UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Mission accomplished. Well, not exactly.
Although the Northwestern men’s basketball team (15-9, 6-6 Big Ten) became eligible for the National Invitational Tournament for just the fourth time in school history with a 55-49 victory over Penn State (7-17, 3-10) on Saturday, the Wildcats still aren’t content.
“We really haven’t done anything yet,” said NU guard Collier Drayton, one of two current NU seniors who were on the Cats’ 1999 NIT squad. “Me and (senior forward) Tavaras Hardy have been to the NIT.
“We have an NIT ring. We want an NCAA ring now. We want the big bag of clothes and stuff.”
With just four regular-season contests remaining, NU is assured of a winning record, a requirement for a postseason berth. And the Cats may have to win out if they plan on heading to the Big Dance.
On the other hand, Penn State, a Sweet 16 team last year, is currently at the bottom of the Big Ten standings and can advance to the postseason only by winning the conference tournament.
The Cats had an easy time with the cellar-dwellers at the Bryce Jordan Center before a mellow crowd of 12,397. NU controlled the game’s tempo and used both an inside and an outside game to keep the Nittany Lions at bay.
The Cats didn’t need a lot of second chances, as their offensive efficiency was stellar – NU grabbed just one offensive board, to Penn State’s 14.
The Cats took just 35 shots and connected on 18 of them (51.4 percent). Penn State, on the other hand, hit 18 of 57 shots (31.6 percent). More than half of the Nittany Lions’ attempts, a school-record 34, came from behind the arc.
Each of the eight NU players who saw action put points on the board. Swingman Jason Burke came off the bench to play 30 minutes, and the junior scored 10 points for a season high in conference play.
Burke’s increased role over the weekend came in part because of a bruised left hip suffered by NU guard Jitim Young midway through the first half.
Young played only one minute in the second half before deciding that he couldn’t continue, while Burke played 19 minutes after the break.
“I had a good week of practice,” Burke said. “My legs felt good. It felt good getting out there and contributing tonight.”
Cats forward Winston Blake and center Aaron Jennings also stepped up their play in Young’s absence, as both equaled Burke’s output with 10 points. Forward Tavaras Hardy added nine of his own for NU.
This all-around effort allowed the Cats to lead the entire game and avoid any serious Penn State threats.
The Nittany Lions used an 8-2 run late in the game to pull within five. But Blake tempered Penn State’s spurt with an off-balance runner in the lane to beat the shot clock and keep NU in the driver’s seat.
Blake later hit two foul shots, giving the Cats a 49-42 lead with 3:16 remaining.
Penn State also made a push earlier in the second half. The Nittany Lions nailed three-pointers on five straight possessions at the beginning of the second period.
But NU wedged three-point players in between each of the five Penn State treys, including a layup and foul shot from Drayton.
The first nine scores of the second half, then, came off three-point plays.
Drayton put an exclamation point on NU’s victorious afternoon by blocking Penn State guard Sharif Chambliss’ three-point attempt with 42 seconds remaining. Chambliss hit six shots from long range in the game, with five of them coming in the second half.
“This is the Big Ten and every team is going to make their run,” said Drayton, who added that he never felt like the Cats were in jeopardy of losing. “We just try to weather the run.”
The win snapped a three-game conference road losing skid and put NU at .500 in league play for the first time since 1999.
In the Cats’ NIT appearance that year, they lost to DePaul 69-64 in the first round.
NU, which has never made it to the NCAA Tournament, also had NIT appearances in 1983 and 1994.
The NCAA selection committee will award bids for this year’s tournament on March 10, with NIT invitations coming shortly after.
In the past 10 years, every Big Ten team with a winning overall record has received a postseason bid, either to the NIT or the NCAA Tournament.
Despite the likelihood of participating in his first postseason at NU, head coach Bill Carmody said his team still needs to concentrate on what’s ahead.
“Fifteen wins, that’s important to the program,” said Carmody, who inherited a team last year that didn’t win a single Big Ten game in 2000.
“You want to keep coming and you want to keep working. We’ve got two weeks left, so let’s continue to grow and play together. How things fall out, we’ll find out in a couple weeks.”
