Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Start Final Road Swing Tuesday at Michigan
2/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 25, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -
After suffering a pair of heart-breaking defeats last week, Northwestern opens its penultimate week of the regular season at Michigan on Tuesday. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. Central time with Big Ten Network providing live television coverage. Dave Revsine, Gene Keady and Todd Mitchell will have the call.
The game can also be heard on WGN Radio (720 AM) with Dave Eanet and Shon Morris.
Series History: Michigan leads, 93-52
Last Meeting: The Wolverines won the first meeting between the teams this season 78-68 in Evanston Jan. 12. Michigan jumped out to a big halftime lead and then held off a late 18-0 run by Northwestern to earn the win. Kevin Coble paced the Wildcats with 34 points while Harris had 22 points and eight assists for the visitors.
Last Time Out
Kevin Coble scored a career-high 37 points and Northwestern battled No. 15 Indiana in a classic Saturday evening at Welsh-Ryan Arena, but the Wildcats came up on the short end of an 85-82 decision. Northwestern trailed by just one when Michael Thompson converted on a layup with 14 seconds remaining. The Wildcats then trapped Eric Gordon the backcourt and forced a traveling violation, giving the Wildcats the ball back with a chance to go for the win. Following a timeout, Thompson drove the ball from the top of the key and got to the rim, but was unable to convert over the out-stretched arm of Indiana's D.J. White. White was then fouled and hit two free throws to make it 85-82 with 5.3 seconds left. Thompson pushed the ball up the court and launched a pull-up 3-pointer at the buzzer, but it came up just short. Coble connected on 12 of 16 field goal attempts, including five of six from 3-point range while making all eight of his free throw attempts. The Wildcats led throughout the majority of the first half, claiming their biggest lead of nine at 25-16 on a 3-pointer by Jason Okrzesik. Indiana would rally back to cut NU's lead to 37-35 by the break.
Back With a Vengeance
Kevin Coble put forth a dominating performance against No. 15 Indiana on Feb. 23, scoring 37 points. It was the most points by a Big Ten player in a game this season, surpassing his own total of 34 set against Michigan Jan. 12. The total was the most by a NU player since Evan Eschmeyer originally set the Welsh-Ryan Arena record with 37 points in a 69-68 overtime loss to Penn State Feb. 8, 1998. It was the most points by a Big Ten player since Daniel Horton of Michigan scored 39 against Illinois Feb. 21, 2006. Coble hit five of six 3-point attempts against the Hoosiers with the .833 percentage ranking as a tie for the fourth-best performance in school history. Coupled with his 29 points against Texas-Pan American Jan. 30 and the effort against Michigan, Coble is the first NU player since Eschmeyer in 1998-99 to post at least two games of 29 points or more in the same season.
Eighty is (Usually) Enough
Usually, when Northwestern scores 80 points in a game it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that the Wildcats are going to win. However, that wasn't the case in an 85-82 loss to Indiana Feb. 23. NU had won all nine of its previous games under head coach Bill Carmody and 11 games overall when scoring at least 80 points. The Wildcats' last loss when reaching 80 was an 86-84 defeat to Siena in the 1997-98 season opener on Nov. 22, 1997. Northwestern is 30-5 in Carmody's eight seasons when reaching at least 70 points in a game.
A Challenging Slate
According to the Sagarin Ratings, Northwestern entered play Monday with the 16th-toughest schedule to date in the country. Only Michigan (3rd) and Illinois (5th) have played tougher schedules among Big Ten teams this season. The Wildcats have played a total of seven ranked teams already this season, including Purdue, Stanford and Wisconsin once and Indiana and Michigan State twice.
Scouting Michigan
• After losing 13 of 15 games over one stretch, the Wolverines (9-18, 5-10) have since won four of their last five games
• Michigan posted a 49-43 home win Saturday over Illinois despite shooting just 30.4 percent from the field. Manny Harris led the Wolverines with 14 points.
• Harris ranks third in scoring in the Big Ten with an average of 16.2 points per game. Ekpe Udoh's average of 3.0 blocks per game is tops in the conference.
• The Wolverines' norm of 5.0 blocks per contest as a team is first in the Big Ten.
Up Next...
Northwestern remains away from Evanston on Saturday as it plays its final road game of the regular season against Purdue. Tip-off is 3 p.m. Central time with Big Ten Network providing television coverage.
