Thursday Random Thoughts and Picks

- It's Day 1 of mourning the effective end of the 'Cats season, and FBC weighed in, calling it the worst loss of the Carmody era. He also made a good point about the defensive problems being partially to blame on the fatigue caused by not having a bench. Welsh-Ryan Ramblings brought up the possibility that this team is in danger of missing the NIT. I'm no expert on the NIT selection process, but it seems unlikely to me that they'd be left out; last season they got a #5 seed with a 17-13 record, and I'd be surprised if they fall short of 19 wins this season. Chicago State is all but a guaranteed win and I think they'll win at least one of Iowa, @IU, @PSU. Either way, it's so unbelievably depressing to talk NIT seeding that I may not mention it again. Lindsey Willhite also had an excellent piece on the failings of the 1-3-1 last night.

- Purdue got another huge road win last night at Ohio State to take control of the Big Ten title race. JaJuan Johnson had another big game to lead the way for the Boilers. I do have to call out Purdue fans though. I checked out Hammer & Rails last night to get TMill's take on the big win, and half the comments on his game recap are from Purdue fans who are somehow still upset about a perceived lack of respect from the national media. Never in my life have I seen more whining from a fan base, you are becoming as insufferable as New England Patriots fans in the middle of this decade, who made all the same complaints for no good reason (and as a Pats fan, I am still trying to distance myself from all those idiots). It wasn't very long ago that Purdue had back to back seasons of 7-21 and 9-19, yet these people can't seem to enjoy being in the top 5 nationally. If Northwestern ever, by some miracle, is ranked #4 in the country, I wouldn't care what anyone said about the team. Dick Vitale could go on the air and call Northwestern the most overrated team of all time, accuse their best player of being a child molester, and say every single 'Cats fan was a stupid douchebag, and it wouldn't bother me. I would just laugh and enjoy a great season. So please Purdue fans, stop acting like babies.

Wisconsin at Minnesota (-1). 8 PM central, ESPN

I feel like I am being trapped here, as there's no reason for Minnesota to be favored tonight especially with Jon Leuer potentially returning for Wisconsin. Apparently the bookies have a much lower opinion of the Badger's abilities away from home than I do, as the last line that made this little sense was when Wisconsin played at Michigan a couple weeks ago.

Pick: Wisconsin

Overall Record: 36-30-2
Northwestern games: 14-3