Jan. 19, 2004
Illinois Victory
Last week's home win over Illinois was as exciting a game as you'll ever see. The crowd was really into the game, and it was wonderful to see our students storm the court after the final buzzer. It was our first home win over Illinois in 10 years and may have been the best win in Coach Bill Carmody's tenure here. With the addition of a strong recruiting class next year, as well as transfers Michael Thompson (from Duke) and Tim Doyle (from St. John's), the future looks bright for our men's basketball team. The decision of Thompson to transfer to Northwestern is significant as it gives us a prominent local player (he was a McDonald's high school All-American at Providence High School in Joliet), and should help us in attracting the top players from the Chicago area in the future.
Traffic Problems and Solution
Although the Illinois game was great, I was very disappointed to see the terrible traffic backups from fans trying to get into Welsh-Ryan arena. Many fans were not able to get into the arena until well into the first half. Although a Wednesday game against Illinois presents our biggest challenge from a traffic standpoint, this traffic situation is unacceptable and we pledge to make improvements to help our fans arrive to the game in time.
Key staff members and I met last week with Alex Weiss from Northwestern's Traffic Safety Institute, to discuss solutions to these traffic problems. We discussed a number of possible steps that will help alleviate the backups (i.e., encouraging people to enter the parking lots from Isabella [although a portion of Isabella is under construction now] rather than Central, making other changes in the traffic flow, opening the doors to Welsh-Ryan an hour and a half prior to the game [rather than one hour], parking cars in the hospital lot and encouraging people to park on campus and take the shuttle to the game), and will implement a number of these suggestions in the near future. In the meantime, though, there are steps that our fans can take to help the situation.
First, I encourage our fans to arrive at Welsh-Ryan sooner: I know that this is difficult, especially for Wednesday games, given work schedules, but it is really challenging when the vast majority of our fans all arrive right before game time. If we can spread out the arrival of fans, it will help alleviate the backups. Also, please consider taking Metra or the El to the game. The Central Street stops are within easy walking distance of Welsh-Ryan. Again, we apologize for the backups and ask for your patience and support as we work through possible solutions.
Women's Tennis
Our women's tennis looks poised to win its sixth consecutive Big Ten championship. They got off to a good start in their dual match season with a 7-0 win over Eastern Michigan. Also our first doubles team, Cristelle Grier and Jessica Rush, is ranked as the number-one doubles team in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. If you have never been to a tennis match at the Combe Tennis Center, I encourage you to catch a women's or men's match this year. I watched my first match last weekend, and was extremely impressed with the facility. The Combe Tennis Center is as nice a tennis venue as there is in collegiate tennis, and it's a great place for fans to watch tennis.