Countdown to Northwestern at Penn State

Northwestern travels to The Bryce to take on Penn State at 11:00AM Central on Sunday February 28. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network and radio coverage is on WGN 720-AM wgnradio.com.

The game is being built up as a potentially historic game for NU. This is because Northwestern (18-10, 7-9 Big Ten) is poised to break its all-time record for number of victories in a season. We're not particularly enthused by this potential record setting event because it is a function of having more games played these days as well as a reminder of NU's historical futility. We will be perfectly fine being reminded about this futility in the context of making the NCAAs for the first time, but reaching 19 or even 20 wins is not the same in our book.

Penn State (10-17, 2-13) put the nail in NU's NCAAs coffin for this season when the Nittany Lions visited the Welsh recently and soundly defeated NU for their first Big Ten victory. Penn State followed up that game with an encore victory performance at the Crisler for impressive back-to-back victories on the road. NU hopes to avenge the loss to Penn State just as they did the Iowa loss earlier this week. It won't be easy as Penn State has NU's number.

What to expect? We think a light has gone off with this team in the form of balanced scoring inside and out. This be the difference in this game as NU wins a tough game on the road.

Countdown to Penn State at Northwestern

Penn State travels to The Welsh to take on Northwestern at 7:30PM Central on Wednesday February 17. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network and radio coverage is on wgnradio.com.

Penn State (8-16, 0-12 Big Ten)leads the series 22-11 and has been a real thorn in Northwestern's (17-8, 6-7) side. Despite having similar squads to NU, at least record wise, PSU has won two straight and six of the last seven games.

Penn State is not as bad as its record suggests. They've come up about two or three minutes short in a number of losses. The Nittany Lions are led by likely first team all big ten junior guard Talor Battle. Battle may be a novice when it comes to twitter, but he knows how to chuck it and take it to the hoop.

What to expect? Northwestern very much needs to win this game as its at-large NCAA tourney berth hopes will not survive a home loss to the conference doormat. Penn State will be motivated to win this game as they are tired of seeing that conference record goose egg. However they are probably pointing to the rematch in Happy Valley as their most likely game to grab a win in conference. NU should win this game handily.