Drew Crawford returning to Northwestern for his senior season

Sorry, Missouri and Marquette - Drew Crawford's decided to stick with Northwestern for one last hurrah to finish his career under Chris Collins.

Drew Crawford's potential transfer options: Marquette and Missouri

Teddy Greenstein reports that Marquette and Missouri are the two schools guard Drew Crawford could switch to for his fifth season after a redshirt allowed him the opportunity to transfer.

Is Drew Crawford leaving Northwestern a possibility?

Many have noted that Chris Collins will need to turn quickly to Drew Crawford, to prevent the fifth-year senior from using his final year of eligibility at another school. Should NU worry about his departure?

What Drew Crawford's injury means for the rest of Northwestern's season

In the wake of Drew Crawford's season ending surgery, Northwestern still has a lot of games to be played - 22, in fact. His injury hurts a team that had tourney hopes, but why and how?

Drew Crawford injury: Northwestern "very confident" senior will get fifth season

The silver lining on the news that Drew Crawford was done for the year with a shoulder injury is that Teddy Greenstein and Inside NU report that Northwestern highly believes Drew Crawford will be allowed to play for a fifth season.

My initial worry was that he had played too much time - ten games - to make the 30 percent cutoff for a medical hardship redshirt. Greenstein said that an NU official told him that they had obviously looked into it, and that if Crawford had played one more game, he would have been ineligible. NU grad and Twitterer Eric Mayo found the relevant by-laws and it appears indeed that in a scenario where NU plays no more than the one postseason game they are guaranteed, 30 percent of that year would be 9.6 percent. That can be rounded up to ten, and thus, Crawford will be able to play.

That's good news from all. First off, for Drew: I would've hated to see him end his career this way like Kevin Coble did, and I assume he dreams of playing on the next level, and at this rate, that wasn't going to happen. Secondly, for the team: he's a good player, and they'll get him and JerShon Cobb back. It would've been a fireable offense for Bill Carmody to waste Drew's senior year for ten games when he knew there was a preexisting shoulder injury, so he should be pretty happy too.

We'll talk more about what this means for this year, for Bill Carmody, and for next year later. For now, whew.

Drew Crawford To Undergo Shoulder Surgery, Will Miss 2012-13 Season

WELP. Northwestern's best player, Drew Crawford, will need shoulder surgery and miss the rest of the season, so the NCAA Tournament, maybe not so much.