Over the weekend, Welsh-Ryan Arena was home to the worst of Northwestern athletics – on back-to-back nights. On Saturday, the men’s basketball team lost to Michigan, 78-68, wasting a career-high 34 points from sophomore Kevin Coble. Not to be outdone, the women’s squad was dismantled on Sunday by Ohio State, 77-55, making only two of their 16 3-point attempts.
The weekend nightmare was the latest embarrassment for a pair of programs that have not been good since “Baby One More Time…” topped the charts. Since the late ’90s, NU basketball’s free fall has been as bad, if not worse, than Britney’s. At least she has “Gimme More.” All the Wildcats have to boast about in this millenium is that despite their atrocious track record, fans still come to watch. A few fans, anyway.
Since the men last made the National Invitational Tournament in 1999 (basically the loser’s bracket – they’ve never made the NCAA tournament), they’ve stumbled to a cumulative 105-146 record, including a 35-97 record in the Big Ten. The best thing to come out of NU men’s basketball recently has been Tim Doyle’s hair.
During that same stretch, the women have actually been worse, compiling a 54-194 record, including a brutal 13-121 in Big Ten play. Go U, indeed.
The question is: Which team is worse? Both squads have one talented young player (Coble for the men, freshman Amy Jaeschke for the women). Both are stuck with ineffective supporting casts and anemic bench play. Both have veteran head coaches who have failed to generate any success.
And both have zero wins in the Big Ten this season. So the real winners are the rest of the Big Ten teams, who surely salivate every time they come to Welsh-Ryan, NU’s cathedral of basketball mediocrity.
