Mike DeCourcy

Northwestern has lost every Big Ten game by a double-digit margin. The Wildcats never have played in the NCAA Tournament. They haven't enjoyed a winning conference season since -- gack! -- 1968.

This situation appears hopeless. What else would you call it?

Well, some would view Northwestern as an opportunity.

Look around. You are in the Land of the Living Dead: Washington State has built upon last season's resurrection, and the Cougars are joined by such lost souls as Drake, Duquesne and Texas-Pan American. They're winning now, so there must be hope for everyone. Right?

Drake
Record: 20-1.
Decade of futility (1998-2007): 114-176.
When legendary innovator Tom Davis retired from Drake after last season, he didn't realize the program was ready to roll. He even apologized to his son, Keno, who was replacing him, for its condition.

Well, Dr. Tom wasn't the only one who underestimated this group. Most picked Drake, which starts two former walk-ons, to finish ninth or 10th in the Missouri Valley. But the Bulldogs are having a dominant season, including a sweep of league power Creighton, and are 3-0 against Iowa's other Division I schools.

Drake employs a spread offense derived from Tom Davis' flex schemes and devastates opponents with 3-point shooting, making nearly 10 per game at a 38 percent clip. Guard Josh Young is the most dangerous shooter, but the guy who keeps everything running is point guard Adam Emmenecker, whose understanding of the game should be no surprise given that he already graduated with a 3.97 GPA -- and four majors.

"I don't think the lack of success at Drake worried us," Keno Davis says. "But if we'd known how the Valley was going to take off. ... We got into it kind of at its peak. I wondered during that time if we could ever be an upper-division team." Now, the Bulldogs are the upper-division team.

Wants to be like the Bulldogs: Evansville (6-15).

Duquesne
Record: 13-7.
Decade of futility (1997-2006): 85-203.
When Ron Everhart was growing up down the road in Fairmont, W.Va., Duquesne was a basketball power. Between that period and his installation as the Dukes' head coach, the Pittsburgh-based program would have been better off had it been abducted by a UFO.

"I've never felt you couldn't have a good basketball program at Duquesne if you worked hard and got the right guys in there," Everhart says. "And if you did a good job in rebuilding, developed a program, you could stay for a while."

Things had been so bad for so long, even Everhart is stunned to be on the bright side of .500 in his second season -- especially given the on-campus shooting that injured five players in September 2006.

Everhart uses a high-pressure, two-platoon system to create a fast tempo. Transfers Shawn James (from Northeastern, averaging 3.7 blocks) and Kojo Mensah (from Siena, averaging 13.3 points) are producing and helping teammates understand they can win.

"The one thing we looked for before anything else, and spent a lot of time finding out, is the character part of it," Everhart says. "We've had a couple disappointments in that area, but for the most part all of our kids are good kids, guys you like having around your program."

Wants to be like the Dukes: St. Bonaventure (7-14).

Texas-Pan American
Record: 14-12.
Decade of futility (1997-2006): 99-187.
When coach Tom Schuberth got to Texas-Pan American two years ago, "There were three basketballs on the rack, and two of them were flat. That's a true story."

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In nearly three decades as an assistant, Schuberth helped teams reach the tournament that had rarely made it before, including Louisiana-Monroe, Southeast Missouri State and Central Florida. It'll be tough to get there from here -- UTPA has no conference home.

"I want to make this the best independent program in the country," Schuberth says, "because that's all we can do right now."

They are the only independent with a winning record. Schuberth is proud that in the five in-season tournaments UTPA entered, it wasn't selected to open against the host school once. Small victories. He started to rebuild by working connections from his assistant days, landing steals such as point guard Paul Stoll (13.9 points, 7.3 assists) and guard Brian Burrell.

"We've tried to find guys with a healthy chip on their shoulder," Schuberth says. "We ask, 'Did they recruit you? No. Show them why they should have.' "

Wants to be like the Broncs: New Jersey Institute of Technology (0-24).