In this post, we move on to an interesting Northwestern team. Earlier, I talked about how teams like
Minnesota and
Iowa have improved over recent years. Northwestern has done the same, but they had an ultimate letdown of a season last year and aren't looking great for next year. Northwestern had some points where they played quite well, such as their victory over eventual #1 seed MSU, but their inexplicable losses derailed the season and ultimately cost them a shot at their first NCAA Tournament berth.
Northwestern had a promising start to their season, starting 10-1 and eventually ending up 15-8. However, they then went 3-5 in their last eight games and limped into the NIT Tournament. The most important part of that 3-5 finish was that they blew two games in overtime and lost a tight game at home to Ohio State. If they had won any of those three games, there's a good chance they would have made the NCAA Tournament. Frankly, they just didn't come up in crunch-time often enough to make a real run.
