nice cats win, nice weekend, nice monday off.

after work friday, took care of some things, then headed to champaign for nu-illinois. the boy's very tidy and extremely well-decorated (a skydome pennant!) apartment was my host, although he wasn't there.

he was nice enough to leave a map for me. a very well-drawn map (he used a ruler and everything). it listed every single street in the vicinity, and marked several points of interest.

the legend on the five-colored map included the following categories:
stadium
liquor stores [it didn't matter, as the fridge was stocked]
burritos
older students [bars catering to the older crowd]
slutty freshmen

needless to say, i was well prepared.

so i met dave and crew out friday night, and we drank some and had a raucous good time. some had a better time than others, and some apparently caused fantastic messes later in the evening. [i stayed at the boy's; they had a room.]

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saturday morning saw me briefly struggle to locate my ticket [my source decided not to come...he answered my second call at 10:20 to let me know, but i still made it happen.]

so i located my ticket, got in the gates about ten minutes before kickoff, and reunited the the friday night crew.

game thoughts:

- very satisfying.

nothing else. it was a nice win. the defense pitched a second-half shutout, the running game was incredibly efficient and, outside of a few drops, the passing game was very strong. basanez played the game like a four-year starter in his final regular-season game.

other thoughts:
northwestern is 14-10 in the conference in the last three years. only michigan, ohio state, wisconsin and iowa have more wins. that's quite impressive, i think.

northwestern went 3-1 on the road in the conference. [they also went 2-2 at home.]

the two teams that northwestern did not play in the conference went a combined 5-11. they did get illinois, but they also got the other five teams that finished with at least five wins. that's worth noting, i think.

i noticed kevin mims on the defensive side of the ball. he made a few pretty nice plays. also, somebody named keegan kennedy (#92) played well. i had not noticed him at any other point this season, but he played some dt. got a sack after dropping into coverage, then reacting to bring down brasic as he was scrambling forward. kennedy may have only been on the field for five or ten plays, but he did a good job.

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bowl thoughts:

selfishly, i'm hoping for a music city berth; that's a driveable game, and probably one i'll try to make it to. also a nice time (i think 4 p.m.), which allows for a day-before drive in, a pre-game night out, and a post-game drive back. or perhaps a second night in town. either way, not a bad trip.

el paso is just not worth the expense for me, i don't think.

program-wise, it would appear that the sun bowl is probably a bit better, although neither will result in a mac or conference usa opponent.

the sun bowl is officially big ten no. 5 against pac ten no. 3. the top four in the pac ten are... usc, oregon, ucla and cal. if oregon heads to the bcs (i'm thinking they just might), it's cal. if not, it's ucla. ucla would result in a national tv audience and a great chance to raise the program's profile against a team that was in the top ten for much of the season. (if oregon does go to the bcs, i'm imagining that an arizona state-northwesetern rematch would not be in the offing. they don't do rematches in bowls, right?)

the music city bowl is officially an sec opponent, although they won't fill their obligation. possible opponents would be acc extras boston college and georgia tech. in light of their win over the weekend, at miami, georgia tech is the preferable opponent. they've also been in the top 25 much of the year, or at least part of the year.

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post game saturday, i fell asleep watching fresno state-usc. great when i saw it. bush is incredible.

sunday, i watched the bears. hit up a high school friend's wedding (sunday night=room 'til ten). today, i headed to the dentist (it's been a while, but i passed), then returned to the port. returning to the view post-festivities on thursday.

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cats' hoops just won. now, some work to do to get things out for tomorrow. sukach sighting tomorrow night? let's make it happen.