MADISON, Wis. – By the time Wisconsin fans were applauding Ben Johnson’s three-pointer Sunday – largely because the Bad News Cats had missed their previous 13 shots – it was already time for Northwestern to head home.

So let’s set the game aside for now and talk about Jitim Young instead.

Up until that Johnson three (which cut the Wisconsin lead to 46-21 with 8:34 to play) the Wildcats had made just four baskets – all of them Young’s.

Kevin “Bleepin'” O’Neill didn’t completely decimate post-Eschmeyer NU basketball. In Young, his prized recruit a year ago, O’Neill left incoming coach Bill Carmody a talented player with the potential to excel.

And with three games to go, Young is beginning to realize that potential. He is the best player NU has, and in his freshman season he has emerged as a team leader.

“He’s a battler, he’s a competitor,” Carmody said. “He doesn’t always make it look pretty, but you could use a half-dozen people like him out there.”

So while the Cats shot the ball as if there were an ungodly slab of cheddar covering the hoop, Young managed to create points by taking the ball inside – by being aggressive.

NU’s first basket of the second half was Young going up in the paint, sandwiched Big Mac-style between three Wisconsin defenders, and hitting a floater.

“Coach told me to come out and give it my all,” Young said. “I was playing with no fear out there.”

When there was a loose ball on the floor, Young dove for it. When the Badgers were careless with the ball, he swiped at it. When he was alone with the ball, he shot it.

Young carried NU through most of Sunday’s game. If the rest of the team was playing with any fire, he was playing with a blowtorch.

Young led the Cats in points (14), rebounds (six) and steals (three) Sunday – this despite fouling out with five minutes remaining.

Indeed, he is the lone bright spot in what has been a season of searching for bright spots. The Badgers, ranked 19th in the nation, returning five starters (all seniors) from last year’s Final Four team, made the Cats a laughingstock for 30 minutes and let their scrubs mop up the rest.

Wisconsin coach Brad Soderberg called the game “tonic” for his ailing team. What was it for Carmody, gin?

For the past two seasons the Cats have shouldered the unfortunate burden of being every team’s tonic – the one that 10 out of 11 Big Ten coaches prescribe to cure those aches and pains during the conference season.

That NU showed up Sunday. Carmody nearly went catatonic watching his team shoot 4-for-30 from beyond the arc and 20 percent from the floor (14 percent without Young’s totals factored in).

With five minutes left in the first half, NU had committed eight turnovers and scored only five points.

“If we were going to be in the game at all, we were going to have to make shots,” Carmody said, “and we don’t have a track record of doing that.”

But then, why were more than half of NU’s shots from three-point range?

Granted, Wisconsin allows the fewest points of any team in the nation. The Badgers were also playing at home, the three-tiered Kohl Center. (Proof that people in Madison have nothing better to do: A. There were people in the stands. B. There were people in the stands in the second half.)

Even so, Young managed to score points taking the ball inside, so why couldn’t anyone else?

When the Cats shoot the three well, they’re a dangerous team, but, as Carmody noted, that hasn’t happened consistently. So they have to find another way to score.

“When we were missing, I just thought, ‘I’ve got to keep going to the basket, just keep attacking,'” Young said.

Young’s attitude is the mark of a maturing leader and a savvy point guard. Ideally it will be the mark of NU’s future.

“I’m growing as a player,” Young said. “I’m watching players like (Michigan State’s) Charlie Bell play. I’m watching (Illinois’) Frank Williams and players like that all the time. I kind of take what they do and add it to my game. It’s been helping a lot.”

Maybe in a year it’ll help in the win column.