Northwestern 55 Tcu 31 (F)

On Tday +1 the honored invitees battled in the "third round" of the storied South Padre Island Invitational.  The media frenzy built to a fever pitch for this epic semifinal match.  Fans were in such a tizzy that they beat each other to a pulp at the gates and only the few toughest of the tough made it into the stands.  So many fans logged on to watch the video stream that it bogged down to the point of unwatchable.

The game sounded ugly.  NU allowed 31 points which is an opponent's low water mark against a Carmody-coached NU squad.  And that's beautiful to our ears.  Could we finally have a solid defense?  We put it on our Santa Wish List, but Xmas isn't until Dec 25!  Ho ho ho!!!!

Next up is Illinois State of the MVC.  This may be the battle for King of Illinois.  The Redbirds took NIT champs Stanford to OT in the second round which is better than NU fared in the NIT.  They also return four starters; stud frosh Nic Moore who was in the running for Mr Indiana followed his coach Tim Jankovich to SMU.  Hope he likes flaky basketball geniuses who won't be around for more than three years cuz the chances Larry Brown is in Dallas for his senior year are zippo. 

The Redbirds are coached by their version of "Coach Fitzy" -- Dan Muller.  Muller played in Normal, IL under the tutelage of Kevin Stallings.  This is Muller's first year as a head coach having earned some XandO time under Stallings' wing over at Vanderbilt.

This is a tough game for NU.  The teams have similar talent (they are projected on the NCAAs bubble) but the experience factor tilts towards Illinois State.