Northwestern's Historic Win

Time for me to get personal (*collective groan). Being a kid from Chicago, where college basketball has been dreadful since I was born, Northwestern beating Wisconsin on the road and basically clinching a NCAA Tournament birth for the first time in school history is the biggest thing to happen to college basketball in Illinois since Bruce Weber's 2004-05 Illini got the the national championship. 

For as long as I can remember (and probably longer), Northwestern has been "Chicago's Big Ten team." Most people have added in the "pathetic" between "Chicago's" and "Big." But in a year filled with Chicago revivals (the Cubs winning the World Series, the Bears making the transition from mediocre to awful), Northwestern basketball is another one to add. In ten years, maybe 20, when Northwestern is suiting up for its first Final Four in school history, we can all look back at this day, February 12th, 2017, as the day the run started. 

If Northwestern builds off this win, there's no doubt in my mind that they can be the next Duke. I mean Chris Collins is even a branch on the Coach K tree. They are both great schools in terms of academics, and they are both in power conferences. Okay, maybe the comparison is a bit far-fetched, but don't tell me that with Northwestern's location (Evanston, IL, a short drive from Chicago), coach and academics, that they won't be a basketball powerhouse in the coming years. If you think about it, the basketball success is the only thing keeping them from being a top 25 team, and we might have seen the start of something today. 

#2035NCAAChamps