Northwestern basketball Big Ten schedule announced

The Big Ten has announced its 2016-2017 basketball conference schedule. Although game times have not been announced, almost all game dates have been.

Here is Northwestern’s schedule, with home games in bold. You can see the full list here.

Dec. 27 — at Penn St.

Dec. 30 — at Michigan St.

Jan. 5 — Minnesota

Jan. 8 — at Nebraska

Jan. 12 — at Rutgers

Jan. 15 — Iowa

Jan. 22 — at Ohio St.

Jan. 26 — Nebraska

Jan. 29 — Indiana

Feb. 1 — at Purdue

Feb. 7 — Illinois

Feb. 12 — at Wisconsin

Feb. 15 — Maryland

Feb. 18 — Rutgers

Feb. 21 — at Illinois

Feb. 25 or 25 — at Indiana

March 1 — Michigan

March 4 or 5 — Purdue

A cursory glance at the schedule shows a few interesting things: the Wildcats play four of their first five conference games on the road. A key stretch for Chris Collins’ bunch will come Jan. 15 to Jan. 29, with three chances for a quality win in a span of four game. The big eight game stretch—Jan. 15 to Feb. 15—will determine whether Northwestern is legit, with matchups including Iowa, Ohio St., Indiana, Purdue, in-state rival Illinois, Wisconsin and Maryland.

By combining this with the non-con schedule, we now have Northwestern’s entire 2016-2017 schedule.