Near the end of Northwestern’s 62-51 victory over Wisconsin last Thursday, senior guard Mohammed Hachad played spectator, watching from the bench as freshman Sterling Williams ran the team from the backcourt.

Hachad liked what he saw.

“He was driving, he got to the free-throw line and he was playing really hard on defense,” the senior said. “I felt like, ‘That’s great. I can rest now. I don’t have to go back in. I can actually get a couple more minutes on the bench and get ready to go back.'”

While the defining theme for the Wildcats this year has been the leadership of seniors Hachad and fellow senior Vedran Vukusic, another important trend has been the maturation of the Cats’ two freshman guards: Williams and Craig Moore.

Both Moore and Williams are what NU coach Bill Carmody classified as “big guards,” standing six feet, four inches. But this is about where the similarities end.

Williams went to Whitney Young High School, on the north side of Chicago. Moore comes from Doylestown, Penn., a suburb of Philadelphia with less than 10,000 people.

Williams lives on south campus in the Foster-Walker Complex. Moore lives up north in Bobb.

Moore is a true freshman, while Williams sat out last year as a redshirt, giving him a full year of practice without any game time.

Williams is a slasher, creating offensive opportunities by driving into the lane. Moore is a spot-up shooter: all but 17 of his 150 shots this year have been from 3-point range.

Carmody said he wants the strengths of the two freshmen to rub off on each other so their games can become more versatile.

“After a while, when they’re guarding a guy with the reputation that you can’t make a shot, they lay off you,” he said. “If all you can do is shoot, they hug you like you hug your girlfriend.”

Besides their size, another thing Moore and Williams share is their respect for one another’s abilities. Williams said this translates to a competitive desire to make each other better.

“I’m one of Craig’s biggest fans and I know he just wants me to do well,” he said. “He’s one of the main guys telling me, ‘Sterling, I have faith you can do this.’ And I’m always telling him, ‘Craig, you can do more,’ constantly pushing him.”

With Hachad and senior guard Michael Jenkins leaving after this season, the freshman guards will have to use this drive to prepare themselves to be the team’s backcourt leaders next year.

Carmody said this shouldn’t be much of a problem.

“Some guys improve and some guys don’t,” he said. “But it’s rare to see a guy that works hard and has the talent, which they both do, not improve. That’s a potent combination.”

Although they’ve only combined for 10.3 points and 3.5 assists in 45.2 minutes per game this year, Moore and Williams have shown glimpses of star potential.

In the Cats’ 57-49 win against Minnesota on Jan. 7, Williams and Moore scored 30 points on 10-for-19 shooting and recorded eight assists.

Individually, Moore is in the top three among league freshmen in four categories: he leads in assists (3.0), ranks second in scoring (8.0) and steals (0.86), and is third in 3-point percentage (36.1). Williams, who is more valuable for the energy he provides, averages 4.3 points and 2.6 rebounds, and is tied with Moore with 0.86 steals per game.

But the young guards haven’t been without their struggles. In the last three games, Williams has seen his playing time reduced to nine minutes per contest, and Moore has shot 3 for 18 over that stretch. Carmody has said the youngsters may have “hit a wall.”

Their recent slump both underscores the day-to-day grind of the Big Ten season and the work that awaits them this off-season.

“They’re going to have to put the work into it this summer, because nothing comes easy,” Hachad said. “Sometimes you get to the point where you had a good freshman year, but then you don’t do enough over the summer and come back and you don’t play very well. They’re in the period where they’re realizing this. And I hope they realize it very early.”

Moore said the two are ready for this responsibility.

“We’ve gotten a great deal of experience this year, and (Jenkins) and (Hachad) have shown us the ropes a little bit,” he said. “We should be ready by then. We feel we’re ready right now.”

Reach David Morrison at [email protected].