Northwestern Wildcats Preview

Date: January 25th - 7:00 PM - Evansville, IL - Welsh Ryan Arena

2016-17 Record: 16-4 (5-2 Big Ten)

Last Meeting: January 8th, 2017 - Northwestern 74 Nebraska 66

Northwestern has become somewhat of a Cinderella team this year in the Big Ten. Their only losses to Minnesota and Michigan State. Both decent games against fairly good Big Ten teams. They’re playing so well that they are currently receiving votes in the top 25.

Yep, the team that is the perennial conference doormat is on the cusp of being talked about for March. This team, who has never once played in an NCAA Tournament game is now being looked upon as one of the Big Ten’s best.

Back in the beginning of January the Wildcats came into Lincoln and beat the Huskers in their own gym. Starting four game losing streak that the Big Red has yet to find a way out of. Mind you they were shooting 51% from the floor while Nebraska was ever so behind with 43%. The Huskers couldn’t by a bucket and the Wildcats couldn’t miss.

Since then Nortwestern has beat the likes of Rutgers, Iowa, and squeaked by Ohio State. Nebraska, on the other hand has lost to Michigan, Ohio State, and Rutgers. All were fairly close games, but losses none the less.

Junior Scottie Lindsay is still leading the team with 16.1 ppg, 4.3 rpg, and 2.7 apg. I’ll remind you that he scored 19 points against Nebraska in their win. Expect much of the same this time around. He is coming off games of 22 points against Iowa and 21 against Ohio State.

Vic Law has had some down games the last couple of weeks but is still a threat on the court. He is currently averaging 14 ppg, 5.8 rpg, and 2.1 rpg. The sophomore forward came out out hard against Rutgers with 23 points but as I said has cooled down a bit scoring just 12 points against Iowa and 10 points against Ohio State.

Both teams seemed to be following different projections since they last played. Northwestern is trending up while Nebraska has slowly been trending down. It will be interesting to see who on the Huskers will show up in Evansville. If the team with scoring droughts and lost looks on defense then the Wildcats will most likely be able to go 2-0 on the Huskers this season. It will take a complete effort by the Big Red to pull one out on Thursday.