Northwestern University Athletics
Big Ten Announces 2007-08 Men's Basketball Conference Schedule
8/14/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Aug. 14, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. - For the first time in school history, every Northwestern men's basketball conference game will be televised on a national network, the conference office announced Tuesday. The Wildcats will be featured on ESPN or ESPN2 at least twice during the conference season with the rest of the games airing nationally on the Big Ten Network.
Northwestern will play all but two teams twice as the Big Ten schedule increases from 16 to 18 games. NU faces Penn State once at home Jan. 2 on ESPN2 and Illinois Jan. 27 in Champaign in a Sunday evening contest on the Big Ten Network. Four games on the Big Ten Network follow before hosting Michigan State on either ESPN or ESPN2 on Jan. 24.
The month of February features four games in Evanston and four on the road -- all on the Big Ten Network. After opening the month at Indiana on Sunday, Feb. 3, the Wildcats play three of their next four at home against Minnesota, Ohio State and Purdue. However, three of the next four after that are on the road at Iowa, Michigan and Purdue. They close out the regular-season with two-straight home games against Iowa and Wisconsin.
"The Big Ten Network will help remedy some of the issues we've faced with our mid-week conference games as well as getting more nonconference games on TV," said NU head coach Bill Carmody. "The Big Ten Network is a big positive for Northwestern basketball."
The conference season will conclude with the 11th annual Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament March 13-16, at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. The Big Ten Network will carry Thursday's opening game, one of three tournament contests appearing on the network, along with a pair of Friday night quarterfinal matchups. ESPN2 will broadcast the remaining first round games on Thursday before ESPN carries the first two quarterfinal tilts on Friday. CBS Sports will televise the semifinal and championship games on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
The Wildcats once again feature a lot of youth with only one senior on the roster, but return leading scorer and Big Ten all-freshman performer Kevin Coble who led the Wildcats in both scoring (13.4) and rebounding (5.2) last year. Also back is junior guard Craig Moore -- also an all-freshman performer in 2006 -- who has connected on 113 3FG's in his first two seasons. Senior Jason Okrzesik, junior Sterling Williams and sophomore Jeff Ryan also return to complement a talented pair of newcomers.
One of the newest features of the 2008 Big Ten men's basketball schedule will be wildcard selections on each of the last three weekends of the regular season. These wildcard selections will feature games that will have the most significant bearing on the Big Ten Championship race.
The Big Ten Network, set to launch on Aug. 30, will carry 64 men's basketball intraconference games, nearly two-thirds of the total number of contests. The network schedule will feature a doubleheader every Wednesday night along with games on Tuesday or Thursday nights and a robust package of weekend games, including double, triple and quadrupleheaders. All intraconference games will be distributed on a national basis, which means the end of the split-regional or local broadcasts seen in the past.
"We are thrilled to bring so many great basketball games to Big Ten fans," said Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman. "This schedule demonstrates the value of our programming, and makes the case for it to be distributed as widely as possible. Sports fans will miss some great basketball games this winter if their cable or satellite provider does not carry the network."
Northwestern Men's Basketball 2007-08 Big Ten Schedule
All times Central
| Jan. 2 | Penn State | Evanston, Ill. | ESPN2 | 8 p.m. |
| Jan. 6 | at Ohio State | Columbus, Ohio | BTN | 11 a.m. |
| Jan. 9 | at Minnesota | Minneapolis, Minn. | BTN | 8 p.m. |
| Jan. 12 | Michigan | Evanston, Ill. | BTN | 5:30 p.m. |
| Jan. 19 | at Wisconsin | Madison, Wis. | BTN | 8 p.m. |
| Jan. 24 | Michigan State | Evanston, Ill. | ESPN/ESPN2 | 8 p.m. |
| Jan. 27 | at Illinois | Champaign, Ill. | BTN | 7 p.m. |
| Feb. 3 | at Indiana | Bloomington, Ind. | BTN | 11 a.m. |
| Feb. 6 | Minnesota | Evanston, Ill. | BTN | 6 p.m. |
| Feb. 9 | at Michigan State | East Lansing, Mich. | BTN | 6 p.m. |
| Feb. 13 | Ohio State | Evanston, Ill. | BTN | 8 p.m. |
| Feb. 16 | Purdue | Evanston, Ill. | BTN | 3 p.m. |
| Feb. 19 | at Iowa | Iowa City, Iowa | BTN | 8 p.m. |
| Feb. 23 | Indiana | Evanston, Ill. | BTN | 7 p.m. |
| Feb. 26 | at Michigan | Ann Arbor, Mich. | BTN | 8 p.m. |
| March 1 | at Purdue | West Lafayette, Ind. | BTN | 1 p.m. |
| March 4/5/6 | Iowa | Evanston, Ill. | ESPN/ESPN2/BTN | 6 or 8 p.m. |
| March 8/9 | Wisconsin | Evanston, Ill. | BTN | 4 p.m./11 a.m. |
