They may be 0-5 in the conference, but the Wildcats are talking like a team with the opposite record.
The Northwestern men’s basketball team dropped its most recent game to No. 11 Illinois 63-49 on Wednesday, but the players saw the loss as a blown opportunity — not as another defeat at the hands of a superior team.
“People are mad,” guard Collier Drayton said. “We know we should have won.”
The Cats (7-10, 0-5 Big Ten) travel to Purdue (11-5, 3-2) Saturday for a 4 p.m. game at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind., and they’re not mincing words — this is their best chance to break a 27-game conference losing streak.
“Both teams are hungry. Now we’ve got to see who’s hungrier,” said Drayton, referring to Purdue’s recent 70-67 loss to Minnesota. “Hopefully we can come out against Purdue and play like we did against Illinois. We should get a win because we played (with) Purdue — even though we got down by 19 and lost by eight, we made a run. We’re not there yet, but hopefully by the next game we’ll get there.”
On Jan. 6, the Boilermakers jumped to a 16-2 lead within the first seven minutes of the game, but the Cats outscored them 59-53 the rest of the way to make it a 69-61 final.
Forward Rodney Smith torched the Cats for 21 points, 17 of them in the first half. Center John Allison also pounded the ball to the basket with ease, scoring 18 points and ripping down 12 rebounds.
The Cats shot only 33 percent from the field and 27 percent from the three-point arc. But memories of those misses haven’t tempered NU’s optimism — not by a long shot.
“I think we’ve got it coming up with Purdue,” said forward Jason Burke, who didn’t score a point against the Boilermakers in the first game. “Last game they kind of jumped out on us early, but we made our run, and I feel that we match up well against them, especially with our offense. This game coming up could be the game we need to turn things around.”
Only two Cats players — Drayton and center Tavaras Hardy — were around the last time the team chalked up a Big Ten win. Needless to say, the Cats are as excited as ever about the prospect of tasting victory.
Part of the enthusiasm stems from the embarrassment of last year’s 5-25 campaign, when the Cats were routinely blown out by even the most mediocre of teams.
“We actually are getting better,” Drayton said. “We knew we were better than last year’s team before we even started the season. To compete in the Big Ten — even though we haven’t won yet, we’ve competed in every game except one — that’s a great feeling.
“It’s not like last year when we were cupcakes, the get-well card. Everybody who played us, they knew they were getting a victory.”
While coach Bill Carmody didn’t display the same level of confidence as Drayton, he acknowledged his team was as close to winning now as it has been during the Big Ten season.
In fact, he said he’s as happy as any coach could be with an 0-5 conference record.
“I don’t know how it’s going to happen, I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but I think that we’re getting better,” Carmody said. “I’ve been saying it all year — that’s what I was hopeful of.”
Burke said the Cats will try to improve on the last game’s result by doubling Smith more consistently. He said NU needs more aggressive rebounding from the guards to even the statistics on the glass — Purdue held a 45-33 edge the first time around.
The way the Cats see it, all they need are a few more buckets, a few more stops and little more hustle.
“The game plan won’t change,” Drayton said. “The only thing is, we’ll have to execute the game plan better than we did in the first half of our first game against them. And if we do that, this is a winnable game.”
