b>By Ben LarrisonThe Daily Northwestern

It was the breakthrough he had been waiting for, one of the biggest wins in program history, and Tim Lenahan was not even there to see it.

The team was playing at Duke on October 5, 2003, and Lenahan, then in his third year as the Northwestern head coach, was absent from the pitch as he mourned the recent loss of his mother. The team decided to dedicate the game to Lenahan’s family and went on to defeat the Blue Devils 2-1.

“So the first really monumental game in program history was because the team was playing for something besides themselves,” Lenahan said.

It is that idea of the team as a family that Lenahan tries to impress on his Wildcats (10-5, 2-3 Big Ten), who are currently enjoying one of their best seasons since Big Ten play began in 1991. The sixth-year coach has said that to him, the most important thing on his team is the closeness of his players.

“The wins come from that closeness,” Lenahan said.

Lenahan sells the idea of a family both in the coaching and recruiting processes. And though the Cats may value closeness overall, their improvement in play over the past few years has helped Lenahan in his program building.

After winning only one game in his first season at NU, Lenahan has made the Cats into a Big Ten championship contender. With an NCAA birth, a victory at Indiana and two 10+ win seasons now on his NU resume, the process of attracting players is becoming easier and easier.

“We’re all great friends, and when a recruit comes on a visit, I think it’s obvious that the team is great friends,” sophomore Geoff Fallon said. “And I think the recruits really like that, and they really want to feel part of that family that we have created here.

“I think that’s really attractive to people that are looking here and I think that’s why a lot of us chose to come here.”

The players are buying into the system. When asked about the state of the program, junior David Roth replied, “Hey, we’re building something special here,” repeating the Lenahan catchphrase and team motto that traces back to his first days at NU.

But regardless of the recent successes, Lenahan and the Cats are still building. While opponents may no longer view NU as a walk-over game, the team is still in search of what would be the program’s crown jewel: a Big Ten championship.

Though the time has passed for the Cats to capture the 2006 regular season title, they can even their conference record this weekend with a victory at Michigan State (7-5-2, 0-2-2).

NU is still a legitimate threat to win the Big Ten tournament November 2-5 at Ohio State. Six years ago, the prospect of the Cats contending in the Big Ten was a dream; now, it’s the reality.

“It’s definitely a goal this year and it’s going to be a goal from here on out: to win a Big Ten championship,” Roth said. “We’re trying to be a program that has a winning tradition.”

Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected].