Late in practice Wednesday night, Northwestern basketball coach June Olkowski watched her team botch a play and interrupted the drill to emphasize just how far her players had come since early January – and to firmly remind them not to regress to that low point in the season.
No more missed screens, bad looks or confused passes.
“We’ve got a huge opportunity tomorrow!” Olkowski said to her players.
The implication: Tonight’s home game against Michigan State at 7 p.m. is NU’s best – and possibly last – opportunity to snag Big Ten win No. 1. And if the Wildcats are to take advantage of that opportunity, they can’t afford to make the simple mistakes that have been the difference between close losses and 40-point blowouts all season.
After completing a swing through the upper echelon of the conference, the Cats (4-19, 0-13 Big Ten) will be rewarded with three games against the Big Ten’s weaker squads to close out the year.
But of the three teams – Michigan State (8-15, 2-10), Ohio State (14-8, 4-8) and Indiana (16-7, 7-5) – the Spartans represent the easiest opponent.
While Ohio State and Indiana both boast healthy .600-plus winning percentages, Michigan State is the only other team besides NU that understands what it feels like to go a month without a win.
“Michigan State’s a team that has struggled,” NU forward Tami Sears said. “And while they’ve won a few games and we haven’t, they’re in the same position we are. We have a great opportunity with a team that we can definitely go in and beat.”
Last January the Cats edged Michigan State 58-55 at home – one of NU’s three conference wins that year – before reality set in a month later.
The Spartans eliminated any confusion as to who the better team was by defeating the Cats 84-52 in the rematch in East Lansing, Mich. But Sears said Michigan State will still be smarting from the January loss when the team visits Welsh-Ryan Arena tonight.
“We faced Penn State, who came in here, and I think they thought, ‘We’re near the top, they’re near the bottom – we have nothing to really go for,'” Sears said of NU’s near-upset of No. 16 Penn State two weeks ago. “Michigan State’s going to come in here, and they’re near the bottom, and we are the bottom, so they’re going to think they have a great opportunity, too.”
Michigan State has actually set more Big Ten single-game lows than NU – in total points scored, field goals made and free throw percentage.
And the Spartans trail only the Cats in the conference category of pity-inducing streaks, having lost nine in a row.
So for at least one night, the Cats can remove themselves from the context of the Big Ten basement and maybe play a close game against a struggling opponent.
“We match up really well with their 3-2 (defense), and we’ve worked a lot on finding gaps in the zone to exploit,” forward Michelle Zylstra said. “We just have to capitalize on mismatches and play hard and make good decisions.”
Exploiting mismatches is not something the Cats have done this season.
Although NU lately has been forced to settle for small steps, tonight’s contest is an opportunity to close out the year with something a little more concrete – a win.
“I honestly haven’t thought about how it’s coming to an end,” said Sears, a senior. “But it’s just a position where we feel like we’ve all struggled the whole year. We come into practice and we work hard, and you dedicate your life to this, basically. You just want to see some results.”
