Back and Forth: Northwestern
I set foot in the State Farm Center for the first time this calendar year as the ladies took on the Northwestern Wildcats. The boss and I decided to share some texts back and forth while we watched. I braved the cold while he enjoyed the game from his couch. Let's see who chose the better part.
First, we must talk about that Michigan game. It...was not good. We knew we would be significant underdogs against a top ten team on the road, but we did NOT know until just before tip-off that one of our Big Three would be watching from the sidelines. Gretchen Dolan sat out with a knee injury of some sort and a long-shot game got even longer.
The good news: we played them pretty even for the final three quarters!
The bad news: that first quarter was a disaster. Everything that could go wrong did and we were down 27-13 after ten minutes of play. A nice run in the third quarter brought us within five, but it wasn't meant to be that day.
You know, let's just pretend this one didn't happen, shall we? There's more to say, but I think we'd all rather get to the fun stuff.
A much-needed respite in the schedule hit on a cold Sunday with a very mediocre (Torvik #144) Northwestern Wildcats coming to town. The good guys were almost 22 point favorites going into this one so I was looking forward to a laugher after a humbling road trip. The game was far, far more interesting that I had hoped for.
Enjoy the ride with Robert and me. I'll let the boss have the bold text and I'll be in italics. I'll put some contextual comments in parentheses with an asterisk*. Lightly edited to make me sound wittier than I was initially.
Left my driveway: 1:37
Passed Robert's house: 1:41
In my seat: 1:49 for 2:00 tip
Free Parking for the women's games is undefeated.
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Before I look...I'm setting the over/under for purple shirts in the crowd at 15. What are you taking?
There is NO WAY every Northwestern fan shows up in Champaign. :)
(*Good crowd of over 5000 today. DIA is promoting five dollar tix for February 8 game vs. USC with the hopes of a sellout. Let's make it happen.)
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Ooh, local music legend Brandon Washington sang the anthem! Brandon was Simon Iscariot in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar we were both in in the late 90s. Unsurprisingly, he nailed it.
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Still no Gretchen, ugh. Aaliyah starting instead of Maddie. Let's hope this upcoming week off is just what Gretch needs to get healthy.
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You know, the first person I talked to about Shauna Green was the Northwestern coach. I went to basketball media days and had a conversation with him about his former assistant. Unsurprisingly, he predicted great things. And he was right.
Yeah, they honored Joe McKeown just before the game here in his farewell tour before retirement. Must be bittersweet for a coach to see a protege reach heights he/she has never seen. I don't think that's the case here yet...but it will be.
(*For reference, Northwestern has never gone to the Sweet 16.)
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Okay, I'll be extremely generous in my Northwestern fan count...24 folks wearing purple and/or black. Were there that many at the football game in November?
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My first observation about the game: Northwestern has no intention of grabbing an offensive rebound. As soon as the shot goes up, every Northwestern player heads to the defensive end. I get it, and it’s worked before for other Big Ten teams, but it still makes me laugh. Defense is more important than offense.
I'm not sure they have the intention of grabbing DEFENSIVE rebounds either. We're killing them on the boards on both ends. They're fortunate to only be down four at the end of the first.
(*21-17 going into the second quarter)
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Okay, it's officially Dank Meme time.
I’ve officially come around on Dank Meme. Has replaced Riggs Hefeweizen as my go-to local order. These are my beer thoughts for Sunday afternoon.
On my beer run, I was walking the concourse and almost had my head taken off by a T-shirt tosser. I didn't see the sniper who almost got me, but let's get him in Hartleb's bullpen ASAP.
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My goodness, a different Northwestern team this quarter. They're up 31-26 and those 24 wildcat fans are making some noise.
Shauna is not happy.
Destiny has two fouls, but Shauna couldn't keep her out. She's provided a spark.
Feels like the last few games are one big “Gretchen Dolan means a ton to this team.”
Quoth a certain handsome and charming Illiniboard author: "we go as Gretchen goes."
Destiny came back in and we ended the quarter on a 14-2 run.
Man, spark plug indeed.
(*Illini up 40-33 at halftime)
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There is one bathroom at SFC that has a TV screen that perpetually plays the same Illini game from what looks like the 1940s. Perplexing.
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All right, halftime mailbag: gimme three picks for your desert island TV shows. You'll be on this island for awhile, so make 'em good.
Second mailbag question: what happened to our halftime shows? We had some bangers back in the day (the jump rope kids from Ohio were my fav), but now it's nothing but in-house stuff. (Though I do love the baby race)
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Desert island TV shows.
1. Mad Men. Will forever be my #1. Every episode is about something else while still carrying the story forward. Signal 30 remains my favorite episode of television ever.
2. Parks and Recreation. I’ll need to laugh on the desert island and Season 3 of Parks & Rec makes me laugh more than any other season of any comedy ever.
3. Breaking Bad. No explanation necessary.
And for halftime shows, Jesse White Tumblers forever.
Excellent choices. Breaking Bad is the best show of all time, I'll put my comedy as Arrested Development (first three seasons only)...my third could go so many ways, but I'll roll with something with one million seasons to tide me over: Law and Order.
That’s not a bad idea. I should pick Dateline or something so I could watch 53 seasons on the island.
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(*Third quarter begins)
I think that run was 19-2? That'll do.
Yeah, from nervous to “THAT’S more like it” in a flash.
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Today I've heard:
Everybody Dance Now (C & C Music Factory)
Poison (Bel Biv Devoe)
Every Little Step (Bobby Brown)
I'm at my middle school dance again.
That’s middle school for you but high school for me. I want to say Everybody Dance Now was my senior year of high school. So those are prom songs.
Did I ever tell you that the theme to my senior prom was “Still of The Night”? But not the 1950’s doo-wop song; the Whitesnake song.
Goodness, that song hits HARD. In the still of the night, did you "hear the wolf howl, honey?"
I feel like our prom themes were always the latest sappy love song on the radio, possibly including: When I Fall In Love, My Heart Will Go On, etc.
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Berry Wallace is the quietest scorer I can remember. I was wondering if she had hit double figures yet...I look on the scoreboard and she has 17. Where would we be without her?
(*She ended up with a career high 29 points.)
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Man, Northwestern is physical. This is one of those “we are probably going to lose so let’s bother them to no end with shoves and slaps” from the Wildcats.
A tried and true strategy, I've found. They can't call them all and it absolutely frustrates the receiving team.
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Happy for Lety.
Absolutely. Aaliyah, too...if there's a bright side to missing Gretchen, it's getting some extra minutes for her.
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Boy, it's been a weird stretch for Maddie...points in the last five games:
2
22
9
26
3
...and three today. Running hot or cold recently with no in-between.
(*Maddie would end up with three points on 1-10 shooting)
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(*Illini up 58-51 to start the fourth. A comfortable lead started to fade...)
The feed keeps pausing for me so I haven’t gotten to the start of the fourth quarter yet. But I don’t like this Northwestern run. Feels like I need to repeat my “this team needs Dolan” statement.
Uhh, it gets worse. Currently (avert your eyes if you need to) 62-60 with 7:21 to go.
I'm not even going to entertain a loss at this point.
Oh man. I’m currently at 62-55. (gulp)
And it gets gulp-ier. Cats can't miss right now.
I found that I could fast forward to “live” so I’m now at 64-63. Am I gonna have to get up and pace?
Not a terrible idea.
Thank God for our stellar free throw shooting. Still tops in the nation.
Big picture, I’m just clinging to “Dolan makes everything go” right now.
Cling hard, my friend.
Cling hard.
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Crunch time lineup:
Destiny
Berry
Lety(!)
Jas
Maddie
Berry: 29 points
Next leading scorer on the floor: 8 (Lety)
CeCe having such a rough fourth quarter.
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73-71 Northwestern ball with 21 seconds to go. I'm DYING.
No threes, no threes, no threes...
Sending this text blind. Since I’m apparently at least 90 seconds behind you, I’ll check back in at 0.0. See you on the other side.
With the ability to put this thing out of reach, Cece missed the first free throw, made the second...but we get the stop on the final play, thank God.
I SWEAR I heard a phantom whistle on that last shot. No call, it's over. I'm exhausted.
Oh thank God. Great defense in the final 10 seconds to prevent anything but a desperation 32-foot heave.
(*Illini win 74-71)
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I suspect we won't see any social media posts with the players dousing their coach with water in the locker room. More relief than joy in this one.
To be clear, UCLA would have beat us by 40 today, home or away.
And it's more than Gretchen's absence... fortunately Shauna has a full week to figure things out before we visit no. 24 Nebraska next Saturday.
All right, I'm walking out of SFC with a little less pep in my step. Go Illini.
A note from watching this one on TV: I love love LOVED the woman in the front row on Parchment’s free throws. She watched, but she could barely watch. Turned around after the first miss and only peeked at the second free throw. I love fandom. In every form everywhere. Love it.
