It would be easy to look at Northwestern’s 6-9 Big Ten record and shrug this season off as another disappointment, a string of backbreaking losses and late-game flops on national television.
You could do that. But you would be wrong.
NU has certainly given its fans their share of heartbreak this year (Read: Feb. 12 vs. Illinois). Three straight losses after starting 13-7 left the Wildcats’ dreams of a first-ever NCAA tournament berth all but dead. Coach Bill Carmody has juggled NU’s rotation almost as much as he waves his arms during games.
Behind the macabre, though, is a team on the rise, a team with twice as many Big Ten wins this season as the previous two seasons combined.
The Cats showed just how far they’ve come Wednesday, albeit against an Indiana team gutted by Kelvin Sampson and his magic cell phone. Powering away from the overmatched Hoosiers late in the second half, Carmody’s squad displayed the one talent it had been missing all year: the ability to close out games.
Over the last 13 minutes, NU fired off a 34-14 run, turning a 41-39 nailbiter into a good, old-fashioned 75-53 beatdown – on the road, no less.
The blowout set all sorts of records that will surely be chronicled on message board and alumni blogs into next week. The win was NU’s first at Assembly Hall in 40 years, it was the biggest margin of victory in a conference game in 10 years… blah, blah, blah.
History makes for great roundtable discussions. I’m far more interested in how the Cats pulled away from the suddenly hapless Hoosiers.
The run was keyed by a familiar face: Craig Moore. The senior gunslinger drained three 3-pointers in the second half, finishing 5-7 from long range to help bury Indiana.
But Moore was far from alone. No fewer than five players finished in double figures, including defensive specialist Jeremy Nash, who spends more energy defending the perimeter than most players do in the entire game. The Hoosiers couldn’t focus on just Moore and Kevin Coble – they had to guard everybody, and they couldn’t.
Moreover, the Cats flawlessly executed the two tenets of the Carmody system: Make shots, force turnovers. NU shot 57 percent from the field and 56 percent from downtown, keeping the pressure on Indiana to respond offensively. Led by the Nash, the Cats forced the Hoosiers into 17 turnovers, which became 25 points on the other end.
Put it together, and you get a lead so big even NU fans could relax with two minutes left.
Incidentally, that last Big Ten blowout came on Feb. 4, 1999, and was buoyed by 29 points from future NBA player Evan Eschmeyer. Esch is arguably the greatest player in NU history, and this generation of Cats knows there is no one like him on this team. They need a team effort to win, and Wednesday they got one.
So, as a certain president might say, where do we go from here? There are just three games left in the regular season, including tough road tests at Purdue and Ohio State. Even if the Cats somehow win all three contests, they still probably need two wins in the Big Ten tournament to even consider March Madness. The NIT is the most likely possibility, the red-headed stepsister of the NCAA tournament and an automatic pink slip if you work at Duke or Kentucky.
Whatever. We’re not Duke. And after 10 years of futility, let’s embrace the success we’ve seen from this mercurial, maddening, mightily improved team.
