a largely unsuccessful scalping journey became largely successful this afternoon when, as nemo and sacks and myself were heading to a closed ticket window to purchase a pair of ducats to see the nucats, sacks asked a gentleman whether he had any extras. gentleman pulled out the extras, said 'take 'em...they're nice seats,' and went in, (intentionally) uncompensated.

so sacks and nemo and i entered the united center (which, by the way, boasts two statues, not just one), and heard that the cats trailed the illini 9-3. we arrived at our seats to see that the cats were down 9-7. but, alas, the next seven minutes would not go well, as northwestern dropped to a 33-16 deficit. they closed the gap to 10 at the half, and played close for much of the second half before stumbling late and succumbing to a 12- or 13-point defeat.

but a good showing for the cats.

(note: northwestern is now 0-1 when I've seen them in person.)

by the way, the seats were excellent. club-level, a fine hoops-watching angle.