No. 4 Northwestern will play No. 5 UW-Milwaukee Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the NIT. (exhales.)
Sigh of relief: not only did NU's season not come to a premature close, but, in somewhat of a surprise, neither did NU's home season: the Cats will host their first NIT home game since I wanna say 1994? This after being projected by two of the three people willing to do NIT bracket projections as missing the field. (No offense to them - NIT bracketology seems very difficult.)
We'll obviously think about this more later. For now, this is really great news, and especially exciting because it means more basketball, as NU was (rightfully) prepared to skip out on a CBI bid if offered one.
Also, my initial looks indicate Milwaukee isn't that great - they are No. 148 on Kenpom with losses to Depaul and Western Michigan. They did beat Butler twice, though.
Let's not lose in the first round this time.