It's almost basketball season! (Never mind the fact that Northwestern has already played Texas-Pan American. I mean, you probably already weren't minding it, but whatever.) Sippin' on Purple attempts to figure out what will happen in a series of posts about NU's upcoming season.
Post one: How will NU replace Juice Thompson?
Post two: How much love will John Shurna get? Post three: Big Ten basketball preview Post four: What should NU do with Bill Carmody?
Northwestern is a pretty decently good basketball team. Unfortunately, we play in a pretty decently good basketball conference: Ohio State is super-good. Some other teams are less good but still good.
Where does Northwestern slot in with all the goodness? We have our opinions after the jump, but tell us what y'all feel.
Where will NU finish in the Big Ten?
MountainTiger
I'm getting more out of my depth here. Let's say 8-10; in line with the last few seasons, NU is at the bottom of the middle of the pack. Shurna is a fine player, but new point guards are a scary thing.
Herman
I don't religiously follow the rest of the conference, when it comes to basketball, so I don't know too much about the other teams. All I know is that Loretta has posted four Big Ten team previews in his predicted reverse order of finish, and NU hasn't been one of them. That puts them in the middle of the pack. I'll say NU goes 9-9 in the Big Ten and makes the tournament for the first time. Why not?
Loretta8
My initial prediction was 7th but I was banking on JerShon Cobb having a breakout sophomore year and as I said above, that probably won't happen. I guess I'll stick with 7th but I think 8th or worse is far more likely than 6th or better.
Rodger
Seventh. I think there's a clear gap between the bottom four teams in the conference - Nebraska, Indiana, Penn State, and Iowa, in whatever order - and the other eight. NU should be able to piece together six wins just from those opponents. I think the Cats are better than Minnesota but not by much - that's a nice season split right there. I'll give NU two more wins out of the other 10 games to go 8-10 in conference, but with a conference with four teams practically gifting the other eight wins, that won't be enough to crack the top half of the conference.
