Coming up next for Northwestern are Wisconsin and Illinois, the only two Big 10 teams the Wildcats were able to defeat last season.
However, both of those victories came in Welsh-Ryan Arena. This week’s games will be Wednesday night at Wisconsin and Saturday afternoon at Illinois. The Wildcats have lost 57 straight Big 10 road games.
Last season Illinois finished eighth in the conference, Wisconsin ninth and Northwestern 10th.
Unlike NU (5-6 overall and 0-6 in the conference), Wisconsin (11-5, 4-3) and Illinois (12-6, 5-2) have done an about-face.
The fourth-place Badgers’ fast start under new coach Stu Jackson comes as a surprise because this team is almost a replica of last season’s. The offense still revolves around two former Chicagoland high school stars, sophomore guard Tracy Webster of Thornton and sophomore forward Michael Finley of Proviso East. Finley is third in conference scoring with a 21.4 average and Webster is the assist leader with a 6.1 average.
While this will be the Wildcats’ first meeting with Wisconsin this season, they’ve already played Illinois, losing the conference season opener at home 81-71.
One plus for NU is that 6-foot-10-inch senior Charles Howell has returned to the starting lineup. The earlier Illinois game was his first night back after being out eight games with a broken bone in his left foot. He was limited to eight minutes of court time. In last week’s losses to Purdue and Indiana, Howell converted 11 of his 16 shots and three of his four free throws.
