More love for Northwestern Basketball from Yahoo!

Jason King ranked NU fourth in the Big Ten with "legitimate NCAA tournament hopes." Furthermore John Shurna is their Big Ten nominee for the "All-Igniter Team."


Most of the rankings out there have NU as anywhere between the 2nd and 7th best team in the Big Ten. On average NU is fourth or fifth strongest team in the conference which is easily good enough for the NCAAs. The bracket project also reinforces these rankings with NU currently set for a 10 bid in the NCAAs.

Yet in the face of objective benchmarks that say this team is good Northwestern fans continue to exhibit a collective psychosis about NU's merits. Posts that downplay NU's wins and trash NU's vanquished foes. Posts that play up the Big Ten and play down NU for lack of balance. Look. It is understandable that NU fans are gun shy given NU's past, but it is a real shame that fans can't unshackle themselves from the past and objectively see that this is a good team. Enough with the downplaying of expectations! It's well overdue for fans to rally around this team and believe that NU will make noise this winter in the conference.

Happy holidays to the team and enjoy the buzz that is building around the program. You have earned it!