Men’s Basketball

Vic Law was carried off the floor on his Senior Day, the worst possible ending to a last-place season.

With just over eight minutes remaining, he collided knees with Purdue’s Carsen Edwards– he fell hard to the ground and stayed there for a few minutes. Friday, Law took to Twitter to ask Northwestern’s student body to pack the arena on his senior day, and just over 24 hours later that full crowd watched him leave the floor in writhing pain.

The Wildcats had just cut the deficit down to 7 points with an 8-0 run in the middle of the second half, but after the senior captain subbed out with an injury, the country’s No. 11 team began to run away with the game.

Purdue (23-8, 16-4 Big Ten) clinched a share of the Big Ten regular season championship beating the Wildcats (13-18, 4-16) 70-57 on Saturday in Welsh-Ryan Arena.

The Carsen Edwards show. In the middle of the first quarter, NU brought out a collection of basketball alumni dating back to the 1950s. But none of them or there teammates have ever had as much explosiveness and scoring ability as Purdue guard Carsen Edwards.

The highly regarded NBA Draft prospect finished with 21 points on 18 shots, including a dagger that extended his team’s lead to 11 points with just under four minutes to play. The Boilermakers revolve their offense around this undersized but uber-athletic playmaker, giving the ball a place to go when their offense struggled. The Cats haven’t seen this aggressive a player all season, and his style of play led the team to a conference championship.

Vic Law tried to retaliate. While Purdue has its fair share of rim protecting bigs as well as Edwards to initiate the offense, the Boilermakers aren’t as strong defensively on the wing. Purdue uses a staple of offensive minded shooters at two of the three forward spots, leaving room for Law to attack off the dribble before leaving the game.

Law finished with 13 points and led the team in scoring when he left the floor. He had one of his most assertive games of his career, attempting several shots off the dribble from well beyond the three point line. At the same time, senior center Dererk Pardon, who is typically the team’s most efficient offensive player, had just 8 points on 11 shots.

A new-look rotation. Coach Chris Collins shocked the crowd by starting walk-on Charlie Hall for the first time in his career. Even after that, Collins used lineups that had rarely played together before today.

Graduate guard Ryan Taylor was recognized on the court at senior day, but shortly after it was announced he’d be missing the game with an illness. Also junior forward Aaron Falzon, who had been a key part of the rotation in certain matchups this year, barely played after his senior day start. Instead, Collins heavily relied on junior forward A.J. Turner, who wore a No. 23 jersey in honor of senior guard Jordan Ash on senior day. He finished with a team-high 14 points. Also, freshman forward Pete Nance played significantly more minutes than usual despite struggling from the field offensively.

NU had its most success with Law, Pardon, Kopp, Turner and Gaines on the floor, but that combination still wasn’t able to produce enough offense to overcome Carsen Edwards and the cast from West Lafayette. And as the Cats tried to cut into Purdue’s lead in the last four minutes of the game, they clearly missed having Law there to lead the way.