Only two days before the most important game of the year, the field house in the back of Welsh-Ryan Arena was perfectly silent when it should have been filled with yelling, dribbling, scrimmaging – in short, last-minute cramming for the Big Ten tournament.
Instead, the players were upstairs eating. And Northwestern coach June Olkowski was nowhere to be found.
An angry Olkowski had ended practice almost 45 minutes early, suggesting both a weariness with the Wildcats and their 0-16 conference season and a desperation to get it over with as soon as possible.
But before the Cats can finally put this season out of mind, they have to travel to Grand Rapids, Mich., today for the start of the conference tournament.
Tonight’s first-round matchup with sixth-seeded Illinois (14-14, 9-7 Big Ten) can just as easily be seen as a game to get out of the way as a final chance to prove that the 11th-seeded Cats (4-22, 0-16) are capable of a win.
“It’s a good matchup for us,” NU point guard Emily Butler said. “I think they’re beatable. We could shock some people and at least compete with them.”
NU lost both regular-season contests against the Fighting Illini this year, falling 88-65 in the January meeting at home and then 65-45 in the Champaign sequel Feb. 8.
In the second game, Butler was sidelined for the first time all season with a concussion. Her teammates hung with Illinois through the first half before falling apart without Butler and her team-leading 12.3 points per game.
If the Cats can stretch that first-half performance into 40 minutes of solid play – something they haven’t done all season – and add Butler to the mix, they stand a chance of competing.
“Out of any team in the Big Ten, I think that’s one of the teams I’d want to play in the Big Ten tournament,” center Leslie Dolland said.
And NU would take added gratification out of timing its first conference win both for the tournament and against the Illini.
“It’s a team everyone’s fired up about playing, especially the Illinois girls,” Butler said. “Clearly it’s our rival school – if we do have one.”
Olkowski has questioned whether the Illini share NU’s sense of rivalry, but it’s a snub that may play into the Cats’ hands tonight.
Earlier in the season, NU came within minutes of upsetting a ranked Penn State squad that came into Evanston underestimating the winless Cats – to the extent that a winless team can be underestimated.
Olkowski and her players can only hope Illinois sees that 0-16 record and takes them as lightly as Penn State did.
The Cats themselves plan to carry that mark into Grand Rapids as a source of strength.
“I don’t think you really want to have a clean slate,” Dolland said. “I think it’s good for us to keep in the back of our minds this season. I don’t know about winning a game, but I do know about coming out and competing and playing well. I think it’s important to think about how we’ve played this past season.”
Still, tonight’s game presents the Cats with a fresh start, of sorts – an 0-0 record not seen since last Nov. 20.
“It’s a new ballgame. We have four games to play and four games to win,” senior Dana Leonard said. “We just have to leave everything on the floor. Don’t bring anything back to Evanston. Leave it all in Grand Rapids.”
