The Bernstein Brief: Northwestern's Win A Good Sign
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) It's that time of year again already, the annual point at which we declare the reasonable possibility that Northwestern's basketball team could finally earn an NCAA Tournament berth.
I've no idea how good Wake Forest is yet and you don't either, but beating the Demon Deacons in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge is better than losing to them. The Wildcats are 5-2 after the 65-58 final in Evanston on Monday night, and Chris Collins's team is playing the kind of responsible complementary basketball on both ends of the floor that should serve it well in conference play.
Usually soon after I say such things, somebody important gets hurt, so here's hoping the hand injury center Dererk Pardon suffered Monday is as minor as Collins thinks it is. The other consistent occurrence has often been opponents' ability to rely on one or two more talented players to control action at the ends of games, but junior Bryant McIntosh and sophomore forward Vic Law might be ready to rise to enough of those occasions.
I'll end up being right one of these seasons.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.