Northwestern basketball to play in Charleston Classic
by Loretta8 on Jun 2, 2011 3:53 PM CDT
in Northwestern Wildcats Basketball
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Teddy Greenstein essentially confirmed this a couple of weeks ago, but today Northwestern made it official, announcing that the basketball team will play in the Charleston Classic in mid-November. The Charleston Classic is an 8-team tournament owned and operated by ESPN, so fans will be able to watch the games on TV at the very least. The other seven teams are LSU, Seton Hall, Georgia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth, Tulsa, Saint Joseph's and Western Kentucky.
After assembling an embarrassingly soft non-conference schedule last year, it's nice to see Northwestern step it up and get themselves into a pre-season tournament against some BCS schools and strong mid-majors. However, a closer look reveals that this is actually a pretty weak field. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Northwestern is a slight favorite to win this thing. Let's break it down:
2011 Record: 20-14
2011 KenPom: 49th
Obviously Michael Thompson is a huge loss, but everyone else is back and Shurna will hopefully be healthy all season. I think we can at least expect them to maintain their NIT level.
2011 Record: 11-21
2011 KenPom: 227th
I'm not exactly sure what's happened to LSU in the last couple years, but they are awful. Big Baby Davis is not waddling through that door.
2011 Record: 13-18
2011 KenPom: 59th
Despite their underwhelming record, Seton Hall was competitive last year, losing a lot of close games in the tough Big East. But they lose their two leading scorers, including noted chucker Jeremy Hazell.
2011 Record: 13-18
2011 KenPom: 89th
We could see a preview of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge match-up 2 weeks later here, against the underwhelming Georgia Tech team that NU blew out in Evanston last winter. It will probably take a couple years for Brian Gregory to rebuild this program.
2011 Record: 28-12
2011 KenPom: 52nd
You'd think a team that made the Final Four last year would be the clear favorite here, but expect Shaka Smart's crew to take a big step back this season after losing 4 of their top 5 scorers to graduation. The last CAA team to make the Final Four (George Mason) went just 18-15 the year after their miracle run.
2011 Record: 19-13
2011 KenPom: 90th
NU fans will of course remember Tulsa knocking NU out of the NIT in 2009, but they likely won't be as formidable after losing 20 ppg scorer Justin Hurtt. Probably an NIT team at best.
2011 Record: 11-22
2011 KenPom: 183rd
This program has gone steadily downhill since the Jameer Nelson/Delonte West era, and is now one of the worst teams in the Atlantic 10. Phil Martelli has been there forever but may be wearing out his welcome after back-to-back 11 win seasons.
2011 Record: 16-16
2011 KenPom: 225th
It would be fitting if NU were to play the Hilltoppers after the WKU football team flirted with NU's Division 1 record losing streak, but it wouldn't be much of a game as the Hilltopper basketball team has fallen on hard times since Courtney Lee led them to the Sweet 16 in 2008.
So there doesn't appear to be an NCAA tournament team in the field, with only Northwestern, VCU and maybe Seton Hall having an outside shot at it. This is an upgrade from the Arkansas-Pine Bluffs and Mount Saint Mary's of the world, but in order to get a marquee win before Big Ten, Bill Carmody and company will probably have to look elsewhere.
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Finally some good news about this program...
In an offseason that has included losing John Cannon (who I think was overrated) picked UGA over NU, we sign a transfer that was a role player on a bad team in a bad conference, losing a future recruit to Harvard, and not picking up any other major recruits, NU finally does something AWESOME! This is exactly the type of tournament NU needs to be in, against Top 50-75 BCS caliber teams. For everyone on Rivals or this msg board that clamor that NU needs to play Duke, for what reason, to lose by 20. These are the type of games NU needs to play to a) get better, b) for RPI purposes, and c) for some interesting non-conf games. Also, I like the format that we are assured 3 games.
Is this the Maui classic, no, but nor does NU need to be on that stage, let’s win at least 2 games here and take it as a building block. After last season’s embarrasing non-conf schedule, I am more than delighted to see Carmody, Phillips, and the NU program making strides to TRY and make the NCAA tournament.
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Jun 2, 2011 4:04 PM CDT reply actions
"So there doesn't appear to be an NCAA tournament team in the field"...
said the same thing bout the johnnies last year.
this is sick. nu has a chance to put up not two, but three ooc wins in a tournament that’ll be nationally televised (or at least on espn3 or something like that) and will most likely get two games against top 100 rpi teams. way better than the tiny, four team contrived tournaments with only two good teams in em they’ve been in years past.
I like this tournament
There’s not really a great team, but that’s ok because if we’re able to win this thing, our resume will say “Charleston Classic Champion”. Being a Tournament champion makes any resume look pretty good. VCU will get a lot of pre-season attention, but they aren’t going to be anywhere near last year, and we can make ourselves look good by getting this Tournament.
by theresalwayshope on Jun 2, 2011 6:05 PM CDT reply actions
Agreed...
This is a step in the right direction. You’ve got BCS teams as well as some mid-majors with decent reputations. Games on consecutive nights on a neutral court will give us a good look at what hand we’re dealt early in the season.
This is an ESPN sponsored tourney — I wonder if this gets us into that circuit (Old Spice Classic, 76 Classic, Puerto Rico Tipoff, etc).
I hope we can get one more good home and home with a BCS team (doesn’t have to be Duke), and I’ll be happy with the sked this year.
www.massivecreativity.com
Neutral Court
Macarthur hit on it – getting out of the Chicago area will be really good for us in the long run, even if it’s not a money-maker for us. That’s one of my pet issues with our scheduling – we go out of our cocoon once or twice in non-conference play, then we hit the road and even against a lower level Big Ten team, we wilt in those early conference road games if it’s tight at all. The two games in Minnesota the last two years are good examples. I think this will help combat that.
Hope for good matchups
These tournaments are a crapshoot. The Charleston one does not have any team close to the top 25. It would be rare to play the power-conference schools in the first round…which means if we lose early then we might not get a quality opponent. And LSU and GaTech are bottom-dwellers.
This is much better than the alternative against Ark St and UTSA so with the three guaranteed games, on television (recruiting and fans benefit) a nice roadtrip (on neutral court) and a potential matchup with VCU are nice bonuses.
Also, not to jump ahead but do we only have 7 scholarship guys returning (and then add 3 incoming freshmen)….we’ve always had a short bench but isn’t this a big factor?
Funny that this will drastically improve our non-conference schedule.
None of these teams are particularly good, but it gives NU a chance for some solid (?) non-conference wins. I guess it’s a step in the right direction.
by WestsideBrandon on Jun 4, 2011 10:53 PM CDT reply actions
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