Carmody pushing for NU tourney bid

EVANSTON, IL — Despite yesterday’s difficult 55-52 loss to Minnesota in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament, head coach Bill Carmody and his Northwestern Wildcats are not yet convinced their season is over.

“No doubt, that loss stung a little,” Carmody said. “I just hope the NCAA selection committee can overlook that unfortunate loss and see all the good we’ve done this season.”

The Cats head coach quickly pointed to his team’s 7-5 non-conference record, as well as their snazzy purple and white uniforms.

“Clearly, our conference record [1-17] shows we’re not the best team in our conference, but I would argue we are the best looking,” he said. “And I have absolutely no facts to back this up, but I’ll say it anyway: We’re an awful lot smarter than other, more ‘qualified’ teams.”

Few are as optimistic as Carmody is about the 8-22 Wildcats chances of getting in this year’s tournament, but that has not stopped the coach from calling selection committee members in hopes of getting information about Northwestern’s tournament dreams.

“So far the reactions haven’t been great – a lot of ‘why are you calling me’ and ‘I’m pretty sure this is a blatant violation of NCAA rules,’ but whatever,” Carmody said. “I have to know whether we should schedule a tournament selection viewing party or not. Those things can take a couple of days to plan.”

It’s going to be tough for this sport to sweep any nations, but it’s still pretty frickin’ cool!