Busting Brackets
Fansided

Northwestern Basketball: 2021-22 season preview for Wildcats

By Holden Walter-Warner

Northwestern head coach Chris Collins holds a clipboard heading into a timeout during a NCAA Big Ten Conference men's basketball game, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa.201229 Nw Iowa Mbb 041 Jpg
Northwestern head coach Chris Collins holds a clipboard heading into a timeout during a NCAA Big Ten Conference men's basketball game, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa.201229 Nw Iowa Mbb 041 Jpg /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 5
Next
Chase Audige Northwestern Basketball (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
Chase Audige Northwestern Basketball (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

Schedule outlook

Many will count out Northwestern this season. The team’s early schedule is very easy, though, which should allow the Wildcats to get off to an attractive start, at least on paper.

Northwestern’s cupcake openers include four straight home games, kicking off against Eastern Illinois on November 9. The next three games include High Point, New Orleans, and Williams’ former squad, Fairleigh Dickinson.

Things get considerably more challenging after that. A Legends Classic opener against Providence gives way to either Georgia or Virginia, the former being the more favorable draw. Then, a trip to Wake Forest for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge before a road conference opener at Maryland. Luckily, the four remaining non-conference games are all at home and all very winnable, with DePaul serving as the lone major opponent left.

Wins may be hard to come by for most of conference play, but Northwestern has a solid stretch of potential victories at the end of the year. Four of the last five games come against fellow bottom-tier teams Minnesota (twice), Nebraska, and Penn State, with a road trip to Iowa breaking up the monotony.

Meanwhile, Northwestern fans may want to avert their eyes from January 15 to January 26. The Wildcats play arguably the conference’s three best teams over those two weeks, all on the road: Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue. Only a home game against Wisconsin may provide brief respite.

Home/Northwestern Wildcats