Luck Of The 'Cats - NU Stuns Irish 72-58

Indeed it was a week of weeks as NU put an exclamation point in the hoops world with a stunning upset of #23 Notre Dame 72-58. On the heels of the 'Cats 33-31 over #16 Wisconsin last Saturday and the women's hoops upset of #15 DePaul (sadly, NU dropped a bad one tonight to College of Charleston 54-50), the fantastic week triumverate is complete. Almost. NU now plays Iowa State tomorrow night at UIC for a chance to win the Chicago Invitational Challenge.

I'm not trying to blow things out of proportion, but the NU win tonight over Notre Dame is a beyond huge. Northwestern is now 4-1 on the short season, but the confidence is soaring as this team was left for dead in the wake of the news that Kevin Coble was gone for the year. I must admit I thought they had no shot tonight, but Jeremy Nash's relentless D was a key to frustrating All-American Luke Harangody as the 1-3-1 gave the Irish fits (or Fitz). The box score will give all the love to sophomore John Shurna who had an explosive game wtih 25 points and Michael Thompson who had to work extremely hard for every point, but the real story in this game was freshman Alex Marcotullio.

Marcotullio had a career high 13 points, but his three three pointers were all huge and he drilled what was essentially the game-winner from about 23 feet after calling for the ball when ND had trimmed the lead to one with two minutes to go. This was just minutes after Marcotullio had nailed another three to extend the 'Cats lead. I simply love this kid. All eyes were on Drew Crawford earlier this year to help replace the scoring prowess of departed sharp-shooter Craig Moore, but Marcotullio gave me an injection of excitement for years to come with his clutch performance tonight. Equally as impressive was Marcotullio's court awareness as he had a couple of key rebounds and a sweet dish on a penetration no-look assist. I've blasted Coach Carmody for personnel decisions down the stretch last season, but I have to give him credit tonight as his 1-3-1 approach to denying entry to Harangody was the difference. Yes, Luke still muscled his way to 21 points (averages 27) but he was invisible for the entire first half.

This is the type of win that earns national respect for Carmody. It is also the type of win that will pay huge dividends for the rest of December and hopefully create some mojo heading in to the Big Ten season. For all of us hoping the silver lining of this season was the instant maturation of young players and former role players, well, wish granted. The prospect of this team with Kevin Coble NEXT year is intoxicating. If you're in the Chicago area, find your way down to UIC tomorrow night for the championship game against 6-0 Iowa State. The team needs our support and as we continue to try and close recruiting deals for 2010-2011 and beyond these are the type of early season momentum builders that matter. Congratulations to Coach Carmody and the entire Northwestern team for an absolutely huge win. Andy Katz is already tweeting about the fact NU is very much back in the hunt for their 1st NCAA berth. I'm not there quite yet, but man what a win. Click here for the AP story and box score from ESPN.