NU sweeps Indiana, NCAAs dreams alive

Despite the Big Ten schedule makers putting Northwestern in a difficult situation the Wildcats defied the modest odds and won at Bloomington on Sunday. That puts NU's magic number at 4 and keeps open the possibility that NU could still play its way into the NCAAs without winning the Big Ten Tournament.

Next up is the Penn State Ninny Lions who visit the Welsh on Thursday. The Ninnies are Northwestern's nemesis so we have to think NU is the underdog in this game despite the fact that kenpom.com, sagarin, vegas, et al say otherwise.

We continue to hold out hope for a dramatic last ditch run to the NCAAs simply because John Shurna is back (or at least close) to where he was before his string of injuries. We know Coach Carmody isn't exactly Vince Lombardi, but hopefully he has enough sense to point to Johnny's return to form as reason to believe that this team can do it if they take it one game at a time.

That starts with avenging an ugly loss at Penn State (among other losses to our bugaboo). The game is on ESPN2 which should help make the crowd electric. Make it so.