Last time I saw a Northwestern and Iowa match up was this past football season in Iowa City. I will not indulge with all the details but, of course, Northwestern won to thwart Iowa’s perfect season. At that time, I carpooled to Iowa City with some hard-core, self-identified “corn-fed” fans. My greatest feat that day was not getting a ticket for face value or free beer from tailgates but getting into the car with my Iowa friends for our ride back home to Chicago.
Fast forward to tonight, when Northwestern hosted …

Once again the wife and I drove to campus. My plan was to attend the Northwestern men’s basketball game versus Penn St. while she worked on campus.
The Game
This was a game Northwestern was “supposed” to win. Penn St. was winless in the Big Ten and Northwestern was on the bubble for their first NCAA Tournament berth in school history. But somebody failed to tell both teams as Penn St. managed their first Big Ten win of the season defeating Northwestern 81-70.
As opposed to Sunday when Northwestern made …

On a Sunday afternoon when the wife was teaching her ice skating students in a competition, I drove to Evanston for the Minnesota at Northwestern game – a typical way to spend Valentine’s Day :-).
Even before today, Northwestern most likely needed to win out the regular season in order to have any chance of making the NCAA Tournament. And today was one of those days that made you question whether they could do so.
Minnesota had an 8-point lead at halftime. Northwestern closed that lead to two points 3:54 into the …

Today I attended a sporting event on Super Bowl Sunday (that was not the Super Bowl). Northwestern scheduled their Sunday afternoon game for 1:30 pm CT, which was perfect timing in order to attend the game and still get back to wherever fans were planning to watch the Super Bowl.
The GameNorthwestern got out to an initial 13-2 lead and their lead never dipped below nine points as the Wildcats defeated Indiana convincingly 78-61. This was Northwestern’s first three-game winning streak versus Indiana since the 1930s – there are …

The main reason I bought Northwestern men’s basketball season tickets this year is that the Ultimate Sports Wife is a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University. We met in undergrad at Northwestern so I do have “another” reason to attend. However, with Nicole spending much of her time on campus, I realized that buying season tickets 1) gives her an incentive to go to campus to work, 2) allows me to attend the basketball games and 3) allows us to spend more time together since we are both on campus – …

For the fourth consecutive weekend, I went on a road trip from Chicago. Three weeks ago I drove to Ann Arbor and the last two weekends I spent time in Indianapolis. Yesterday, I drove to East Lansing, MI for the Northwestern at Michigan St. men’s basketball game. As was the case when I drove to Ann Arbor, I wanted to see Northwestern play at Michigan St. I had not seen a game at the Breslin Center. After last night, I have attended a game at nine Big Ten men’s basketball …

Tonight was one of those nights Northwestern needed to win. After moving into the rankings, at #25, for the first time since 1969, Northwestern did not start off conference play well, losing to Illinois and Michigan St. They rallied from 17 points down to defeat Michigan on Sunday and tonight were facing (#13 AP) Wisconsin. A win would give Northwestern some momentum, while a loss would leave them at 1-3 in Big Ten play.
Northwestern had a one-point lead with 5:04 remaining in the game even though they …

Over the past few seasons, I have been slowly attending games at the Big Ten football stadiums and basketball arenas. With a wide-open Sunday and Northwestern traveling to play Michigan at Crisler Arena (a Big Ten arena I had not attended a game at yet), I decided to road trip to the Northwestern men’s basketball game in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The game time was perfect for the road trip. A 2:30 pm ET (1:30 pm CT) start time allowed me to make the drive each way at a reasonable hour – …

Northwestern needed to win tonight after losing two straight to Illinois and Michigan St. Although Northwestern played poorly (19 turnovers and shot 32%), they were able to pull out the victory over Texas-Pan American (who are now 1-16 after the loss) 53-44.
Obtaining TicketsI already had my ticket to the game since I bought season tickets at the start of the season.
Post Game DiningAfter the game I picked up Papa John’s for the wife and myself. My strategy is to attend the Northwestern men’s basketball games while Nicole (a Sociology Ph.D.) …

Today with my season ticket already in hand I headed up to Welsh-Ryan Arena for the Northwestern men’s basketball game versus Stanford. In addition to the men’s game, the Northwestern women’s team was playing Chicago St. at 4:00 pm (an hour after the men’s game ended). The women’s game was free with a ticket to the men’s contest.
ParkingFor the first time I parked on Central St. in front of Ryan Field – there is a section of parking directly west of the main parking lot where four cars can park …