with commenter bro Westside Brandon, you know, got on the buses, waited to swipe our wildcards, got ready to go in. Brandon swiped his with no problem. But mine didn't work. I figured it was a screw-up with the swiper - lots of times this happens and they let me in anyway, much like often happened in my days eating at the Hinman Dining Hall. But the dude was a stickler, and sent me over to the will call booth to get a ticket print out. This wasn't an issue for me: it happened to me once at a football game, and they just checked to make sure I was a student, gave me a receipt, and I got to go in the game.
I waited on the line, and realized about half the people on the line were students who had gotten turned away, and the guy behind the counter was sort of giving everybody a hard time, but it's understandable, and everybody got in.
Except me. Apparently, bro, I'm not a student at Northwestern University. That's weird. I fulfill academic requirements, I live on campus, my parents receive bills here, and I just received an invoice for financial aid from here. I go here. I'm a student at Northwestern University and part of my tuition is for attending athletic events. It says that on the bill they send you. It's not much, certainly less than the hundreds OSU or Michigan students probably shell out to get into lotteries to attend football games, but I pay it, and I was getting told I didn't. After having worked eight hours, commuted for three, and spent the whole time looking forward to seeing a pretty meaningless basketball game which had probably under 5,000 attendees and half-full student sections, well, I didn't handle the situation well. I don't know what error in the system was happening - I attended a game two weeks ago against MSU, no problem - and I know the guy behind the counter was just doing his job, but, still. He told me I could pay $29 for a ticket and that if I could prove I was an NU student within five days, I'd get a refund. This wasn't an option because I didn't have $29. So I took out my phone and called my commenter bro to tell him I was probably just going to go home, and that the guy was telling me I wasn't a student.
As I was wrapping up my phone call, a lady emerged from the darkness, holding a single ticket to the game. I thanked her profusely, but eventually, she disappeared into the night. She said she had an extra ticket and heard me bitching on the phone. I don't remember what she looked like, so, in case she or one of her friends is reading: I am forever indebted to you, random woman with a Northwestern basketball ticket. Sippin' On Purple thanks you. You might have lost a game ticket, but you won a more important ticket. A ticket... to my heart. Actually that's not true, I'll just say thanks if I ever recognize you, but it's a metaphorical ticket.
On to the game summary:
• Wait, NU only won that game by 14? What? Dominant performance all game - bummer it's only a 14 point win. Good defense by NU - 60 points on 59 possessions - even if they didn't force a lot of turnovers.
• Then again, maybe it was just Tim Hardaway missing some more.
• I now know that Bill Carmody knows that there are very simple ways to beat the 1-3-1, because he taught them to his team. Michigan busted that nonsense out ONCE, and it was a freakin' nightmare. I have never seen NU play the way they did on that one possession. There were about six quick, decisive passes. Every player acted with a purpose instead of just chilling out and occasionally making backdoor cuts and hitting the cutter. Of course, it led to a wide open three for Shurna.
• I've figured out the problem with John Shurna's ankle: it only allows him to play well against bad defense. Weird. 22 in the first half, only 24 in the game, but, still, 22 in the first half.
• Jershon Cobb had a nasty stepback that got his defender flying. Bricked the midrange, but, whatevs. Rough game for JerShon, but I like the kid
• Drew Crawford's finding his stroke. Still jacking up bad shots, but, well, he's starting to hit the bad shots in addition to the plays he was already making to average double digits.
• Michigan should learn to shoot two-pointers.
• For two teams that pride themselves on not turning the ball over, a very successful night. Only 11 combined turnovers, including Nick Fruendt's last-second, GAME-SEALING steal and layup, and two of them were simply unforced passes to nobody in particular that sailed out of bounds.
• Luka Mirkovic had ten points and eight boards. In actuality, he had six points, eight boards, and two travels that didn't get called. Please refrain from chanting "LU-KA" when he scores - you're encouraging him.
• Do chant "LU-KA" when he's standing at the 3-point line with an open look and not shooting.
• My heckling game was off tonight, probably because I wasn't a real student. Best comment I had was "HEY JOHN HORFORD, YOU MAKE TITO LOOK LIKE AL", a joke with a nearly zero percent approval rating.
• About that, what's up with everybody on Michigan being related to an famous dude? Tim Hardaway Jr., the not-as-good-as-his-dad master of the bricked 3-pointer, Jordan Dumars, son of Joe, John Horford, bro of Al, and of course, Stu Douglass, son of Frederick. (Re-using jokes from twitter: always good.)
• Weak student section turnout. It's almost like a bunch more students showed up and NU's gameday staff told them they couldn't go in for no apparent reason. (I'm not bitter... just wish NU knew their audience.)
• Nice missed dunk, Jordan Morgan. (son of Joe. and J. Pierpont. And Nyjer and jazz trumpeter Lee.)
• Never before have I seen two "AIR-BALL" chants forced to duel. Thanks, Tim Hardaway and Zach Novak!
• The "swing your hands from one side to the other" free throw defense" is getting tired. I propose that every NU fan in the student section simultaneously do the dance and sing the chorus from "Smang It" by Yung Humma featuring Flint Flossy.
•
thats it for now, chumps.