Clichéd or not, this past year can only be described as a roller-coaster time period for Northwestern athletics.
Considering all six spring sports advanced to postseason tournaments, the program has never been higher, save a couple bowl appearances a few years back.
But does a fantastic finish completely overshadow what has been, in a very real sense, a heartbreaking year?
Not in this case. Not after the nightmare six months that preceded the Wildcats’ “One Shining Moment” montage of a spring. With the school year drawing to a close, here’s a quick retrospective of the thrilling highs and terrible lows in NU sports.
The success enjoyed by every spring sport this year is absolutely unprecedented in NU sports’ history. All six teams that played scrapped their way into a postseason tournament.
The Cats’ success in the country club sports (men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s golf) makes rich alumni happy and increases donations — look for the athletic department to tack on croquet and polo as varsity sports next year.
Include the softball team’s NCAA appearance and the baseball team qualifying for the Big Ten tournament and NU suddenly looks like an athletic juggernaut. Furthermore, the men’s and women’s golf teams are still alive and set to play for NCAA championships.
And while most NU students drank their way through Spring Break, the women’s fencing and women’s swimming teams both placed sixth at their NCAA tournaments. In addition, the wrestling team nabbed an individual title at Big Tens and an individual fifth-place finish at the NCAAs.
It was an impressive few months and a much-needed relief to what was an unusually trying year, even for a school that for years was a Division I joke.
The men’s basketball program no-showed its way to zero Big Ten wins. After their season of turnovers, the Cats endured an offseason of turnover. Six players quit, with four of them transferring.
Throw in a lawsuit against the school and coach Kevin O’Neill saying on ESPN that he has wanted to choke players and saying in ESPN the Magazine that he wants an assistant’s job in the NBA, and it hasn’t exactly been a great follow-up season to the school’s third-ever postseason appearance.
The fall was brutal on NU fans, with four sports combining for five conference wins. The women’s soccer team returned most of its roster from a team that went to the Sweet 16 the year before, yet won just one Big Ten game.
And a field hockey squad that was among the nation’s best in the mid-1990s went winless in the conference.
The Cats also received more unwelcome attention when the April edition of GQ rehashed the gambling and point-shaving scandal.
The recent strong showings put a rosy shine on an otherwise tarnished year. At the close of an up and down season for NU athletics, it’s clear that all is not well — even if it ended well.
