<p>Hey,</p>
<p>What are the good NU athletic teams? I am a HUGE fan of hoops and football, so how is northwestern at those (I've heard not so good things about them this year)? I like some of the other sports as well such as tennis, and soccer, so can anyone give me an idea of what people on campus rally around or what ones are powers? </p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Hoops always kinda sucks. NU has decent football team that would make teams like OSU and Michigan nervous sometime; people like it when the team brings surprises, considering the academic standard significantly limits the pool of available recruits. </p>
<p>NU has pretty competitive swimming, tennis, soccer, softball, and lax teams.</p>
<p>NU may have a better football team this year as long as a few key players can stay healthy. The team won the Rose Bowl about 5 years ago! Then there was the very sad turn of events when the football coach died last year just before the season began. That was horrible as he was well loved and respected by the team, the students, the faculty. </p>
<p>Keeping my fingers crossed for some fun, competitive games this year!</p>
<p>A guy from my high school, Mike Capocci, is going to be on the NU basketball team next year, and he is amaaaaaazing. IMHO, of course. :) Hopefully that'll help turn things around.</p>
<p>The football team has won one bowl game, the 1948 Rose Bowl- they made it back to the Rose Bowl in 95 but lost. (wintersilk-I have no idea where you got that they won it five years ago). Since 2000, NU has been to three bowl games (Sun, Motor City, Alamo), but didn't win any of them. NU did beat OSU in 04 so thats not bad...bright future for the team I think tho.</p>
<p>The men's basketball team has NEVER made it to the NCAA tournament...ever.</p>
<p>The best sports are probably women's lax (two time-defending champs) and softball. Two sports no one care about.</p>
<p>Yea, that pretty much sums it up.</p>
<p>A friend told me and I didn't check it out. I'm sorry and, more than that, disappointed.</p>
<p>I LIKE sports. I LIKE team spirit. There's something magical about all of that.</p>
<p>Why is it that a school like Duke can recruit for basketball, but NU can't?</p>
<p>Duke is seen as a basketball powerhouse so it is more attractive to good players, they devote a larger portion of their budget to athletics than northwestern, and duke lowers their academic requirements more than northwestern is willing to for their athletes.</p>
<p>Translation: duke cares</p>
<p>wintersilk,</p>
<p>Duke's success is largely due to two things: (1) coack K who has been there for many years and (2) as elsijfdl pointed out, Duke allows significant academic compromise for BB (last I saw the NCAA grad/SAT stats when they were still available few years ago, their bb players' average was like 900 and the grad rate was hedious). Duke holds other sports to high admission standard like NU, however; BB is its only exception.</p>
<p>^^ except maybe lacrosse? their lacrosse team is (was) also #1 in the nation.</p>
<p>No. Unlike basketball, you don't need to relax academic standard too much to have a competitive pool of recruits to choose from. Lots of the best lax players go to wealthy prep schools in the NE and frequently excel in the classroom also prior to college. That's why you often find the best lax teams in the top-25 schools, including NU.</p>
<p>Duke might relax their standards for their bball recruits, but that is definitely NOT the main reason they are able to recruit and NU is not. Every school relaxes their standards for basketball and football...thats no secret.</p>
<p>The main reason is: a winning tradition. Recruits want to go to schools where they can get a good education and have a chance to be on a winning team. Duke offers both...unfortunately Northwestern only offers the education.</p>
<p>Duke: 31 NCAA Tournament appearances, 3 National Championships (91, 92, 01), 14 Final Four appearances (first one in 1963), 15 ACC Tournament Championships (first one in 1960)..plus this is Coach K's 27th year.</p>
<p>Northwestern: 0 NCAA Tournament appearances</p>
<p>NU, this academic calendar year, has ranked teams in the following sports - lax, soccer, swimming, tennis, softball, fencing, wrestling and golf.</p>
<p>Lax is favored to 3-peat as national champs and the softball team, which lost in the championship game last year, should have another good run with 2 stud pitchers.</p>
<p>The FB team should make it to a good bowl this season - 8 wins or so (as long as Bacher and Sutton remain healthy).</p>
<p>The men's BB team did about as must as anyone could expect with 1 talented player (Coble who made the all-B10 frosh team). Hopefully with Capocci and Thompson and the Croats who red-shirted, they have an outside shot at an NIT bid next year - but they are still a couple of recruits away from an NCAA bid).</p>
<p>The women's BB team used to be good, but has been horrible the past number of years. They'll get a shot in the arm with one of the best incoming freshman classes (which includes a top 60 player). </p>
<p>The soccer team (m) used to be horrible - but they have established themselves as a legit program (lost in the "Elite 8" to the eventual champs 2-3).</p>
<p>The baseball team has been pretty good - but this year they are going to suffer with young pitching.</p>
<p>Volleyball (w) is also competitive.</p>
<p>
[quote]
A guy from my high school, Mike Capocci, is going to be on the NU basketball team next year, and he is amaaaaaazing. IMHO, of course.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Carmody seems to be real pleased with Capocci and Thompson. I hope Capocci doesn't get inflicted with streaky shooting (like Moore) cause Coble is going to need some help next season.</p>
<p>Duke is able to recruit well due to the combination of history of success and lowered admissions standards for BB recruits (they also recently lowered the standards for the FB team in order to try to make it more competitive).</p>
<p>There have been a good no. of players at Duke who never would've gotten past NU's admissions. However, that's no real excuse b/c Stanford is the one school which has maybe slightly higher admissions standards than NU and they have done pretty well in BB of late.</p>
<p>But Stanford didn't achieve any success (on which to build on) til the mid-late 80s (Duke's success happened a bit earlier, but not by much) - the key was that they got that one stud recruit which turned the program around and got them to the NCAAs.</p>
<p>NU has come close to getting to that step a no. of times - but things always seem to go wrong - (i.e. - when Rex Walters transferred, injuries, etc.).</p>
<p>
[quote]
Duke might relax their standards for their bball recruits, but that is definitely NOT the main reason they are able to recruit and NU is not. Every school relaxes their standards for basketball and football...thats no secret
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, you don't know the details of the secret then. It's not about whether school relaxes their standards for basketball and football, it's about how much they do it. Duke relaxes their standard THE MOST for its bb team. If they held the same admission standard for its bb team as its other teams, it wouldn't be able to recruit good numbers of talented players that had been on their teams, as k&s pointed out. I think teams like NU or Stanford have grad rate in the 80s or 90s%. Actually STanford's team had achieved 100% grad rate before.</p>
<p>k&s,
You are right that Stanford shows that you can have a good team without lowering admission standard to the extent (everyone does it; it's a matter of how much) that Duke does. However, that doesn't mean they get recruits with lots of talents. Other than the Lopez twins, the current Stanford's team is made up of players that weren't 5-star (or even 4-star) recruits. Stanford team is never the most talented to start out. That's one of the main reasons the team hasn't gone to the next level.</p>
<p>You listed the ranked sports and expounded on several, but not swimming. What can you tell me about their team(s)?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Stanford basketball has recruited some All-Americans in the past, though not many. </p>
<p>I don't know about NU swimming, but I know NU wrestling is very good.</p>
<p>The men's team is currently ranked fifth. <a href="http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/spec-rel/022607aac.html%5B/url%5D">http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/spec-rel/022607aac.html</a></p>
<p>I don't expect them to be ranked that high next year though as their two fastest and most dominant (the kind more often found at Auburn/Texas/Stanford) swimmers are seniors.</p>
<p>Stanford's basketball team is consistently in the NCAA tournament, and if I'm not mistaken they were a top seed a couple years back. Northwestern has never been in the tournament... big difference. </p>
<p>Another factor that doesn't help NU athletics is that they are in the Big 10 having to play schools like Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Michigan who are consistently top teams in both football and basketball. Having to compete against top programs makes it harder for them to have success and get noticed. Plus unless they are really good they cant get a bid in the NCAA tournament whereas some teams that are in small conferences get automatic bids to the tournament.</p>
<p>What I meant is Stanford's bb could be even better if they lowered their admission standard further. Yes, they were #1 seed when the Collins twins and Casey Jacobsen were on the team. The talent level at that time was unusual, not a norm, for Stanford. I don't mean Stanford doesn't have talent, but it's just never as deep (except the years with the Collins twins and Casey) as teams like Duke or North Carolina which can have 4 or 5 4 to 5-star recruit in a single year.</p>
<p>Actually in basketball, those teams aren't considered elite programs (OSU and Wisc are now playing much better than they had been) if I am not mistaken. Pac10 is just as good and probably slightly better in most years.</p>
<p>I talked to man who owns a midwestern recruiting firm for business professionals and he said that NU belongs in the Ivy League in every way.</p>
<p>But it's not (in the Ivy League) so they have to just do their best competing, athletics wise, in the Big 10. Let's hope there is an exciting fall football season ahead, with healthy players.</p>