Best... Game.... Ever (is BTN replaying it?)
- Thread starter Grafcat
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Unbelievable night of basketball. Demps has ice in his veins. What a great win to cap off the home slate.
20 years ago, in the last home game of the season, NU beat ...the FAB FIVE! Great game tonight, but not in the top 10 of recent memory.
Too many empty seats. As usual.
Which reminds me...
I sit in the back row of the lower bowl so nobody can knee me in the back. With 50ish seconds left and tons of people standing and the scoreboard FLASHING AND URGING people to STAND UP, I do...long with more than half the stadium...
Then I get a tap on the shoulder. It's the usher - asking me to sit down because people in the upper bowl can't see. Swear to FRICKING God. Phillips was standing and clapping almost directly across from me. I wish I had the rhetorical quickness to tell the usher "I'll sit down when our AD sits down". Instead I just said "are you kidding?" and ignored him...
Swear to God. True story. Place going bananas - and the usher takes it upon himself to ask me to sit down - With nobody behind me!!! Only at Northwestern. The Michigan fan next to me (of course) was apoplectic that an usher would do that.
Too many empty seats. As usual.
Which reminds me...
I sit in the back row of the lower bowl so nobody can knee me in the back. With 50ish seconds left and tons of people standing and the scoreboard FLASHING AND URGING people to STAND UP, I do...long with more than half the stadium...
Then I get a tap on the shoulder. It's the usher - asking me to sit down because people in the upper bowl can't see. Swear to FRICKING God. Phillips was standing and clapping almost directly across from me. I wish I had the rhetorical quickness to tell the usher "I'll sit down when our AD sits down". Instead I just said "are you kidding?" and ignored him...
Swear to God. True story. Place going bananas - and the usher takes it upon himself to ask me to sit down - With nobody behind me!!! Only at Northwestern. The Michigan fan next to me (of course) was apoplectic that an usher would do that.
That's the first time the ushers have done anything at all in the stadium. I actually thouht the crowd was great tonight and can't believe a good number of people filed out at the end of the first overtime.
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Actually NU beat the Fab Five MINUS Chris Webber in that game but it was a classic and it was very meaningful. By winning that season ending game (there was no BT tourney then), we finished a game above .500 and that got us into the NIT (that's all it took for a BT team back then). That said, for pure drama, I've never seen the Cats twice come back from the dead at the end of a game like that. Has to be in my top ten and I've been watching since the 50s.
No. Serving your whims is pretty low on my priority list. Sorry. Were you even there? The purple seats were at least 30 percent empty. Student section maybe 20 percent.
It was 21 years ago, and at that point it was the "Fab Four", not the "FAB FIVE!", as Webber had already turned pro. Still a great game. Interesting...looking back at that season, with all its excitement at the end, the team went only 5-13 in conference play. This year's team, so young and inexperienced coming in, with a ten game conference losing streak, is now 6-11. All a matter of perspective....
I watched the end of the game and 2OT's via BTN2Go on my iPhone. What a great game and great win for the Cats. They never gave up. It was raining tres whole whole time I was watching. So exciting! Go Cats!
That's because you can't name ten. Period.
And you lack the balls to retract your comment even though a reporter who has followed NU basketball for 60 years says it's one of the ten best games he's ever seen.
This post was edited on 3/4 2:19 AM by Gladeskat
Yeah I sit in the purple section. My section was packed and for a change the north student section was too. The rafters in 211-213 were also packed to the top, many of which were NU fans. We're you there? I agree with you it's pathetic when anyone tells you to sit, but the geezers that we have complain.
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What the heck does attendance have to do with how good the game was? And I will take "serving your whims is pretty low on my priority list" as "You successfully called me out for my negative nancy nonsense, I can't think of 10 games, I got nothin".
Stupor's gotta Stupor.
It was the Fab 4...Webber had already left...but regardless one of the best wins of any sport at NU. The usher was probably asked by some other fan to tell you to sit down. It happens at NU games all the time...sadly.
Well, everyone is entitled to choose his own "top 10" games....As for me, I fail to see why beating a mediocre (at best) B1G team in OT is 'better' than beating a similarly or higher ranked team in regulation....last I checked, THIS Michigan team has only won twice in their last TEN games...obviously they are struggling, and closer to the bottom of the conference than to the top....Just a few games ago, this very NU team beat IOA also in OT, and IOA is the 4th best B1G team this season....that win should rank higher, right?...NU also beat in regulation Indiana (huge name) which is a bit stronger than Michigan this season, and had won 4 of their previous7 games....Of course the cats have beaten ranked teams in regulation or OT in recent seasons...and have won games that were crucial to get a T-invite...this win will most likely end up being meaningless in the big scheme of things.
All that said, a double-OT win against a mediocre or weak team may be more "exciting" to watch than a regulation win over a ranked team....but more "exciting" doesn't mean "bigger" or more important.
Thank you for the spirit of the original post, Graf. Sports are fun! Awesome!
I can't believe it turns into attendance whining and debating whether it was *really* fun.
I can't wait to see what we complain about when this team is in the tourney next year. ("Is winning 26 games against teams you're *favored* against even impressive at all?")
I can't believe it turns into attendance whining and debating whether it was *really* fun.
I can't wait to see what we complain about when this team is in the tourney next year. ("Is winning 26 games against teams you're *favored* against even impressive at all?")
A packed house matters unless you're a hermit watching the game in your basement. It adds to the atmosphere, which makes the difference between a great game and an all-time great game.
I have serving your whims somewhere between licking the urinals in the Welsh Ryan bathrooms and watching back-to-back episodes of Dance Moms. You don't order me around, and I don't ask "how high" when you tell me to jump. I have the ten, and quite easily at that. It's just that YOU don't get them. Remember them yourself. Or don't. I don't care. I will tell you (because you didn't demand this from me) that in addition to a jam packed, rocking house, the game actually mattering has something to do with it being an all time great game, as does the game being a big upset. Neither applies here. If this was to get into the tournament, it would likely have been the best game in NU history. But it wasn't.
Attendance was 7,673. Last I checked that's very close to a packed house. Lay off the bottle.
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Noah, I saw them honor you on the message board as a senior WildSide member. Congratulations, and I hope you keep going to games as an alum.
The statement was that the game itself was a top ten game. Not that in the grand scheme of things that it was the most meaningful or important game. Just that it was a great game. And on that basis it definitely fits the definition. By your definition, when was the last top 10 game?
That was one of the most exciting and satisfying NU basketball games I have seen in recent memory.
The ridiculous exchanges below about "best" versus "exciting" are just a matter of semantics.
Beating MSU in 1978-79 by double digits, during MSU's championship season, with a lineup of Michael Campbell, Brian Jung et al. versus Greg Kelser, Earvin Johnson, et al....well, that was great. Not exciting, but great. Best.
The ridiculous exchanges below about "best" versus "exciting" are just a matter of semantics.
Beating MSU in 1978-79 by double digits, during MSU's championship season, with a lineup of Michael Campbell, Brian Jung et al. versus Greg Kelser, Earvin Johnson, et al....well, that was great. Not exciting, but great. Best.
A "great game" is not the same as an all-time top-10 game. I mentioned at least two from THIS season that should be ranked higher than last night's, IOA and Indy. From last season, beating then #23 instate rival should be ranked higher than this one also, and the 2OT win against (not so good) Purdue should rank similarly to last night's....winning at Assembly Hall shouldn't rank much lower than last night's game (if at all).
I suppose that winning in Madison against then #14 and eventual NCAA F4 participant Wiscky is likely the most recent strong candidate for a spot among the all-time top-ten games. Unfortunately it ended up being meaningless from the NU POV....
Then again, we made the mistake of beating Wiscky by nine in regulation....if only had we won thanks to a last second desperation trey.....in 3OT....what game that would have been......Right??!!
Again, the statement was not about the importance of the game but whether the game itself was a great game. THe SuperBowl is always and important game but usually the game itself is a dud (this years being an exception) . A lot of last nights games value as a great game is how we got to the point of finally winning it. Any of about 20 plays goes differntly and we do not win. Coming back to hit a last second 3 to tie the game at the end of regulation and then coming back from the dead again down 6 with 16 seconds to go to take it to second OT. Wild crowd that was really into the game and the twists and turns. Olah having a career day and Cobb coming back for Senior day and Demps being Demps. Made it a very special and satisfying win. As a game it was top 10. That is not saying those other games might not have been more important but as far as great games, they do not measure up.
If you want to talk about most important games, it is not there but that was not the original statement.
If you want to talk about most important games, it is not there but that was not the original statement.
I got it now...the key is that we almost became the 3rd victory in the last TEN games for a mediocre-at-best team...having almost lost TWICE...but somehow managing to put their record at 2-8 over their last 10, through last-second heroics in a 2OT win....for sure a top-10 win.
By comparison, since we had the misfortune of beating an eventual F4 team by nine in regulation (at their place) that cannot possibly be a top-10 win for us....TOO EZ!!....and of course our blow-out defeat of PSU does not even deserve consideration...way too boring!!!
See? I did understand after all.
This post was edited on 3/4 2:40 PM by FeliSilvestris