Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Michigan
Wildcats Face Wolverines in Big Ten Tournament Opener Thursday
3/8/2016 1:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball
| NORTHWESTERN BASKETBALL: GAME DAY INFORMATION | |||||
| DATE | OPPONENT | TIME | LOCATION | BROADCAST | LIVE STATS |
| Thur., March 10 | Michigan | 11 a.m. CT | Bankers Life Fieldhouse; Indianapolis, Ind. | BTN and BTN2Go | GameTracker |
| 720 WGN, SiriusXM 84: Dave Eanet and Joey Meyer BTN: Kevin Kugler, Jon Crispin and Rick Pizzo Social: Twitter (@NUMensBball and @NU_SportsLIVE) | Instagram (@numensbball) | Facebook Game Notes: Northwestern | Michigan Big Ten Tournament Central | |||||
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern opens play at the 2016 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament at 11 a.m. Central time Thursday when it takes on Michigan at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The Wildcats are the No. 9 seed while the Wolverines are seeded eighth. The winner of the contest advances to take on top-seeded Indiana at 11 a.m. CT Friday in the quarterfinal round.
A victory on Thursday would be Northwestern's 21st which would set a school record. In addition to this sesaon, the Wildcats won 20 games in 2009-10 and again in 2010-11. This season is the first time that NU has posted 20 wins in a regular season.
Northwestern is coming off a 65-54 home win over Nebraska in its regular-season finale on Sunday. Seniors Alex Olah and Tre Demps led the Wildcats with 19 and 17 points, respectively, and NU used a 25-4 first-half run to open up a 15-point halftime lead.
The Wildcats finished their regular season with three straight wins, all by double digits. It is the first time Northwestern has won three straight Big Ten games by 10 or more points since 1954.
Northwestern's starting backcourt of senior Tre Demps and sophomore Bryant McIntosh both earned honorable mention All-Big Ten recognition on Monday. McIntosh was a consensus pick of both the coaches and the media, while Demps was selected by the media.
In the lone regular season meeting between Northwestern and Michigan, the Wildcats led for 28 minutes, but the Wolverines used a late rally to defeat the 'Cats 72-63 on Feb. 24 in Ann Arbor. Alex Olah paced NU with 19 points.
Northwestern and Michigan are meeting for the third time in Big Ten tournament play. The eighth-seeded Wildcats defeated the ninth-seeded Wolverines 58-56 March 3, 2005 in Chicago and 10th-seeded Michigan topped seventh-seeded NU 72-51 on March 7, 2002 in Indianapolis.
Scouting Michigan
The Wolverines dropped four of their last five Big Ten games to finish at 10-8 in league play. Michigan is coming off a 71-61 home loss to Iowa on Saturday. Derrick Walton Jr. led the Wolverines with 14 points and 6 assists. He leads the team with averages of 12.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. Michigan ranks second in the Big Ten with an average of 9.7 3-point field goals per game.
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