What is the highest ranked team Northwestern men's basketball has defeated? Has it ever knocked off a #1 team?
Highest ranked Northwestern wins?
- Thread starter cats_man_too
- Start date
I found the win over #2 Michigan in '77 and maybe 3 or 4 other top 5 victories along with an OT loss to #1 OSU in 2011. Let's make history, Cats!
Beat Michigan State the year the Spartans won it all in 1979. Don’t know how high MSU was ranked at the time, but they certainly proved to be the best team in the nation by the time that season was over.
My freshman year (1967-68) we beat # 3 Louisvile (featuring Wes Unseld) 88-83 at home. That NU team finished in 4th place in the Big Ten. One of the stars was the late Don Adams who played several years in the ABA/NBA
Michigan State was ranked #4 when we beat them that season.
The #3 win over Louisville in 67-68 that purplebirder mentioned.
Beat #3 Minnesota in 72-73.
Beat #5 West Virginia in 2OT in 58-59.
Combined with the aforementioned win over #2 Michigan in '77, I believe there have been 5 wins over Top 5 ranked teams in program history, but none against a team that was ranked Numero Uno at the time.
Last edited:
Louisville and Wes Virginia (with Jerry West) wins were at Chicago Stadium. Minnesota win came in the final game of the regular season and denied Jim Brewer's team the Big Ten title and a spot in the NCAA tourney (only the champion went back then). That and the Michigan State wins were HUGE upsets by NU teams at the bottom of the league.
I have watched a ton of Louisville basketball over the years. Anybody else remember Daryl Griffith?
I am stunned to see them at 3-21 this year. That’s the equivalent of OSU going 1-11 and finishing last in the East Division in BIG football.
GOUNUII
Dr. Dunkenstein! Of course. Denny Crum had some great teams back in the day. The Chris Mack fiasco really destroyed that program. We’ll see if they can rebuild it.
What did Mack do to gut the program? Still, if ever there was a quick fix place to turn it around it would be Louisville.
GOUNUII
Got blackmailed by one of his assistant coaches, alleged that he didn't "create an atmosphere for compliance", and most importantly didn't win enough games.
Chris Mack out as Louisville Cardinals men's basketball coach
As part of his negotiated separation agreement with the University of Louisville, men's basketball coach Chris Mack will receive a $4.8 million buyout, sources told ESPN. Associate head coach Mike Pegues has been named interim coach.
www.espn.com
The win over Minnesota in ‘73 featured Mark Sibley, a very good player who in some ways disappeared down the memory hole, maybe because Billy McKinney came along shortly after Sibley graduated to a brief NBA career.
That’s right.
I’d add that it’s a smaller geographic area of influence than OSU. And it’s with a 1st year coach. If it was not, I’d guess it would be a n even more earth shattering for the faithful than OSU going 1-11.
We’ll beat a #1 team eventually. A win today would certainly help our case to get out of the 8/9 hole in the tournament.
Yes, he was. The core of that Gopher team was involved in the big brawl against OSU the year before.