Monday Sips
by Rodger Sherman on Nov 2, 2009 2:55 PM CST
in Sips
6 comments
It's Monday. My head hurts. Lezz do it.
- BASKETBALL. NU is on the front page of ESPN.com's college basketball section with this thing that you should watch and read. NU starts off the year Wednesday with an exhibition game against Robert Morris, and I've been excited for few things as much as I am excited for the upcoming Northwestern basketball season. Suffice it to say there will be coverage on this site: same old stuff that I gave y'all for football, game threads, all that good stuff. I'll talk about it in the upcoming days, and by next Friday's home opener I'll give y'all good stuff.
- By the way, the autotag function on SBnation thinks I'm talking about Robert Morris, a running back for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. Click that link.
- Mike Kafka: not dead. The Trib talked to Kafka's dad, which is an interesting choice of people to talk to, but he says Mike's fine, and, MIke himself agrees in the Daily Herald. However, the two-deep says Kafka OR Persa, so, damn it all.
- So, bowling: Hail to Purple doesn't like our chances, downgrading us to 40% from 54%, but I do. If PSU and Iowa keep winning, we'll need to be top 8 in the conference to be guaranteed a bid if we win one more game. Those two did their job this week, so let's look: right now there are four teams who are bowl eligible in the conference (Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State, Wisco), one who is mathematically eliminated (Illinois) (MAJOR CORRECTION: the boys from Champaign could still make it to a bowl. Laugh all you want.) one who, real recognize real, isn't getting in (Purdue) and five others. Us, Michigan, and Minnesota have five wins. Minnesota has South Dakota State in two weeks, so they'll get in. UM has oof games against Ohio State and Wisconsin in the final two weeks, but in all likelihood they'll beat Purdue next week and guarantee bowl eligibility. MSU needs two, but they play Purdue in two weeks and Western Michigan in two weeks, so, they will also most likely get in. But Indiana, on the other hand, needs to pull out two wins against Wisconsin, Penn State, and Purdue. And at this point in Indiana football, I'm not even sure they'll get the dub against Indiana. Them, Purdue, and Illinois under the six-win barrier puts us at least in Detroit if the conference's top two can stay BCS-worthy.
- Coach Fitz intense-o-meter. Fitz showed his intensity by actually turning around and pumping his arms up during a pivotal third down last week, and also by generally stalking around the sidelines slapping and yelling at people like a crazed lunatic, but I'm guessing the win deflated him from a record high (since this site) 7.8 intensity level. This week, for a practically unwinnable game against Iowa, Fitz is a 4.4, which includes symptoms such as the ability to crush a beer can on your forehead with both your right and left hand simultaneously.
- Oh, and power poll:
- Iowa
- Penn State
- Ohio State
- Wisconsin
- Minnesota
- Michigan State
- Indiana (I know. I know this is stupid.)
- Michigan
- Northwestern
- Illinois
- Purdue
-
Peace. Iowa's got some good names, so stay tuned.
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What?
Indiana is definitely not #7 on any power poll.
And young ‘un, if you think Fitz will be anything less than a 9.5 on the Intensity Scale goint to Iowa, you clearly do not know Fitz. Fitz hates Iowa. He hates their uniforms. He hates the pink locker room. He hates traveling to their state for the second consecutive year. Fitz’s screen saver is a constantly repeating video of Phillips knocking Shonn Green’s head off. If Fitz could invent a time machine, he’d go back in time and kick Niles Kinnick’s ass, even though Kinnick was a war hero.
Fitz hates Iowa because Gary Barnett infected all the 1995-96 Wildcats with Hawkeye-hatred, something having to do with Hayden Fry stating to Barnett (after a loss in 1994) “Hope we didn’t hurt your boys too bad.”
That’s right, they hoped they didn’t “hurt” our “boys.”
Fitz is a man. He’s (not yet) 40. He drives a Dodge Stratus. He’s a head football coach.
And he’s going to be pissing intensity and excellence all over the pink-tinted porcelain in Iowa’s visitor’s locker room, celebrating a huge upset victory over those hated Hawkeyes after the game on Saturday.
A war hero?
Methinks you hang out on BHGP too much. He was training to be a fighter pilot. Most war heroes, you know, go to war and stuff.
Deus nobiscum, quis contra?
I agree with Chadnudj
1. I guess you put Indiana at #7 either:
- to spite me
- because they played 3 good quarters against Iowa
If it’s the first one, I have no answer except that you have received my spite. If it’s the second, then NU deserves to be much higher thanks to 3 good quarters against PSU.
Put whoever you want above NU except Purdue & Indiana, who should likely be bringing up the rear this week. Michigan doesn’t look too hot, either. Actually, put the bottom 5 in a tie for 11th for all I care.
2. Fitz-o-meter should be much higher: he’s 2-1 vs. Iowa with only the blown 4th quarter lead in 2007 (including 2-0 in Iowa City). As Chadnudj said, he hates Iowa and will have the team pumped up for this one.
3. NU has “no chance of winning”? I’d say NU has a better chance of winning this week than against PSU, and they were tied going into the 4th quarter against them. Iowa’s running game may be worse off than NU’s (3 RBs have gone down this year with season-enders). And they turn the ball over A LOT (Stanzi has 13 INTs). If NU just avoids any major errors they can be in this one until the end, and then, who knows what will happen.
4. Factual Error – Illinois is 2-6 and technically has not yet been eliminated from bowl contention. Although, they do have a date at BCS #5 Cincinnati the day after Thanksgiving that could take care of that. One more loss for Illinois and Purdue will make them ineligible. And I agree that Indiana will likely become ineligible given their remaining schedule.
--
JHodges
http://www.hailtopurple.com/jhodges/
You do realize that Iowa has one of the best TO margins in the country, right?
Stanzi threw an absurd 5 INTs last week. Leading into the game against Indiana, Iowa’s TO Margin was +11. To say that Iowa turns the ball over A LOT is hilarious. Iowa has 17 turnovers on the year, while Northwestern has 19, and those are the numbers after Stanzi decided he would rather spend an entire quarter throwing to the other team than his own receivers.
Northwestern has a shot at winning, because, let’s face it, Fitz loves getting this team ready to beat Iowa. However, counting on Iowa to turn the ball over is not a great idea. For Northwestern to win they’re going to have to stay patient and throw short crossing routes all day. The middle of Iowa’s zone is open pretty often. Assuming Clayborn and Co. don’t work their way into the backfield regularly, that is.
by The Mexican't on Nov 5, 2009 5:17 PM CST up reply actions
i have the worst blog ever.
indiana #7 is absurd, obviously, but i’m sticking to my guns.
the fitz-o-meter isn’t subjective people. it’s a very complicated machine that calculates how intense pat fitzgerald is at any given moment. if the readout is 4.4, it’s a 4.4. i do not trifle.
thanks for catching the factual error, i’ll fix it. in medill, that’s an f, so, i shouldn’t be making those.
hope i didn’t lose any readers.
I'm just saying....
…the Fitz-o-meter needs some recalibration if it thinks Iowa week is only a 4.4. Maybe it got whacked out of alignment when Fitz when crazy pumping up the crowd in the 2nd half against PSU….
Plus, with three young boys, you cannot discount the added “Halloween sugar rush” bonus to Fitz’s intensity. I’m telling you, anything less than 9.5 indicates a problem with your machine.
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