Jan. 30, 2009
NU Game Notes vs. Wisconsin (PDF)
EVANSTON, Ill. -
Northwestern seeks a split of its season series with Wisconsin as the two teams face off at Welsh-Ryan Arena Saturday evening. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Big Ten Network is televising the contest live with Dave Revsine and Jim Jackson on the call.
The game can also be heard at 720 AM-WGN and online at wgnradio.com with Dave Eanet and Shon Morris.
Coaching staffs from both teams are wearing sneakers to help promote cancer awareness as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer campaign, a collaborative initiative of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the American Cancer Society. For a $10 donation to the American Cancer Society, fans can put the name of the person for whom they wear sneakers on the scoreboard to run throughout the game. Sneaker-wearing fans can also demonstrate their support by pledging a dollar for every point the Wildcats score to go towards the Society's cancer research as well as qualify to win new sneakers compliments of Dick's Sporting Goods.
The Wildcats earned the third win in their last four games Wednesday as they held off Indiana 77-75 at home. Craig Moore, who scored a team-high 21 points, hit a pair of free throws with 6.6 seconds remaining to provide the winning margin. Kevin Coble added 19 and stole an in-bounds pass in the waning seconds to prevent the Hoosiers from going for the tying or winning score.
Series History: Wisconsin leads, 107-60.
Last Meeting: Wisconsin led by nine at the half and then used an early second-half run to pull away from Northwestern 74-45 Jan. 7 in Madison. Since the contest, the Wildcats have won three of the last five, while the Badgers have dropped five in a row.
Scouting Wisconsin
The Badgers (12-8, 3-5) are trying to snap a five-game losing streak, the program's longest in 11 seasons. Wisconsin is coming off a tight 64-63 loss to Purdue at home on Tuesday. Sophomore forward Keaton Nankivil paced the Badgers with 21 points while Trevon Hughes added 15.
Senior forward Marcus Landry tops the team with an average of 12.9 points per game, while Hughes contributes 12.3 points per contest. Senior forward Joe Krabbenhoft is the team's leading rebounder, grabbing a norm of 6.9 boards.
Bo Ryan is in his eighth season as the head coach at UW where he has a 185-68 record. He is 568-171 in 25 seasons overall, including stints at UW-Platteville and UW-Milwaukee.
Indiana Game Notes
NU improves to 37-5 under Bill Carmody when scoring at least 70 points in a game ... Indiana had 22 turnovers in the contest, becoming the fifth Northwestern opponent to commit at least 20 turnovers in a game this season ... Kevin Coble had three steals in the game and leads the Big Ten in conference games with an average of 2.38 steals per game ... Craig Moore hit five 3-pointers in the contest to raise his career total to 271 and moving him into a tie with Drew Neitzel of Michigan State (2004-08) for seventh place in Big Ten history.
Hot at Home
Northwestern's 9-2 home record entering Saturday night's contest ranks as a tie for the team's best home mark through 11 games in Bill Carmody's nine seasons as head coach. The Wildcats also started out 9-2 at home in the 2003-04 and 2001-02 seasons. Prior to that, the last time NU started a season with at least nine wins in their first 11 "home" games was the 1982-83 campaign when it played its home contests at DePaul's Alumni Hall while Welsh-Ryan Arena was undergoing renovations. Northwestern is limiting its opponents to 39.6 percent shooting from the floor while forcing an average of 17.7 turnovers per game at home in 2008-09.
Sharing is Caring
Of Northwestern's 418 made field goals this season, the team has assisted on 284 of them or 67.9 percent. That mark ranks third nationally.
Coble, Moore Join 1,000-Point Club
Junior forward Kevin Coble became the second NU player this season and 28th overall to achieve the 1,000-career point milestone when he reached the mark Jan. 28 against Indiana. The decisive basket came on a lay-up with 11:49 remaining in the second half. Senior guard Craig Moore reached the 1,000-point plateau earlier this year when he hit a 3-pointer with 2:58 remaining in the first half against Michigan State Jan. 3. Moore currently sits in 22nd place on NU's scoring list with 1,106 career points, but is just 17 points shy of moving up three spots on the list. He is the third-leading active scorer in the Big Ten behind only Jamelle Cornley of Penn State and Raymar Morgan of Michigan State.
Up Next...
The Wildcats step outside Big Ten play for the final time during the regular season Wednesday as they host Chicago State at Welsh-Ryan Arean. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.