Northwestern Wildcats 2011-12 Preview
Northwestern Wildcats (18-13, 7-11)
Lost in quarterfinals of the NIT (lost to Washington State 69-66 OT).
Bill Carmody (160-177) heads into his 12th season as the Wildcats’ head coach. He is coming off of two consecutive winning seasons, the first time in Northwestern basketball history.
Projected starting five:
Sr. F John Shurna
Jr. G/F Drew Crawford (2009-10 Big Ten Freshman of the Year)
Sr. C Luka Mirkovic
So. G JerShon Cobb
Jr. G Alex Marcotullio
Important departures:
Michael Thompson: 16.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 4.3 apg, 39.3 percent from 3-point range
Additions:
Assistant coach Fred Hill (former Rutgers head coach)
Outlook:
Northwestern returns four out of five starters, constituting 73.8 percent of last year’s scoring and 84.4 percent of last year’s rebounding. Fred Hill (head coach from Rutgers) also joins Carmody’s staff. Nikola Cerina transferred from TCU where he started 20 games last season. He will have to sit out the 2011-12 year.
Schedule highlights:
The Wildcats fly relatively under the radar this year. A winnable game against LSU could put the team in good position to have momentum heading into their conference match ups. Northwestern takes on Purdue in Evanston for what will be a very important, nationally televised conference game.
