West Lot Pirates

The 2025 Northwestern Spring Sports calendar closed with a huge flourish this year as the Women's Golf team won their very first National Championship with some incredible golf against the very best in the nation. Lacrosse also played for the title after a massive comeback against BC in the semifinal.

We are fully into postseason mode for Lacrosse and Softball. The Lake Show continues into the NCAA Quarterfinals with a definitive win over Michigan. Now only a date with Penn stands between them and the Final Four. Softball rode the wave of a monster series win at UCLA into the NCAA Tournament where they will head to Clemson for their regional.

It's three straight Big Ten Championships for NU Lacrosse with a couple of dramatic wins over Johns Hopkins and Maryland. Now they await their matchups in the NCAA Tournament as they look to head back to the top of the mountain. We also check in with Baseball and Softball as they both come down the stretch runs of their regular seasons and position themselves for their Big Ten Tourneys.

This week we sat down with NU Lacrosse Head Coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. We're fast approaching the tail end of the regular season and the Cats are firing on all cylinders. Coming up on April 17, they look to set an all time Lacrosse attendance record at Martin Stadium in a huge matchup with Michigan. We talked with Coach Amonte Hiller about this year's team, her career and much, much more.

It's a tradition unlike any other. As the NCAA Basketball tournament tips off, we welcome back Scott Sepich for our 15th annual Bracketology analysis.

As Northwestern Softball is poised to begin their home slate, we sit down with Head Coach Kate Drohan to talk about this year's team as well as some of her coaching philosophy and experiences.

It was Senior Night for the Men's Basketball team this week and it was a memorable one. The Cats made a furious comeback that came up just short after yet another questionable call by the officials. With just one game left in the regular season, the Cats look to punch their ticket to the Big Ten Tournament with a finale at Maryland.

As Lacrosse, Softball and Baseball are getting their seasons started, the Men's Basketball team comes off two very needed wins on the road. Tonight, we dive into all these topics and more.

Softball and Lacrosse have both begun their seasons with an impressive start. Softball went down to Florida and game back with an impressive win over #8 Duke and a 3-2 record. Lacrosse started off strong with convincing wins over Notre Dame and Canisius.

It's our milestone 600th episode! However, it's not all celebration as we need to digest the news that Brooks Barnhiser is out for the season and his Northwestern career is over. We take a look at what that will potentially mean for the Cats as they make their way down the stretch of the Big Ten schedule. We also have the start of the Lacrosse and Softball seasons this weekend so we check in on them as well.

With the Women's Lacrosse season just around the corner, we welcome in Yanyan Li, Managing Editor from InsideNU to catch us up with all the changes in the program. How do the Cats move on from Izzy Scane and Co. to flip the script from last season's disappointment in the Championship game?

Over the past two weeks, the Cats found themselves in two overtime situations, one positive, one negative and finished off with a great win over Indiana. Tonight, we look back at Nicky Buckets' game winning shot, Jalen Leach's ridiculous ejection and the Ty Berry 3 point show. We can also close the book on the 2024 college football season as Ohio State took home the National Championship.

It was a rough week for the Men's Basketball team. After a real physical game at Penn State where the free throw differential was immense, the Cats went down to West Lafayette where they ran into a Purdue squad shooting the lights out. On the bright side, we continue to see incredible returns from the Football transfer portal with some former Jackrabbits coming to Evanston to play for Zach Lujan again.

Happy New Year! We're back after our holiday break with some huge news from the transfer portal. QB Preston Stone tops the December class of incoming transfers and we're excited. We also react to the first two rounds of the CFP and look ahead a bit to the semifinals.

The beginning of December brings the annual mini-conference slate where the Cats went out to Iowa and hosted Illinois. Both games were incredibly close with the Cats taking the split. Now as they head into finals and the holidays, we see just a few more chances to tune up before the Big Ten meat grinder kicks into full gear. We also start to discuss the College Football Playoff and some of the surrounding stories.

Tonight, we sit down with new Northwestern AD Mark Jackson to discuss a wide range of topics: his background, the NIL landscape, the new Ryan Field and much much more.

Prior to the season, we sat down with Lauren Wadas to preview the Field Hockey season. With the magical season they had, culminating in the program's second National Championship, we simply had to have her back on to regale us with stories from their title run. We also look back at the Football team's 38-28 loss to Illinois at Wrigley Field and begin to look ahead to what may need to change in 2025.

Northwestern Field Hockey's magical season culminated with a dominant 5-0 win over St. Joe's to bring home the team's second National Championship. This week, we relive their championship run while also examining the state of the Football team after their 50-6 drubbing by Michigan.

We knew it was going to be a tall task to stay with Ohio State last weekend at Wrigley Field, but Northwestern really turned some heads with the way the offense came together in the first half. Now, Wildcat Nation turns their eyes to Ann Arbor, Michigan as not only the Football team plays this weekend, but Field Hockey is playing in the NCAA Final Four there as well.

As the Cats get set to head into the Friendly Confines to take on Ohio State, we take a moment to reflect on the season thus far and prepare for the final stretch. We also have Field Hockey going into the NCAA Tournament as the #2 seed and Basketball getting underway with a couple early non-conference games.

While it was not the prettiest game ever, you can't take anything away from the fact that the Cats went on the road and got a conference win. We now take stock of the football team going into their last 3 games of the season, while also celebrating the undefeated regular season of the Field Hockey team and the huge season opening win by the Men's Basketball team as they look to get back to the Big Dance for the third year in a row.

Another abysmal offensive performance now leaves the Cats season teetering on the brink. With Purdue also having an epically bad season defensively, this Saturday's matchup features the Resistible Force vs. the Movable Object.

There's really no way to sugar coat this one, this was a bad game for the Cats across the board. Now with a trip to Iowa City coming up this weekend, Northwestern will look to find some consistency on offense and see if they can put a whole 60 minutes together.

10 point underdog? Sure. Let's go with that. Last Friday night, Northwestern made a statement with a huge win on the road against Maryland. Now the Cats come home for their final game at Martin Stadium this year against Wisconsin.

While the result certainly wasn't what we were hoping for, there really are a lot of positives to take out of this game. The offense looked so much better than they did against Washington. Also, you've got to tip your cap to a very talented Indiana squad. Now, the Cats have a short week before they head out to the DMV to take on Maryland.

After a week off, the Cats return home to take on a white hot Indiana Hoosier squad who comes in with their best start since the 1960s.

For Northwestern's first ever conference matchup with Washington, almost nothing went right. The offense was stymied at every opportunity, especially inside the Husky 5 yard line. Now, the Cats have a bye week to rest up and prepare for a white hot Indiana squad next week.

After a shaky start, we saw the emergence of Jack Lausch as he led the Cats to a big win over EIU. Lausch had a perfect 11/11 second half throwing and we saw glimpses of what a fully armed and operational Zach Lujan offense can look like. The next task, take the show on the road out to Seattle to start conference play against Washington.

It was a dark and stormy night. It was a sloppy game all around and the level of play sure wasn't helped by the gale-force winds coming in off the lake. At the end of the day, Duke came away with the double overtime win leaving us all with a number of questions moving forward.

What a way to start the season. Northwestern unveiled the incredible facility known as Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium with a dominant defensive performance as the Cats knocked off the defending MAC champions. Tonight, we break down the game and the entire experience at the Lake.

It's time! After 20 team previews, it's now time for us to turn our attention to our very own Northwestern Wildcats. Tonight, we dive deep into both the offense and defense as we prepare to kick off the season Saturday afternoon against Miami, Ohio.

At long last we come to the end of our Summer Previews, this time with a look at our in-state rival, Illinois. This is a team that struggled on both sides of the ball last year, but will consistency at QB and OC bring them some success?

The defending National Champions underwent a number of changes coming off 2023. But unlike some other schools with changes, Michigan promoted from within. Will they have enough to compete for the crown again?

Coming into 2024 as the AP #2 team in the country, Ohio State has a National Championship square in their sights. But a 3 game losing streak to Michigan has the Buckeyes seeing red. Will their smothering Defense and a Chip Kelly led Offense put them back on top the Big Ten?

For the past 3 years, the Northwestern Field Hockey team has played for the National Championship, winning 1. After last season's heartbreaking shootout loss, the Cats look to climb back on top of the mountain. Superstar Lauren Wadas joins us to share stories from her international journeys and what to look for this upcoming season.

It was a tough first year in West Lafayette for Ryan Walters as he took the reins at Purdue. But with so many returning players, will some consistency help them improve over last season?

After yet another abysmal offensive season, Iowa finally cut ties with Brian Ferentz and brought in Tim Lester as their new OC. The Hawkeye D again looks like a behemoth that will dominate the conference. Will their O bring anything to the table this season?

In year 1 under Luke Fickell Wisconsin underwent a drastic change offensively, switching to an Air Raid system. It did not go as well for them as they'd have liked, winding up 7-6. Will year 2 go better for the Badgers?

So Maryland has some good things and some bad things going for/against them this year. Taulia is gone. That's bad. They're not in the Big Ten East anymore. That's good. They have to travel out to Oregon. That's bad. They skip Michigan and Ohio State this year. That's good. What will that mean for this season? That's what we're gonna find out.

Coming off a rough stretch of seasons since their magical 2020 run, Indiana made what many people feel to be the coaching hire of the season. Curt Cignetti comes to Bloomington with a bunch of his staff from James Madison, but will he be able to turn things around in year 1?

Washington played for the National Championship last year, but in reality, pretty much the only thing that is the same for them as last year may be the uniforms. All new conference, head coach, their entire starting lineup, etc. It'll definitely be interesting to watch them adjust to their new reality.

This is not the same Duke team that we have seen in years past. Lots of changes on both sides of the ball and a big change at Head Coach. Mike Elko is off to Texas A&M and... wait... is that Manny Diaz' music?

We start our look at the 2024 Northwestern schedule with our opener on the lake. Miami Ohio is coming off a MAC championship last year and will be looking to potentially make a run at the Group of 5 spot in the playoff this year. They come to Evanston to try and spoil our Martin Stadium debut.

We get a two-for-one episode here today as we recap the Northwestern segments of Big Ten Media days before taking a look at our FCS opponent for the season, Eastern Illinois.

For the first time in what feels like an eternity, Northwestern fans look at the schedule and will say "Au Revoir Gopher." PJ Fleck's squad has been solid in recent seasons, but how will they adjust to the new non-divisional reality that the Big Ten now finds itself in?

For years we have been force fed the narrative that Nebraska was back only to laugh with glee as they struggled through another .500 season. With Matt Rhule in his second season and an incoming phenom at QB, could this be the year those pundits could be right? Hope not.

Penn St. is such an interesting team this year. They lose so much off the defensive side, including their DC, but the additions they brought in are also phenomenal. Coupled with one of the top returning QBs in the conference, Penn St. could be poised to challenge for a trip to Indy.

Rutgers was in the middle of the pack last year in the Big Ten East. But with a potential upgrade at QB and a favorable schedule, could the Scarlet Knights find their way up the standings in 2024?

Michigan St. saw the huge influx from the Pac-12 and figured they'd get a piece of that action, hiring former Oregon State HC Jonathan Smith to try to get Sparty out of the basement of the Big Ten. How will it go in his first season in East Lansing?

We continue our Summer Previews with the final former PAC-12 team Northwestern does not play this season. Honestly, that's a good thing. The Ducks fly their way into the Big Ten this year with their sights set to the top of the conference. With a solid D and a stud coming in at QB, there's no reason to think Oregon won't be in the mix for Indy come December.

It's a new era for UCLA. New conference, new coach, new membership to the airlines' Diamond Platinum club. The Bruins have a brutal schedule this season in terms of travel, going as far west as Hawaii to as far east as New Jersey. What will DeShaun Foster bring to LA as UCLA joins the Big Ten?