Few defeats are as painful as Northwestern’s 57-52 loss to Kansas State on Monday.
After dictating the pace of play and leading last year’s regular season Big 12 champions most of the way, NU broke down in the final four minutes and squandered a chance to notch a signature win less than a week into the season.
For a team that endured such a trying season a winter ago, it was especially hard to take.
“It hurts because we were so close,” said sophomore guard Meshia Reed, who finished the night with 14 points and three steals. “They’re a good team and we were right there, so that makes it a little worse.”
In a lot of ways, the players should be encouraged and excited to move forward, seeing how they are capable of causing trouble for an NCAA tournament team that returns four of its five starters. But even though the Kansas State game can be considered a moral victory of sorts, the harsh reality is that it still counts as a loss in the standings.
Three days after the emotionally charged Kansas State loss, the next challenge for the Cats is putting the disappointment behind them and trying to bounce back against Houston Baptist.
NU enters Thursday night’s contest still searching for its first victory of the season, and coach Joe McKeown does not want the players harping too much on letting their last game get away.
“I want our players to have amnesia in that it shouldn’t really affect them,” he said. “It’s so early in the season. All your non-conference games played in November are really learning experiences. I don’t want players freaked out about what went wrong – really more focus on what went right and then clean up some of our mistakes.”
McKeown mentioned that tough losses tend to stick more with the coach than the players. He said close calls his teams had as far back as 15 and 20 years ago are etched into his memory.
The Cats seem to have the mindset McKeown hoped they would.
“We fought hard and we played hard,” senior forward Ellen Jaeschke said. “It hurts because we know we could have won. But we’re just ready to focus on Houston Baptist and take it to them.”
Reed also said the team was ready to move on from Kansas State.
“I always say it nags that whole night and the next morning you just have to take it as a lesson and try to improve on it for the next time,” she said.
Both players said the confidence the team gained in Monday’s effort will be especially valuable going forward. The Cats also saw they needed to box out better to prevent second-chance shots for their opponents and execute better on layups.
In addition to learning to play for 40 minutes, improved consistency on defense and attacking more on offense were emphasized by McKeown as areas for improvement, not just for the upcoming game but for the whole season.
One interesting side effect of giving Kansas State all it could handle was an increase in recognition for NU because the game was televised on the Big Ten Network.
“I got a lot of calls and e-mails from people who watched the game, and they really liked what they saw,” McKeown said.
It is important that the players do not forget what they learned from their last loss about playing hard non-stop until the final buzzer. But as the coach said, the more valuable lesson is that they have the ability to compete with the best.
Concentrating on the positives like McKeown wants, rather than dwelling on the negative end result, might make the Cats’ third attempt to pick up their first win a successful one.
