{"id":50538,"date":"2017-02-01T13:28:08","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T19:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=50538"},"modified":"2017-02-15T09:54:22","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T15:54:22","slug":"northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwestern fans tiptoe toward March Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> By Devin Emory <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">The ghost of seasons past is ever-lingering in the minds of Northwestern students as they are dubiously excited about what their eyes are seeing.<\/p>\n<p>The Wildcats really are good. They actually have a high-percentage chance of making the NCAA tournament and punching their ticket to postseason relevancy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re really excited, but we don\u2019t really want to plan anything for March Madness,\u201d said Dan Sagerman, co-president of the Wildside, Northwestern&#8217;s student section. \u201cWe\u2019re very cautious. When, or if and when that happens, we definitely plan to capitalize.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nThe Northwestern men\u2019s basketball team is off to an 18-4 start (7-2 in Big Ten play) and on pace for the most successful season in the program\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>However, with the misfortune and deplorable seasons of the past, fans and supporters of Northwestern basketball are skeptical about embracing this promising outlook.<\/p>\n<p>David Haghnaji, owner of Campus Gear, an Evanston athletic apparel store, has kept a pulse on community support of Wildcats athletics for the last 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the buzz is about to start now that they\u2019re in the Top 25, but it hasn\u2019t yet,\u201d Haghnaji said. \u201cMaybe if they win the next couple of games, that will make a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though the first-ever NCAA tournament title game was played\u00a0on the Northwestern campus in 1939, the Wildcats and Selection Sunday have never mutually swiped right, leaving Chicago\u2019s Big Ten team\u00a0as a third wheel to the Big Dance since the tournament\u2019s inception.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s undeniable is the path this year\u2019s team is taking,\u00a0evidenced by crowd turnouts for\u00a0recent games.<\/p>\n<p>In Sunday&#8217;s contest against conference foe and college basketball blue-blood Indiana, Northwestern\u00a0claimed\u00a0a 68-55 victory. The students were charged up before and during the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgainst Indiana we ran out of T-shirts 20 mins before tipoff, which is almost unheard of,\u201d said Evan Frost, co-president of the Wildside. \u201cStudents have been coming up to me just excited about the games and telling their friends to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, it\u2019s almost as if the hoopla is happening too soon. Last year, the Wildcats began the season 15-3 before closing on a 5-9 stretch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, I\u2019m superstitious about thinking of Selection Sunday too soon,\u201d said Frost. \u201cI\u2019m very tentative about putting things together for that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Northwestern enters\u00a0February sitting in third place in the Big Ten, one game behind No. 17 Maryland. The Evanston and campus communities are\u00a0intrigued to see if the team sustains its\u00a0momentum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they can hold their space in the Top 25 in February, that would be amazing,\u201d said Haghnaji. \u201cThen, I think a lot of people will become basketball fans.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Northwestern fans try to distract Indiana shooters in Sunday&#8217;s win at Welsh-Ryan Arena. (Stephen Carerra\/NORTHWESTERN ATHLETICS)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Devin Emory The ghost of seasons past is ever-lingering in the minds of Northwestern students as they are dubiously excited about what their eyes are seeing. The Wildcats really are good. They actually have a high-percentage chance of making the NCAA tournament and punching their ticket to postseason relevancy. \u201cWe\u2019re really excited, but we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":393,"featured_media":50571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3516],"tags":[328,2531,752,192],"class_list":["post-50538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-winter-2017","tag-evanston","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-northwestern-basketball","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Northwestern fans tiptoe toward March Madness - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Northwestern fans tiptoe toward March Madness - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Devin Emory The ghost of seasons past is ever-lingering in the minds of Northwestern students as they are dubiously excited about what their eyes are seeing. The Wildcats really are good. They actually have a high-percentage chance of making the NCAA tournament and punching their ticket to postseason relevancy. \u201cWe\u2019re really excited, but we [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-01T19:28:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-15T15:54:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/FansNWIndiana.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"733\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"devinemory2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"devinemory2017\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/\",\"name\":\"Northwestern fans tiptoe toward March Madness - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/FansNWIndiana.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-01T19:28:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-15T15:54:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/c069de98e768607134cbf7c32be6f4fe\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/FansNWIndiana.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/FansNWIndiana.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":733,\"caption\":\"Northwestern fans are engaged in distraction tactics at Welsh-Ryan Arena. (Northwestern Athletics\/Stephen Carerra)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Northwestern fans tiptoe toward March Madness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\",\"name\":\"Medill Reports Chicago\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/c069de98e768607134cbf7c32be6f4fe\",\"name\":\"devinemory2017\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39cf20176714fedfff7f3cc6ff27fe3f35306e41ff990f74b9fd34d63daedd99?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39cf20176714fedfff7f3cc6ff27fe3f35306e41ff990f74b9fd34d63daedd99?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"devinemory2017\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/devinemory2017\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Northwestern fans tiptoe toward March Madness - Medill Reports Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Northwestern fans tiptoe toward March Madness - Medill Reports Chicago","og_description":"By Devin Emory The ghost of seasons past is ever-lingering in the minds of Northwestern students as they are dubiously excited about what their eyes are seeing. The Wildcats really are good. They actually have a high-percentage chance of making the NCAA tournament and punching their ticket to postseason relevancy. \u201cWe\u2019re really excited, but we [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2017-02-01T19:28:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-02-15T15:54:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1100,"height":733,"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/FansNWIndiana.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"devinemory2017","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"devinemory2017","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/","name":"Northwestern fans tiptoe toward March Madness - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/FansNWIndiana.jpg","datePublished":"2017-02-01T19:28:08+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-15T15:54:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/c069de98e768607134cbf7c32be6f4fe"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/FansNWIndiana.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/FansNWIndiana.jpg","width":1100,"height":733,"caption":"Northwestern fans are engaged in distraction tactics at Welsh-Ryan Arena. (Northwestern Athletics\/Stephen Carerra)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-fans-tiptoe-toward-march-madness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Northwestern fans tiptoe toward March Madness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/","name":"Medill Reports Chicago","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/c069de98e768607134cbf7c32be6f4fe","name":"devinemory2017","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39cf20176714fedfff7f3cc6ff27fe3f35306e41ff990f74b9fd34d63daedd99?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39cf20176714fedfff7f3cc6ff27fe3f35306e41ff990f74b9fd34d63daedd99?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"devinemory2017"},"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/devinemory2017\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}