First of all, I'm obviously thrilled that we're 9-1. Come Monday, Northwestern may well be ranked in the polls (big wins by Butler and Notre Dame today help the Cats' resume). But this has to stop.

If you watched the game today, you know what I mean. This whole "taking the air out of the ball when we're ahead" thing has to stop.

Does anyone remember the Purdue game? I'm referring to the one we lost. What about the Illinois game?

We were fortunate today. After having a 10 point lead, we allowed Stanford to get back into the game by taking the foot off of the accelerator. In the blink of an eye, it was a 1 point game. I almost started sobbing.

Fortunately, Michael Thompson hit a big 3, and the Cats finally hit some free throws to ice the game. But we won't be so lucky next time. You can count on it.

Teams like North Carolina and Kansas can milk the clock the way we tried to, because they have players that can create their own shot with 5 or less seconds to go on the shot clock. But the Princeton offense is the type of offense that "probes" the defense. Waiting until there's 10 seconds or fewer to try to score is just insane. When NU does that, they usually wind up with a contested jumper instead of a back door layup or an open 3.

If Carmody keeps doing this, we will lose at least one game during Big Ten play that we should win. Maybe more. Haven't you learned your lesson from last year, Cats?