Northwestern’s magical run to the Elite 8 of the last year’s NCAA tournament nearly did not happen.
The Wildcats hosted then-No. 24 Northern Illinois in their final regular-season game, needing a win to reach the tournament after losing five of their previous eight games. The Huskies nearly escaped Lakeside Field with a tie. But with 1:12 left in the second overtime period, senior forward Brad North scored the game winner.
NU reached the NCAA tournament and advanced to the quarterfinal round, the furthest the team has ever reached.
This year No. 12 NU (11-3-2) has built up its tournament resume and enters its final regular-season game feeling safe about its postseason destiny and playing for one of the 16 first-round byes in the NCAA tournament.
“It would be very important to end our regular season (with wins) because that is going to determine whether we are playing before Thanksgiving or after Thanksgiving,” sophomore defender Pat Coleman said of the team’s postseason hopes. “It would be great to be one of those top 16 teams that get a bye and (to) get a home game here would be awesome.”
The Cats will look to continue building momentum toward the postseason Saturday against Wisconsin-Green Bay (9-4-4) in the team’s first game under Lakeside Field’s recently installed lights.
Coach Tim Lenahan said NU earned its tournament spot last season because of its difficult schedule. The Cats played many of their toughest games on the road, with trips to Indiana, Illinois-Chicago and Loyola – all NCAA tournament teams.
Their schedule helped them in the Ratings Percentage Index standings, which are calculated by using a team’s winning percentage, its opponents’ winning percentages and the winning percentages of the teams the opponents played.
“When you play good teams, you’re not going to win every game,” Lenahan said. “That’s why you get rewarded in something called the RPI for scheduling strength. We’ve been very fortunate in that whoever we played ended up having a good year, which in turn helps us.”
The same philosophy went into building this year’s schedule.
NU is currently rated third in the RPI, which the NCAA released Oct. 30. They have played seven teams in the top 50, in a sport in which 48 make the NCAA tournament. This includes three teams in the top 20 – Indiana (fourth), Ohio State (seventh) and DePaul (18th).
Lenahan said this year’s schedule, while difficult, was set up to give the Cats a chance to build momentum at the end of the season.
NU snapped a three-game winless streak Sunday against Michigan State and picked up a second win Wednesday against Western Illinois. Having those games at home has helped the team build confidence and get some victories before the postseason begins.
The victories should only solidify the Cats’ position as one of the top teams in the nation.
“We’ve won two games in a row,” Lenahan said. “This year we’re home. Last year, we lost those games on the road. It’s hard to win on the road, no matter who you play. We saw in the schedule when it was set up this year that there were going to be three games to close out the season, and we had a pretty good feeling we were going to be able to take this into the postseason.”
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