2011 NIT Championship: Northwestern Advances With Win Over Boston College

Well, this was unexpected, but a pleasant surprise. The Northwestern Wildcats, seeded eighth, had a game to be played on the road today, at the No. 1 seed's home court... and they won. NU's 85-67 victory over the Boston College Eagles accomplished two very important things:

• It's the 20th Wildcat win of the season. That ties the school record.
• It's the first-ever second-round postseason win in school history.

The Cats, now in the final eight of the NIT, will have to wait a while to find out the identity of their next opponent -- it will be the winner of the Oklahoma State/Washington State game on Monday night. That game will be on ESPN2 at 10:30 p.m. CDT on March 21. Here's more on today's early-morning win from our SB Nation Northwestern blog Sippin' on Purple:

Pretty much everything went right for NU: Boston College looked like it had never contemplated studying up on the Princeton Offense as Joe Trapani kept looking the other way as John Shurna repeatedly backdoored him for open dunks, and they also were unconscious from three - everybody shot well from downtown, Juice had six threes and 22 points, even Reggie Hearn nailed a three. Luka Mirkovic had the best game I've ever seen him play, going perfect from the field (6-for-6, including a three) - in fact, pretty much everybody had a good game, as all starters finished in double-digits, and NU murdered BC on the offensive boards. The outcome was never really in doubt after Reggie Jackson came out with foul trouble and BC's offense completely stagnated.