Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Host No. 23/24 Iowa Wednesday
1/25/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2005
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EVANSTON, Ill. - On paper, Northwestern is doing the things that head coach Bill Carmody consider essential to good basketball -- at least on offense.
The Wildcats lead the Big Ten in field-goal percentage and three-point FG percentage, showing judiciousness in their choice of shots. Saturday at Penn State, for example, NU hit 11 three-pointers.
Northwestern vs. Iowa
Wednesday, Jan. 26 * 7 p.m. Central
Welsh-Ryan Arena (Evanston, Ill.)
TV: ESPN+ Local (Wayne Larrivee, play-by-play; Shon Morris, analyst)
Radio: WGN 720 AM (Dave Eanet, play-by-play; Bob Hildebrand, analyst)
Northwestern is also taking care of the ball. In Saturday's game, the 'Cats committed just six turnovers, the second time in five conference games they stayed in single digits in that category. Through five Big Ten games, NU is averaging 12.2 turnovers per game; only Illinois (9.8) is averaging fewer.
Despite these positive numbers, Northwestern enters the week with a 1-4 conference record -- which makes this two-game homestand (one of just two the 'Cats will have in Big Ten play this season) so critical.
"This has become a really important week for us," said Carmody. "Saturday was a bad loss for us because we needed it to get some momentum going. We are home, where we have played well, but we are short-handed and we have two tough teams coming in. We need to step up to the challenge."
NU is 7-2 at home this season, with the losses coming to nationally ranked teams. Perhaps more significantly, the Wildcats have been a noticeably stronger defensive team at Welsh-Ryan Arena -- something they will need to be Wednesday as another ranked team, Iowa, comes to town.
"Iowa does not have a lot of depth," said Carmody, "but they have a nice three-pronged attack -- Pierce is a slasher who can score on the drive, Horner is a great shooter, and Brunner is a great inside player. In addition, some other guys are starting to step up in recent games."
Did You Know?
Northwestern is 2-0 under head coach Bill Carmody when hosting a ranked Iowa team. The Wildcats defeated #14/16 Iowa on Feb. 10, 2001, and then beat #17/15 Iowa on Jan. 19, 2002. In all, NU is 6-5 at Welsh-Ryan Arena against ranked teams under Carmody, and the 'Cats have defeated at least one ranked opponent at home during each of his first four seasons.
The Series with Iowa
• Today marks the 153rd meeting between the Wildcats and the Hawkeyes in men's basketball; Iowa leads the series, 103-49.
• NU won both meetings last year (77-68 in Iowa City, 51-49 in Evanston), the first time the Wildcats swept the season series from Iowa since 1959.
• NU head coach Bill Carmody is 4-4 against Iowa, but 3-1 at home including two wins when the Hawkeyes were nationally ranked (69-61 in 2001, 63-50 in 2002).
