John Shurna led NU with 17 points, but he was only 2-9 from behind the arc as cold shooting doomed the 'Cats
Photo: Derek Tam
When an elderly woman describes your college basketball team as “embarrassing,” that’s, well, embarrassing.
If there is any benefit to supporting a perennially awful basketball team, it’s that you don’t have to experience devastating losses that kill postseason hopes. The football team has had its fair share (if I may digress: 1995 Miami (OH), 1996 Rose Bowl, 2000 Iowa, 2004 Hawaii, 2005 Sun Bowl, 2006 New Hampshire, 2007 Duke, 2008 Indiana, 2008 Alamo Bowl, 2010 Outback Bowl–to name a few).
Last year’s epic loss in basketball to Illinois came close to that kind of defeat. But NU was 13-9 at that point, and 4-7 in the Big Ten. The heartbreak came from the way NU lost as opposed to the postseason ramifications.
Then there’s last week’s loss in Iowa. It was essentially a goodbye to NCAA Tournament hopes, but the game was also in Iowa City, and the Hawkeyes at least had a couple wins in the Big Ten as opposed to winless Penn State. There was still hope after the Iowa loss, albeit a glimmer. Now, after a home loss to Penn State 81-70, the only “hope” ‘Cats fans can have is for a home game in the NIT.
Earlier this year, I talked about how the 2009-2010 ‘Cats are not your typical Northwestern.This team was pulling off games in crunch time (see: Stanford, @ Michigan, Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota), beating out-of-conference BCS schools (see: NC State, Notre Dame, Iowa State) and pounding teams they were ‘supposed to beat’ (see: Michigan, Indiana). But tonight, NU regressed to the ‘Cats we are used to. Penn State was 0-12 in the Big Ten heading into Wednesday night’s affair, but NU was cold from the field and could not come back, nor could they defend the Nittany Lions in the loss.
Teams that beat Northwestern find a hole in the defense and attack it, relentlessly. With Iowa, it was the 3-point shot. With Penn State, it was attacking the 1-3-1 defense by getting the ball under the basket for easy lay-ups. I’m one of the biggest Bill Carmody supporters there is on this campus, and he should be a candidate for Big Ten Coach of the Year, but he got out-coached by a team that acted like they needed the win more than Northwestern.
This season’s success up to this point has garnered the ‘Cats tons of well-deserved accolades and publicity, from being on the back page of Sports Illustrated to a frequent part of ESPN’s Andy Katz’s Twitter page. And considering the losses of Kevin Coble and Jeff Ryan and a gauntlet of a schedule, this team has still shocked many with its wins.
And that’s exactly what made tonight’s defeat arguably one of the most disappointing—definitely in my four years, maybe in ‘Cats history (remember, it’s not that much of a history). At 17 wins, NU was just one away from a school record, and everyone at Welsh-Ryan Arena knew the ‘Cats had to sweep the rest of their games to stay on the bubble of making history. I guess all of us should have expected a shocking loss, but that should have been Iowa. This season has spoiled us, even with an uninspiring first half that left NU down four, I wasn’t concerned at all. But the ‘Cats didn’t come back like they have all season. Luka Mirkovic didn’t hit free throws like he did against the Golden Gophers. Drew Crawford didn’t put the game on his back like he did against Purdue. Jeremy Nash didn’t hit clutch threes like he did against Illinois. It was the perfect storm for Northwestern to lose pretty much all hope of finding themselves on the NCAA Tournament bracket in March.
Let’s face reality: NU heads to Madison on Sunday where virtually no one beats the Badgers, and the ‘Cats haven’t come close in a long time. They have winnable games the rest of the way (Iowa, @ Penn State, @ Indiana, Chicago State) but their RPI will be in the 70s, if not 80s come Selection Sunday. Northwestern needs to sweep the rest of the season (which, yes, would include a win in Wisconsin) and get a win or two in the Big Ten Tournament. If they don’t sweep the season, they can only hold on hope to a miraculous run in Indianapolis to a Big Ten Tournament title (a daunting task for a team that hasn’t won a game in the Big Ten tourney since 2005).
Now that reality has set in, let’s step back and put this into perspective in an attempt to not dwell on the heartbreak. This will end up being the best team in Northwestern basketball history based on wins. They did it without their leading scorer and rebounder, and one of their most dependable bench players. They have done it against a brutal schedule and still without a whole lot of student support. This season will go down as a huge success, even if Northwestern only has a trip to the NIT to show for it.
And then we can get excited about next year.
