Huge Week for Northwestern Basketball as They Approach the Top 25

Everyone knows Northwestern men's basketball has never made the NCAA Tournament. But did you know they haven't appeared in the AP Top 25 since the 1968-1969 season? That's the year my mom was a freshman in college, as in...it was a long time ago. (Just kidding mom!)

Wins over North Florida and Stanford this week could very well propel NU into that rarefied air. Right now, the Wildcats are technically 31st in the country, as they've received 59 votes in the latest AP poll.

Oh by the way, that's more votes than their in-state foe Illinois got from the AP.

Stanford isn't exactly a world beater (they've lost to the likes of San Diego and Oral Roberts), but they're a reasonably talented team that took Kentucky to overtime before losing earlier in the year. Plus, a win over them would give NU non-conference wins over teams from the Big East, ACC, Big 12, and Pac 10.

Another factor that makes this upcoming game against Stanford big, in my mind, is that the Wildcats have not beaten the Cardinal during my time in Evanston. The past three years have featured three pretty close games, all ending with the 'Cats coming up short.

The game will be telecast on the ACTUAL Big Ten Network (not their online stream that charges people money to watch), and the North Florida game is actually on ESPN U. So both games will be visible to interested members of the media, who vote in the AP poll. The last time NU played North Florida was in 2006, and it was an ugly, ugly game.

But the North Carolina A&T game showed one very important thing: this year's version of the 'Cats can blow-out inferior competition. And when I say blow-out, I mean, absolutely obliterate. The 90-65 victory set all sorts of records, including Drew Crawford pouring in 35 points, a NU frosh single-game record. Not only that, but NU hit the most three-pointers in one game in Big Ten history, as they drained 20 from downtown.

Impressive, to be sure, but I'd like to see another dominating performance against North Florida and a comfortable double digit win over Stanford, and then they'll crack the AP top 25.

That would set up their Big Ten opener in Champaign against the Illini quite nicely. NU could possibly go down-state being the ranked team, not Illinois. A crazy turn of events, but as I said before , this team has the heart and talent to make it all the way to March Madness.