Evanston, IL - Heading into the game, facing off against a team ranked #8 in the USA Today poll, and who has the 6th best winning percentage in the entire country over the past two season according to STATS, Inc., the Cats had to play an absolutely perfect game.

And not just perfect for ten minutes here, five minutes there, like they've been doing all year, usually followed by a period of a dozen minutes or so where they don't get a bucket. If they played perfect for all 40 minutes, and the Badgers had a bad game, the 'Cats had a chance to be within three or four points at the end.

The Wildcats have played hard all season long even at times when their obvious superior opponents overmatched them. In front off a crowd fitting for a High School J.V. game it looked as if the Iowa Hawkeye’s would breeze through the windy city pick up an easy win then head back west to Iowa City.

“You haven’t been playing that well [this season] let’s see what you can do.” - Northwestern coach Bill Carmody to forward Kevin Coble

Coming off their closest-to-a-Big-Ten-win against Iowa, it was going to be interesting to see how Northwestern responded against the 14th ranked team in the country Saturday night. Many questioned if the Cats would be able to respond to such a challenge, or if they would give in, following a game where their best still was not good enough.

“These guys need a win.” - NU Coach Carmody from a postgame radio interview

Northwestern faced off against the best team in the Big Ten saturday afternoon, and almost - in a Northwestern sense - managed to sneak away with their first Big Ten win. Coach Bill Carmody deserves credit for not letting his kids give up.