Wildcats, Craig Moore, Beat Brown 73-64

Craig Moore's career highs of 31 points and 9 made threes led the Wildcats past Brown on Saturday night in Rhode Island. I'd like to say I kept great track of this game after seeing the football 'Cats defeat the Illini 27-10 at Ryan Field, but circumstances seemed to intervene to prevent my efforts. As a result, this post will recap my experiences on Saturday. Tomorrow, I’ll have post in which I break apart the box score and try and offer a few thoughts on what’s in there. One interesting note is that Ivan Peljusic seemed to get Curletti’s minutes, but more on that tomorrow. Tonight, let me tell you about my efforts to track the ‘Cats.

After the best post-game celebration I’ve seen at Ryan Field (that includes 2004 Ohio State, amongst others) I wandered down to field level and out of the stadium. Before I left I looked back at Ryan Field and thought about how great the post-game celebration on the field was and how much I can’t wait to see a similar event in Welsh-Ryan Arena. I really believe, and I think today shows, that NU students want to cheer their sports teams. They just need a reason to do so. In the past few years, the men’s basketball team has not provided that opportunity. This year, they might. I hoped as I headed back to our tailgate that getting a road win at Brown might be a small step towards basketball success. After all, any road win is big.

With those thoughts in mind I immediately went to the radio and tried to tune into WNUR. Well, the radio I had apparently worked to good. In addition to WNUR I also was hearing the Beach Boys. Apparently, an Oldies station in Kenosha has a frequency similar to that of WNUR so my efforts to hear Craig Moore and the Wildcats were interrupted by Brian Wilson and his pals. I tried for about fifteen minutes to get only WNUR before I gave up. If I’d been by myself I might have just gone home, unfortunately, my friends and family who transported me to the game weren’t ready to leave. As a result, I only got periodic checks on the game from the car radio. I didn’t want to run it too much as I didn’t want to run down the car’s battery. Of course, I wasn’t the only one using the car for something during the three hour plus tailgate. On the positive side, thanks to our fire pit I felt pretty warm despite my disappointment. Finally, though, we decided to leave around 7:30. As we prepared to get into the car, I figured I’d at least hear the end of the game and be able to offer some logical analysis of the end of the contest. Unfortunately, the car didn’t start. I wasn’t happy. As a result of the car’s battery issue, I didn’t hear the end of the game. For a while, I worried I wouldn’t get home at all. Thankfully, the car got jumped and I got home, but by that point the game was already finished. I was glad, though, when I finally got home to see the ‘Cats had won. Still, I wish I would have seen, or at least heard the game. Those of you who listened or actually went to the game feel free to post some thoughts. I’m guessing the play of Craig Moore was spectacular to watch. I hope his play on Wednesday night is similar.

Go ‘Cats!

Let’s hope this is the year for a bowl game and post-season basketball.