They started their Northwestern careers with a pact. The five members of the 2002 recruiting class made a promise to each other upon their arrival in Evanston: They would be the players to take NU to its first NCAA tournament.

The promise emerged from Allison Hall where guards Mohamed Hachad, Evan Seacat, T.J. Parker, Jimmy Maley and center Ivan Tolic lived their freshman year.

The guards lived on the first floor, with Hachad and Parker rooming right next door to Maley and Seacat. Tolic lived upstairs on the fourth floor but spent a majority of his time with his teammates in the Mole Hole.

Among the hours of playing video games and hanging out on the 1st floor of their dorm, the five freshmen developed a bond, a camaraderie that translated onto the court.

But three seasons after setting that goal, the Wildcats have not reached the promised land.

And with their final season about to start, Hachad and Seacat are the lone remnants of coach Bill Carmody’s second group of recruits at NU.

“It was a group effort back then,” Seacat said. “But if you look around now, it’s just me and Mohamed.”

Gone are Maley, Parker and Tolic. Maley quit the team before the end of his freshman year. Knee injuries caused Tolic to end his career prematurely, and Parker went abroad to pursue professional basketball in Paris.

The subtractions from the 2002 recruiting class cleared the path for the addition of three players to the graduating class of 2006.

Forward Vedran Vukusic, guard Michael Jenkins and center Mike Thompson join Hachad and Seacat to make up the senior class this season.

Despite the roster changes in the past three years, the pact still exists for Hachad and Seacat – and their fellow seniors have taken up the challenge as well.

The postseason aspirations are clear for the senior class.

“Mohamed and I actually talked about the pact earlier in the season,” Seacat said. “We had a pretty good freshmen class, with T.J., Jimmy and Mohamed. We knew there was a chance down the road for us to get over that hump and make the tournament for the first time.

“It’s still our No. 1 goal. There’s no reason why we can’t do it this year with the guys we have.”

and then there were two

The promise of the 2002 recruiting class was enhanced after the first half of the group’s freshmen year.

Of the five freshmen that arrived in the 2002-2003 season, four saw significant playing time early in the year. Maley, Parker and Hachad started, and Seacat played in 23 games. Tolic was the only freshman not to see time as he sat out the season with knee injuries, a problem that would plague him for the next three years.

With five games left in the season, Maley abruptly quit the team. At the time, Parker told The Daily that Maley “didn’t love the game anymore.”

Later that year, rumors also ran around the program that Seacat considered quitting.

“I was pretty quiet when I came in here, and I had some issues with homesickness,” Seacat said. “I came from a small town and really hadn’t been away from home that much. It was tough for me to be five hours away. Once I grew and matured a little bit, that helped.

“Having Mohamed, T.J., Ivan and Vedran helped so much, we were all there for each other so much. We grew together.”

Through it all, Seacat stayed with the Cats. For the next two years, he and his classmates helped bring the Cats to the verge of the postseason, only to come up a game short both years.

Meanwhile, Tolic continued to struggle with knee problems, and Carmody announced last summer that Tolic would not return to the team because of his injuries.

Also during the offseason, Parker surprised the Cats when he decided to forgo his senior year and pursue his professional basketball career.

An injury in the summer removed any hopes of being selected in the NBA Draft, so Parker went to Europe to play for a French professional team, Paris Basket Racing.

“In the spring, we grew pretty close. It was tough to see him go,” Seacat said. “We knew he had to go on his own way. He thought that playing professionally was the better opportunity for him. So we had to support his decision.”

With Parker’s departure, Hachad and Seacat were the last two remaining.

“(Former NU player) Jitim Young used to talk about the same thing we’re going through,” Hachad said. “He came in with six other guys and then he was the only one left. Things happen down the line and people make decisions, and now Evan and I are the only guys left.”

New-look ‘old’ guys

This year’s senior class wasn’t exactly what Carmody envisioned four years ago, but he said these types of situations are common throughout the NCAA.

“You have your sights set on one thing and then you have to change at some point in the middle,” Carmody said. “In college athletics, especially basketball, there is such fluidity. People are changing all the time.”

Vukusic, Jenkins and Thompson will play their final year at NU, but they have gotten to this point in very different ways.

Vukusic, a two-time All-Big Ten selection, suffered a dislocated shoulder during his sophomore year and redshirted, making this season his fifth at NU. Jenkins, a former walk-on, was awarded a scholarship this summer and will play one more season while taking graduate courses at NU.

“I’m grateful to be able to come back for another year,” Jenkins said. “We’re a pretty old team and have played a lot of minutes. That background helps a lot.”

Thompson transferred from Duke two years ago and regained eligibility in December of last year.

Carmody said Jenkins and Vukusic have emerged as leaders early in the preseason, and Thompson has had his strongest practices since arriving at NU.

Those three may not have been original parts of the 2002 recruiting class, but they share the same ambitions and goals. As Jenkins said, if the goal is not the NCAA tournament, then “there’s something wrong with them.”

All three bought into the pact.

“We don’t want to be sitting home in March, sitting on the couch drinking Pepsi and eating pizza,” Vukusic said. “We want to play ball with the other 64 best teams in the country.”

Heading into this year, Vukusic returns as the fourth-leading scorer in the Big Ten. Jenkins settles into the point guard position Parker vacated, and Thompson returns from a foot injury that held him out of the final 11 games last year.

“You lose some, you gain some,” Carmody said. “You have to deal with it. I think we got a pretty fair exchange all things considered.”

One last stand

Carmody said one thing all seniors realize is that their college years go by fast.

It wasn’t too long ago Hachad and Seacat made the pact with their three former classmates.

Now without those three, but with a new group, they feel this sense of urgency to break the .500 barrier and become eligible for the postseason – and perhaps an NCAA tournament.

This is their last year, their last chance to make history at NU.

“I don’t want to leave this place and then 10 years down the road have a son or daughter ask me, ‘What did you do at Northwestern?’ And then I have to say, ‘We never made it to a tournament,'” Hachad said.

While all the members of the orginal pact are not enrolled at NU, Hachad and Seacat have tried to include the entire team in this push toward a postseason tournament.

The pact among the 2002 recruiting class has become a rallying cry across all classes.

“I feel like this year more than any other year we’re hanging out a lot more with each other,” Seacat said. “I feel like that is most important because when you hang out with guys you can learn to know them and it helps on the court.”

The seniors’ final stand starts Sunday against Lehigh in the Black Coaches Association Invitational in Laramie, Wyo.

Hachad said this tournament will set the tone for the season ahead. For the three previous seasons, the Cats allowed early season str
uggles to damage any postseason hopes.

With a veteran team, Hachad said he thinks this year can be different.

“We seniors all have to have big years, and it starts right from the get-go,” Hachad said. “Not to put anymore pressure on us, but it’s our last year. It’s a big year for us. We have the potential to take this team somewhere. The thing is that every year we’ve been saying that. But are we going to be able to do it this year or not?”

Hachad and Seacat hope they will.

The three-year old pact is riding on it.

Reach Scott Duncan at [email protected].