CHICAGO — The secret is out in Evanston.
The Northwestern Wildcats are heading back to the NCAA Tournament.
It won’t be made official until Selection Sunday on March 12, and they have one more regular-season game and the Big Ten Tournament to play after Wednesday’s 68-65 loss to Penn State at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Camren Wynter’s 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left in overtime.
But the Wildcats already have done more than enough to seal their second-ever NCAA bid, including a win over then-No. 1 Purdue on Super Bowl Sunday. The only question remaining is how high they’ll be seeded and where they’ll be sent.
“I think we feel good about where we’re at,” coach Chris Collins said. “But the good part is we don’t have that pressure of (playing for a spot) on our head. It’s more about trying to win more or trying to finish in second place (in the conference). You want to play your best basketball when you get to March.
“To not have that extra pressure of ‘Man, we’ve got to win one or two more to get to the tournament …’ That can be daunting, too, especially when you’re a program that hasn’t had it very often.”
An hour and a half before Wednesday’s game, a few hundred students lined up outside Welsh-Ryan to fill the sections behind the baskets.
Northwestern may market itself as Chicago’s Big Ten team, but first things first, and persuading NU students to turn out, turn it up and make Welsh-Ryan a happening place took a little time. But they showed up again Wednesday for senior night, the Wildcats’ fifth straight sellout, and the Purple Pack did its best impression of Illinois’ Orange Krush, Duke’s Cameron Crazies and other purveyors of college hoops hysteria.
The fans, media attention and bracketology mentions have been slow in coming, but senior guard Boo Buie said the players never let that affect them.
“Quite honestly, we look at it from the perspective that we haven’t done anything to be in that spotlight,” Buie said. “That’s how we approached this whole season. Now we have done stuff to be in the spotlight, but it’s not something that’s expected, so we don’t think of it on on a daily basis.
“We don’t care about analytics, rankings. ... We’re just worried about us and winning games, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Collins said the Wildcats knew they needed to convince everyone they were for real. And once they proved themselves, they’d have to do it again.
“People would always complain about the crowds, but now that we’re winning, this is as good an atmosphere as any,” he said. “This is as tough a place to play as there is. We’ve kind of taken that mantra like, ‘We’ll get all that stuff.’ Do our jobs. Keep winning. Keep playing well. And when you do that, you’ll get your credit at the end of the day.”
In a sometimes ugly but entertaining game, the Wildcats simply could not defend Penn State’s perimeter shooting in the second half and overtime. The Nittany Lions were 10-for-16 (62.5%) beyond the arc after halftime.
Collins called it a “heartbreaking” loss on senior night but was adamant his team would not lose confidence despite a three-game losing streak.
“No one’s confidence is going anywhere,” Buie said after the game. “We know how special we are.”
Northwestern had a chance to take the lead late in OT, but Brooks Barnhizer missed a turnaround jumper to give Penn State possession in a tie game. Evan Mahaffey’s rebound of a Jalen Pickett miss led to an open Wynter, who calmly nailed his fourth 3 to start Penn State’s celebration with 0.7 seconds left.
Buie’s desperation heave at the buzzer missed, leaving Northwestern with an 11-8 conference record and in a four-way tie for third heading into the final regular-season game Sunday at Rutgers. Wynter hit 4 of 5 3-pointers and led the Nittany Lions with 24 points, while Buie paced the Wildcats with 20.
Collins liked the Wildcats’ defensive effort but noted they wasted a chance to separate themselves early when Northwestern couldn’t buy a basket.
“This is a hard league,” Collins said afterward. “I think you see, everyone has a hard time winning.”
The Wildcats impressed Penn State coach Micah Shrewsbury, who said it has been fun to see their rise in the Big Ten.
“The biggest thing I see is these guys are completely bought in,” Shrewsbury said, calling Buie and Chase Audige the best backcourt in the conference.
Unlike their initial foray into March Madness in 2017, which ended in a heartbreaking second-round loss to Gonzaga that ignited the crying kid meme, the Wildcats can’t be satisfied with just being there this time.
Northwestern’s not-ready-for-prime-time players turned into one of the best teams in one of the toughest conferences almost overnight, and now it’s a matter of doing it with the madness of March in the air.
They’ve proven with wins over Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State and Iowa that they can beat the traditionally strong Big Ten programs, and the revolving door of the Top 25 suggests there’s no such thing as an upset in this topsy-turvy season.
Heading into the final two games of the Big Ten season, eight teams were fighting for three spots to join first-place Purdue among the top four in the conference. That would earn a double bye into the quarterfinals of the tournament, which begins Wednesday at the United Center.
The Wildcats also entered Wednesday’s game one shy of tying the school record of 21 regular-season wins, set by the 2017 team. Road losses Thursday to Illinois — where Northwestern blew an 18-point halftime lead — and Sunday to Maryland increased the degree of difficulty.
“You never want to lose an 18-point lead,” Collins said. “That was frustrating because we felt we had a stranglehold on the game and they played a great second half. And Maryland is undefeated, 10-0 at home (in the Big Ten).
“We don’t want the guys to lose confidence. We did some good things. We lost. ... We knew we were going to have a tough stretch these last two weeks, with four difficult games that provide challenges.
“We’ve got to bounce back. We’ve got to approach each game like it was an NCAA game. We’re playing for a lot, with (conference tournament) seeding, with the double bye, with a potential second-place team, which has never happened, and possibly the all-time winningest team in the regular season.
“So there’s a lot out there we can still do in the season while also preparing ourselves for postseason play coming up.”
The Wildcats survived their biggest hurdle last month, one that could’ve easily sent the season on a downward spiral. Because of a COVID-19 outbreak that led to a pause in the schedule in mid-January, the Wildcats were forced to play a jam-packed, NBA-type stretch that included road games at Iowa and Nebraska, home games against Michigan and Minnesota and a home-and-away series against Wisconsin in 14 days.
“You’re going into that six-games-in-two-weeks stretch like, ‘Can we just stay above water?” Collins said. “We ended up winning four of those, which to me was a huge, positive momentum builder. And to beat Wisconsin twice in two really close games, I think it showed this team that we could do it.”
Can they keep doing it in the NCAA Tournament?
That’s a question no one dreamed of asking back in November. Now their goal is within reach.
Doubt them at your own risk.
