Go, Wildcats, Go

As of this morning, the planets seem to be in the right alignment for the Northwestern University men’s basketball team to get their first-ever NCAA tournament bid.  At the risk of a jinx, way to go, guys.

Long ago, NU earned the reputation as underdog of the Big Ten, with athletic standards more in keeping with the Ivy League.  How odd to think of a school that charges in the neighborhood of $65,000 a year in tuition and board as an underdog.  Truly, we live in strange and interesting times.

In so far as I follow college athletics, I root for NU.  Call me old fashioned, but I want my students going to class and taking their own tests.  If NU football players want to go new school and organize into a union, that’s fine by me, just so long as all they get their degrees. 

I can’t say about the other men’s sports, but NU baseball has developed its fair share of major-league talent.  According to baseballreference.com, 75 NU players have been drafted since 1967, and ten have them have made it to the majors; that number includes pitcher J.A. Happ, catcher Joe Girardi and infielder Mark Loretta.  You might call them a thinking man’s players.

NU coaches tend to be different, from Ara Parseghian and Pat Fitzgerald in football to current basketball coach Chris Collins, son of ex-NBA player and Bulls’ coach Doug Collins.  The younger Collins has recruited a refreshingly rah-rah bunch of players, and his father can be seen in the stands cheering his son on.  Did that ever happen with Bobby Knight or John Calipari or Rick Pitino? 

All I know for sure is that NU basketball players don’t look like they’ve been beaten like dogs or are counting down the days to the NBA draft.  How odd that this could seem quaint or that thinking it a good thing risks being labelled reactionary, if not worse.  We live in strange and interesting times.