After a 3-13 conference record and an 11th-place finish in the Big Ten in the 2000-01 season, the possibility of a postseason berth for this year’s Wildcats seemed a bit far-fetched.
As Northwestern piled up the wins – its record was 16-9 and 7-6 in the Big Ten with three regular-season games left – expectations of a possible National Invitation Tournament bid grew.
And the NIT wasn’t the only post-season tournament that was mentioned in connection with the Cats. Several Big Ten coaches suggested NU deserved an invitation to the Big Dance.
But losses to Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana to end the regular season and to Michigan in the first round of the conference tournament crushed the Cats’ postseason plans.
“We happened to run into some pretty good teams at the end,” head coach Bill Carmody said. “The tough game was the Michigan game. We were flat. We didn’t play well at all. That leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
“You want to forget it, but you want to remember how bad you felt.”
Even with the disappointing finish, NU won 16 games, second only to the 1982-83 squad in school history. Two members of the Cats were awarded All-Big Ten honors – Tavaras Hardy was named to the third team and Winston Blake was given honorable mention.
And NU still had a shot at an NIT berth after the loss to Michigan.
“I figured we would get a bid,” Carmody said. “I was surprised. There’s a lot of politics (in the NIT). We came out on the wrong end of the politics.”
The key to the Cats’ season was a renewed commitment to defense. NU finished the season ranked fifth nationally in scoring defense, holding opponents to 59.1 points per game.
The backcourt tandem of senior Collier Drayton and sophomore Jitim Young was the catalyst for the team defense, using quickness to rack up steals and disrupt their opponents’ offense. Young ended the season ranked third in the Big Ten in takeaways with 1.9 per game.
But the soul of NU’s success was the play of Hardy, who emerged as a team leader in his senior season. Hardy and Drayton were the first seniors on the Cats’ squad since 1998-99.
Hardy was tied for second on the team in scoring with 12.3 points per game and was sixth in the conference in rebounding at 6.4 a game.
But Hardy contributed more than what showed up in the statistics.
“Tavaras was a big part of our team,” Blake said. “Our leader. Everybody looked up to him, respected him and everything he said, everybody believed. He brought everybody together.”
Hardy and the rest of the Cats raised the profile of the program this season, Drayton said.
“(The rest of the Big Ten) was surprised, especially since we started off 0-2 in the league,” Drayton said. “They either respected us before we played them or they respected us after.”
But this year’s Cats had their weaknesses, notably shooting, both from the field and the free-throw line.
NU ranked last in the Big Ten at the foul line (60.5 percent) and 10th in field-goal percentage at 41.8 percent. In the Cats’ last three regular-season games, they shot under 30 percent twice, against Illinois and Minnesota. In the 56-41 loss to the Fighting Illini, NU went an abysmal 0-for-17 from behind the three-point line.
At times, Hardy and Young shot so poorly at the free-throw line that Carmody told the two to stay away from the charity stripe in practice, hoping that would reverse their fortunes at the line.
While foul shooting wasn’t a problem for Drew Long – he led the team at 80.8 percent – a hip injury plagued the sophomore all season. Long will have surgery on the hip Tuesday.
Croatian freshman Vedran Vukusic also struggled with his health this season. Vukusic will have surgery today for recurring shoulder problems, which he first suffered while he was still in Croatia.
NU’s season, although a vast improvement over the 2000-01 edition, still wasn’t good enough for Carmody and his players.
“We’re trying to raise expectations around here,” Carmody said. “I want our guys to expect to win.”
Blake – who will be one of three seniors on the NU roster next season – has taken those sentiments to heart.
“It’s good we made a turnaround like that, but we’re not happy, we’re not satisfied with that,” Blake said. “We know we can do a lot better and we expect to do a lot better.”
