This cast of 'Cats anything but mild

Bill Carmody sees it changing. He sees it in the way prominent recruits are starting to take notice of his Northwestern basketball program.

He sees it at a home arena where, suddenly, Northwestern is turning away students - and bothering Big Ten opponents more than providing a second home court for them.

And he sees it in practice.

"The good programs around the league - the Michigan States, the Wisconsins - even their bad guys are good," Carmody said. "Our bad guys were bad before, but now our bad guys are getting better."

Just imagine how good those bad guys might be if the Wildcats ever made it to the NCAA Tournament. The quest for the first bid in school history continues tonight at No. 5 Michigan State.

After breaking a 25-year East Lansing drought with a mammoth upset a year ago, the Wildcats (14-6 overall, 3-5 Big Ten) are going for two straight in Breslin Center.

"That's still fresh in our minds," said Draymond Green, who is hoping to help No. 5 MSU to a 9-0 mark at the Big Ten's halfway point. "And we understand ... with them coming in here and getting a win last year, they actually feel like they can come in here and take a win."

Confidence certainly was a byproduct of last season's 70-63 win in Breslin, Carmody and junior point guard Michael "Juice" Thompson confirmed, but it wasn't the only benefit.

The Wildcats tied a school record with 17 regular season wins and earned the fourth NIT trip in school history. The MSU win was the centerpiece of that breakthrough, and it became an oft-revisited magic moment on the nationally distributed Big Ten Network.

"The Big Ten Network has helped us," said Carmody, a disciple of coaching legend Pete Carril and a winning successor to Carril at Princeton before coming to Northwestern. "Some of these other schools are on TV all the time, but we weren't before (the network). The win at Michigan State, a lot of people saw that. Recruiting has really picked up, we're involved with a lot better kids now."

Drew Crawford is a 6-foot-5 freshman guard who had offers from Wake Forest and Oklahoma State, among others. He's the kind of athlete you haven't seen much of at Northwestern over the years.

In 2010, Carmody will welcome 6-4 shooting guard Jershon Cobb from Atlanta, one of the top 100 players in the nation according to recruiting services. He had offers from Auburn and Cincinnati, among others.

Fans are noticing, too. This is a program marked by extreme futility - a 934-1,364-1 overall record, a 455-981 Big Ten record, and two league finishes above fourth place since World War II.

Northwestern has two Big Ten titles, in 1931 and 1933 under Arthur Lonborg, the school's winningest coach.

Carmody is second on the all-time list. His 95 wins from 2000-07 is the best seven-year stretch in school history.

But he was uneasy after going 8-22 in 2007-08. Some were calling for his tenure to end.

Last season's team, led by junior forward Kevin Coble and senior guard Craig Moore, won at MSU and at Purdue, got to the NIT and may prove to be the turning point in Carmody's tenure.

Hopes were high for this season, until Coble went down just before it started with a season-ending foot injury. Then forward Jeff Ryan blew his knee in the season opener, and it looked like the NCAA push was over before it started.

Carmody told Thompson and forward John Shurna to shoot more to make up for Coble. They have starred, and guard Jeremy Nash and center Luka Mirkovic have stepped up as well.

Northwestern beat Notre Dame and Iowa State in a Chicago tournament, then ripped N.C. State on the road in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The student section is bigger this season, and it was overflowing for last Saturday's emotional win over rival Illinois.

"We had to actually turn students away," Carmody said. "I didn't like that, I said, 'Can't we sneak them in a side door?'"

Next year's team could be the best since the 1930s at Northwestern, with Coble as a redshirt senior and most of the other key parts returning. In the meantime, the Big Ten schedule is about to get soft for the Wildcats after a brutal first half that ends in Breslin.

"We feel like we can do it this year," Thompson said. "The one reason I came here is to be a part of that history. Part of the team that makes the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Being from Chicago, that's very important to me. It's definitely something that drives us all."