Northwestern’s season has been defined by a series of firsts.
Joe McKeown is wrapping up his first season as the Wildcats’ coach. Sophomore center Amy Jaeschke was NU’s first Big Ten Player of the Week in 12 years. NU’s win over NCAA tournament hopeful Minnesota was its first over the Gophers since 2000. And if games ended after the first half, the team’s record would be 15-12, instead of 7-20.
Entering the last two games of the regular season, the Cats have a chance for two more firsts – their first road victory of the year when they play Thursday at Penn State, and, if they beat Iowa on Sunday, their first winning record at home since 1996-97.
It is a far cry from competing for a postseason berth, but a marked improvement nonetheless.
“It was a goal to make us a tough team to play – to know, ‘Oh shoot, we’re going to play Northwestern,'” junior forward Kristin Cartwright said. “We’re always seen as an easy team to play, but this year I don’t think that’s the case at all.”
Many of NU’s near-misses have come at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Cats lost in overtime to Purdue, currently tied for second in the Big Ten, and fell just short against Marquette and No. 20 Kansas State.
Last season, NU won just three home games and lost by at least 15 points on six occasions. One of the first steps in McKeown’s rebuilding process was to get his team to play better at home and make it harder for opposing teams to walk out with a win.
“No matter what happens Sunday, I think we’ve accomplished that,” McKeown said. “We play with so much more confidence at home than they did last year. If you’re going to be a solid team, you have to win at home.”
McKeown said a team needs a certain fearlessness and chip on its shoulder to win games on the road.
NU is starting to embrace that concept, thanks to the toughness of freshmen Brittany Orban and Maggie Mocchi. Both have made significant impacts of late, combining for 82 points over the last three games. In each of those games, either Orban or Mocchi led the team in scoring.
“They’ve really kept this program afloat lately,” Jaeschke said of the freshmen. “They’ve both just come off seasons where they’ve won almost every single one of their games, so we look to them for that sort of attitude, that sort of swagger. It definitely helps change the mentality.”
Prevailing against Minnesota on Monday gave the Cats a huge confidence boost. They had surrendered at least 80 points in their previous two contests, and earlier in the year they suffered through a seven-game losing streak.
Rather than getting discouraged, the players bought into what McKeown and his staff were selling. Now, their work and faith in the program is paying dividends.
“Our coaches have done a great job keeping us motivated,” Jaeschke said. “It’s been tough because our win-loss record is not what we want it to be. But coach (McKeown) really talks about amnesia and forgetting the last game. I don’t think that, at any point, any player has given up on this program.”
NU now has a chance to build some momentum heading into next week’s conference tournament. There, the Cats will have the opportunity to accomplish another first – winning a Big Ten tournament game for the first time in nine years.
