Women’s Basketball

Two days after Northwestern’s season ended with a 55-45 loss to Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament last March, I ran into Big Ten Network broadcaster Lisa Byington, who had called both of the Wildcats’ conference tournament games.

We spent a few minutes discussing where guard Lindsey Pulliam stood among other first years in the conference and how forward Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah had transformed her game during the season. Then Byington surprised me, saying she had an important question she wanted to ask about the team.

Had coach Joe McKeown told me his expectation that NU would crack the top-20 and the NCAA Tournament in 2018-19? Or was the first time he’d made such a bold prediction in his pre-tournament meeting with the Big Ten Network?

I told Byington that McKeown had been trumpeting this since late-February, and at the time, it seemed strange to us that the coach of a 12-20 team would be so certain of the Cats’ trajectory.

The cascade of expectations began on February 25 after a 63-50 win over Rutgers, the ninth-best team in the conference.

“When we move into Welsh-Ryan next year, you’re going to see my team and you’re going to see the depth,” McKeown said after the game against the Scarlet Knights. “You’re going to see us be a top-20 team again. So look out. Don’t schedule us next year.”

At that point in the year, the Cats had lost nine of their last 10 games and had clinched a bottom-three seed in the Big Ten Tournament. However, McKeown was confident after Pulliam led the team with 23 points and Kunaiyi-Akpanah added 12 points and 20 rebounds.

In NU’s next game, a 68-63 win in the Big Ten Tournament over No. 13 seed Wisconsin, Pulliam scored 24 on a number of impressive and contested pull-up jumpers. It was arguably the best game in her young career — it was certainly the one with the biggest stakes — and then-freshman guard Jordan Hamilton had a statement to make after the game.

“I hope (the Badgers) remember how hard it was,” she said. “I hope that they remember that Northwestern is not a team you can just roll over on.”

McKeown added, “I want them to respect how good this team is now.”

The next day in the second round against Iowa, the Cats trailed 22-1 after the first quarter in their first nationally televised game in almost a month. NU cut the deficit to 11 by halftime and eventually all the way down to five, though the Hawkeyes pulled away for an 10-point win that ended the Cats’ season.

“We showed a lot of heart and a lot of fight,” McKeown said in his final media appearance of the year. “I was just proud of our effort all year. We had some injuries and were real young, but it was a great learning experience for us.”

The following weekend, Byington and I were trying to put the pieces together and figure out what McKeown had meant by all this.

It’ll be difficult for the Cats to live up to the high expectations they’ve set for themselves, but McKeown wouldn’t be the first basketball coach to try to speak something into existence. His most common refrain throughout last season was that NU started two freshmen guards who didn’t play like it, and Pulliam and Hamilton demonstrated upgraded perimeter shooting and playmaking in Sunday’s exhibition win against Lewis.

It’s true that setting low expectations can be a key to finding satisfaction. But it’s refreshing having a coach who couldn’t think more differently.

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Twitter: @2021_charlie