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TAYLOR GANG: In case you didn't notice, Taylor Thornton - who, if you didn't watch the game Sunday, is double plus good at lacrosse - is one of SI's College Athlete of the Year nominees. You can vote for it! (Although she does face a somewhat uphill battle against Brittney Griner.) Girl sorta deserves it: she's not the biggest scorer, but she's huge, extremely fast, and really skilled, capable of dominating whichever facet of the game Northwestern needs her to dominate on any given day. The writeup at SI is worth reading.
However, I do find it exceptionally weird that amongst the five male players nominated for the award is Tyler Thornton, the almost identically named Duke backup point guard. Sure, Thornton seems like a really nice guy, hit a big three at the Maui Invitational two years back, and does lots of charity stuff, which is great, but he averaged 3.6 points per game this year, and while almost everybody else nominated is a senior, dude is a junior. Is there any way this isn't a Taylor Thornton-related typo? Or perhaps they're just trying to claw at Chris Collins' heart. I don't know. Go vote for Taylor Thornton, and not Tyler.
While we're talking lax, Philip Hersh's profile of the team for the Trib is must-read. They sound angry and motivated and I'm super intimidated by all of them.
Soldier Fields: We got ourselves another Northwestern Wildcat-turned-Chicago Bear:
Wanna first give glory to God and thanks to all the ppl whove held me up thru the process. Signed FA w/ the Chicago Bears. #focusingon53 now
— Demetrius Fields (@King_Fields_) May 13, 2013
Saying Fields is a long shot to make the roster. The Bears have 11 wide receivers on the roster - eleven! - and although a lot of them are also longshots, they're only gonna keep five. You figure Brandon Marshall, Earl Bennett, Alshon Jeffrey and Devin Hester are locks. The rest of the guys are either undrafted or, in Marquess Wilson's case, a seventh-round pick, a guy you could cut. But it'll be tough to beat out seven dudes fighting for one spot. Here's pulling for Fields, and here's to the Bears, who have gone out of their way to bring in Northwestern dudes - be it actual players like Corey Wootton, Sherrick McManis, and Nick Roach, or training camp dudes like Eric Peterman. As you can see, they've got the lead in the Northwestern alumni players in the NFL category.
This tub is on fire: EDSBS has been murdering it with tangentially-Northwestern related posts of late. If you dont read them every day, GET OFF MY SITE, but also, click these links: first, a run-down of Ohio State's joke of a schedule:
NORTHWESTERN WILDCATS. The police interviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of ticket holders, but not a single one could recall anything about the game. What they did remember was far more chilling: a three hour Greco-Roman wrestling match between Pat Fitzgerald and Luke Fickell that ended in a tie and both men shouting "BROS FOREVER."
But more importantly, a post almost perfectly entitled IT'S MARK AND HELL IS HOT, running down the Big Ten as rap puns. I guffawed. They also have a prize for Mississippi State's Gator Bowl runner-updom and a new field for Illinois.
Only the hood die young: Michael Bird profiled five teams that "died a good death," and 1995 Northwestern's on there.
BALLLDWIN!: For starters, read Nick Medline's profile of new NU director of basketball operations, Chris Lauten, really worth a read, especially for the fact the Drake-referencing title. Then watch Pat Baldwin talk for a few minutes.
The semi-Rivalry, esq: Sure, bud:
AD Mike Thomas says #Illini were not trying to tweak #Northwestern by scheduling the Evanston event. Says he and NU's Jim Phillips r pals.
— Teddy Greenstein (@TeddyGreenstein) May 14, 2013