All NCAA Tournament at-large berth hopes ended for Northwestern basketball the night of the home loss to Penn State a couple weekends ago. NU wasn’t on track to make the tourney entering that game, but they still had plenty of opportunities to build a resume in front of them.
The PSU loss was a resume killer, and it meant that the Wildcats had to sweep all their potential future “signature win” contests on the schedule, just to even be in the conversation. Now the new conversation is the NIT, and even that is looking like a pipe dream at best.
The Maryland road loss was gutty, but still a loss. The Indiana and Michigan State defeats were just a complete no-show. Yesterday’s loss to Iowa was decided well before halftime. Therefore the Wildcats went 0-4 in the games that needed to win in order to make the tournament.
With an RPI of 106 and a SoS of 123, it’s time to greatly revise downward the Northwestern basketball season expectations. Of course, I’m sure you dropped your standards for 2015-16 already awhile ago.
The season’s not over yet, and there’s still potential progress to be made. You just need to be realistic now about this new lowered ceiling. Here are five remaining obtainable objectives for Northwestern basketball this season.
Don’t just show progress, show progress above and beyond the Bill Carmody era
Most of the media here have amnesia regarding the achievements of Chris Collins’ predecessor.
Bill Carmody flirted with the NCAA Tournament 2008-2012 as he went to four straight NITs. He beat top ten teams, both on the road and at home once in awhile. Carmody beat Michigan State, when they were #7, as recently as 2012.
Yet when Collins won at the Kohl Center and at Indiana’s Assembly Hall in 2014, the local media acted as if something revolutionary had just taken place.
The “New NU Era” was just a hyperbolic marketing slogan. It’s not literal fact. Collins obviously wasn’t expected to make the dance this year, and I doubt many believe he will next year. However, he does need to show some progress in year three. He had a couple great wins in year one. Year two however did not build any momentum off of that.
We haven’t seen genuine progress in season three yet either. We’ve only seen the same level of general quality, but a win-loss record hyper-inflated by a much weaker schedule. This year is about general improvement; moving forward it’s about improving on what Carmody had achieved.
Win 21 games, finish with a decent league record
Carmody’s slogan/mantra was “make shots,” something this team is really having issues with this season. That needs to change, and soon, in order for Northwestern to rise above 10th place. At 15-7, 3-7 in league play, they’re not reaching .500 in Big Ten play this season. I’d say 7-11 is your absolute ceiling.
Carmody broke the school single season wins in 2010, by leading the first Northwestern basketball team to get 20 victories in a season. The next year they won 20 again. Collins needs to play Black Jack here and hit 21, as no NU team ever has. With eight games left, plus the Big Ten Tournament, and a potential consolation bracket, can they scrape together six more Ws? It would make Dr. Jim Phillips’ decision to replace Carmody with Collins look more credible if they do.
NU still has home games left against Minnesota, Rutgers, Nebraska and Illinois. They also have a trip to Penn State. If they can’t scrape six more victories together with an easy slate like that, then seriously what kind of excuses could you possibly make?
The “Super Bowl” on February 13th/Be State Champions
This Northwestern basketball team is arguably the state’s best college hoops team. I’m probably not joking about that either. I’ve detailed the horrific depths that this state’s college basketball now finds itself in. You can make a case for SIU as Southern Illinois is 18-4, 7-2 in the Missouri Valley. However, they have a DREADFUL resume. It’s much worse than NU’s/
The Salukis have a RPI of 125, 283rd Strength of Schedule. SIU’s best win is Kent State RPI 84, and they have two hideous losses that they just can’t offset (SIU-Edwardsville RPI 302 Texas-El Paso 269.
For Northwestern basketball fans though, the Super Bowl comes on February 13th when they host Illinois. It’s the only meeting of the year with the Illini and you know how much NU fans HATE them.
Quite often Illini basketball Twitter is pretty much crickets chirping; even during games. When there’s been more life, it’s usually Northwestern basketball fans Tweeting their schadenfreude. Well, that’s stopped lately as reality set in for the Wildcats and that 13-1 start is now ancient history. Credit Illini fans though; I didn’t seeing them chirping on Twitter while NU was being obliterated by MSU, Indiana, Iowa etc.
Make no mistake, this is the worst Illini team since I’ve been alive. That’s not hyperbole, you have to go back to a time long before I was born, the mid 1970s to find an Illinois team this atrocious.
However, beating them will still be a big deal for Northwestern, if they can get it done.
NIT victories
With a pre-conference schedule softer than 800 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, this was the year to get back into the NIT and do something Carmody never did- advance past the NIT quarterfinals. In fact, no Northwestern basketball coach has ever done that.
Of course, getting a NIT bid would require winning at both Michigan and Purdue, and going 5-3 down the stretch.
Win something big, do it in Indianapolis
Something else Northwestern basketball has never done- reach the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. This Wildcats team returned 88 percent of their points and 78 percent of their rebounds from last season, so if they don’t improve now, when will they?
Sure, there’s injuries and shooting woes, but you know who else has injuries and shooting woes? every other team in the country. It’s time to get something done this March.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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