At the press conference following Northwestern’s season-ending 70-58 Big Ten tournament loss to Iowa, coach June Olkowski struggled to put together answers while senior guard Natalie Will sat to her left, teary-eyed and aloof.
For Will and the rest of her teammates, the 2002-2003 season could have been anything from a continuing nightmare to a dream come true.
The nightmare had already lasted long enough — the Wildcats were the joke of the Big Ten with 43 consecutive regular-season conference losses before the season even started.
But unlike what had happened in years past, the tears Will fought back weren’t because of the losses that had already happened — it was because of what could have been.
“We’ve been in so many close games all year,” Will said Feb. 27 following a game at Illinois. “So many games where one or two possessions could have been the difference.”
The unproven Cats showed flashes of maturity at some points in the year, beginning with the Jan. 2 come-from-behind 52-46 victory over Michigan State that ended the losing streak.
Although NU blew multiple halftime leads in a 10-game losing streak that followed, the Cats came together in a Feb. 9 blowout of Michigan, 67-38. In the game, NU scored 31 unanswered points in the first half and set a record for fewest points allowed to a conference opponent.
Down the stretch, NU was a team that no one else in the Big Ten wanted to play.
In what was the most emotionally demanding game of the year, the Cats failed in an upset bid of then-No. 17 Minnesota on Feb. 13. NU shot more than 50 percent from beyond the arc in building up an 18-point second-half lead, only to watch a Gopher press and All-American junior Lindsey Whalen lead Minnesota to a 64-61 win.
While Minnesota shrugged off the close call, the Cats were heartbroken. Following the game, Olkowski paced outside the locker room and balked twice at going in to face her players, knowing that what could have been a monumental win for the program ended up as just another teasing slap in the face.
A red-eyed Sarah Kwasinski vowed revenge on the Cats’ next opponent, and the team made good on her promise against Indiana — NU’s third conference win of the season.
“I think this team is finally learning how to win,” Olkowski said following the Feb. 20 defeat of the Hoosiers.
But the last two games of the regular season proved that the learning was still in an early stage. NU led the entire game at Illinois before falling victim to a last-second turnover, losing on a Janelle Hughes buzzer-beater. That same weekend, the Cats played Michigan State evenly in the first half before scoring only 13 points in the second frame in a March 2 blowout loss.
Then came the Big Ten tournament — a microcosm of the entire season. NU went in without Iowa’s respect — one Hawkeyes player called Olkowski’s squad “a second-tier team.”
Like so many games before it, a strong first half propelled NU to a six-point lead at halftime — and then it happened again.
The experience and rock-hard nerves of junior All-Big Ten selections Jennie Lillis and Lindsey Faulkner exposed the raw and vulnerable starting lineup of four sophomores and one freshman, and the Cats fell one last time.
There were no outstanding players for NU this season. Kwasinski quietly led the team in points and rebounding while Samantha McComb emerged as the team’s reliable point guard.
The season was mostly a team effort, with assists a high priority on everyone’s to-do list. But it was this unselfishness and lack of initiative that may have cost NU the most at the end.
Seeking answers, Olkowski envisioned a player at the year’s final press conference. The player that the hard-luck Cats so desperately needed — someone that could have turned their 8-20 season into something from out of a dream.
“We needed someone to step up and take responsibility when the game’s on the line, and I don’t mean just taking the game’s last shot,” she said. “It’s about poise and confidence — to look in this person’s eyes and see no frustration or fear.”
