2012 NIT: Washington and Northwestern Preview

I promise, I’ll have the coverage on the Oregon Ducks NIT game out staring tomorrow. But we’re playing Iowa on Sunday, and our rivals are going to be playing in a difficult battle today. So, I might as well preview the Washington Huskies game against No. 4 seeded Northwestern. The Huskies may be a No. 1 seed, but our very own Ricky Widmer isn’t optimistic about their chances. Here’s what he had to say.

"Northwestern barely sneaked by Akron after their two point win in the first round of the NIT Tournament. Washington had a much easier game playing Texas-Arlington. This will be a much tougher game for the Washington Huskies. John Shurna was the engine for the Northwestern Wildcats in their first round game as he had a double-double with twenty-three points and eleven rebounds. Northwestern also had two other players in double digit points (Drew Crawford and JerShon Cobb). I am not saying this will be an easy game for Northwestern, but I feel that they will play good enough defense to keep Washington’s Terrence Reed from hurting them in the scoring department."

Hey, don’t worry. I’m not going to over-analyze what my colleague has stated, because I agree with most of it. Just something for you to chew on before I get into some of the hard stuff on the next page. (Yeah, I just pulled that on you.)