Most every team has been upset, yes. But, by your own definition of having a pulse, Northwestern is not on the same level as Wisconsin, Miami, Illinois, Georgetown, Pitt, etc. You don't see that many bad team upsetting the good ones at this point. You see a lot of the good teams getting beat by solid quality opponents.
In most conferences, Northwestern would be winning a lot more games and probably be a good bet to get in the tourney. But the Big Ten is loaded this year.
Doesn't matter if they would win more games in another conference...we might too. But we are compared to the other teams in our conference. If "ifs and buts" were candy and nuts we'd all have a merry christmas. The fact is they are in the b10 and won't make it. Those are the same teams we must beat and since we were favored over the wildcats I want to see us do it in the big games. The whole team needs to show up for those not just marble or anyone else.