It is officially June and we are still doing Exit Surveys. In the same vein that The Floor Slap did season previews and in season spotlights for every team in the Big Ten, now it’s time to look back on everyone’s season and reflect. Going from the Bottom to the Top in the standings, we will be releasing Exit Survey’s for all 14 teams in the conference. Today, we have the 2nd place Northwestern Wildcats.
Preseason
If you looked at preseason articles for Northwestern before this season, you were not going to see positive stuff.
Since making their first tourney in 2016-17, Chris Collins and Northwestern has endured 5 straight losing seasons with at least 12 losses in the Big Ten each year.
My preview article asked the question, “What are the expectations for a Head Coach at Northwestern?”
Coaching an academic school with limited booster support like Northwestern has significant hurdles compared to other Big Ten programs.
Is it enough to win every few seasons and make the tournament once?
Collins entering this season had 2 winning seasons in 9 years. He had been above .500 in the Big Ten just once in those 9 campaigns.
Is that enough?
After arguably the greatest season in Northwestern history, Coach Collins has answered most of the questions.
The Season
Despite the pessimism I had before the season for the state of the program, there were reasons for fans to be excited about this season.
Chase Audige, Boo Buie, Ty Berry, and Robbie Beran formed a competent and experienced returning core. Northwestern was more competitive than you might remember with 7 wins in conference the year before. In my preview, I focused too much on the losses of Pete Nance and Ryan Young to UNC and Duke respectively.
Turns out Northwestern didn’t need them.
Northwestern started off hot against a typical garbage schedule. Wins over four directional schools and maybe the worst power 5 program of recent years in Georgetown promised to boost the season’s winning percentage.
The Wildcats came back to Earth with a loss to 13th ranked Auburn 42-43. This is the type of game NBAssholes say every College Game is like.
Northwestern followed that loss by getting bashed by Pitt 58-87.
I distinctly remember this point in the season and feeling confident I knew what kind of team Northwestern would be like this year. The next two months I struggled to figure out if Northwestern should be respected or if they sucked.
After being embarrassed against Pitt and Auburn, the Wildcats went into East Lansing and won 70-63. A clutch late basketball and free throws from budding star Boo Buie sealed the deal for the Wildcats.
I still kind of thought that might mean Michigan State might not be good more than thinking Northwestern was good. Early in the season you are always trying to justify a bunch of interconference results before you know if anyone is good or not.
Northwestern boosted their win column by beating Basketball powerhouses Prairie View A&M, Brown, and Chicago rivals UIC and DePaul to get to 10-2 after their non-conference schedule and have their second 5 game win streak.
Early January was peak “Is Northwestern good or not?” season. They lose at home to Ohio State by 16 to start the new year, but then beat Illinois and held on at Assembly Hall to beat IU. Um, What?
Before you could decide that Northwestern was indeed good at basketball, they drop a game at home to Rutgers after another go ahead Cam Spencer three (man, Rutgers is going to miss him). Then, the Cats lose to a 9-7 Michigan team to fall to 3-3 in conference and 12-5 overall.
Like are we sure they are good?
After a brief covid pause (yes those still happened this year), Northwestern proved they were good in late January early February.
Northwestern went on another run as Collins’ team survived a late game stalemate against Wisconsin, won by 15 in Lincoln (not easy to do this year!), and thrashed lowly Minnesota.
Then, Northwestern ran into a bad matchup in their next two losing at Iowa and again to Michigan. It was their 4th and 5th game in 11 days due to rescheduling from the Covid pause. Northwestern couldn’t score enough on tired legs to keep up.
At 6-5 Northwestern could’ve folded a bit and still had a good season, but the Wildcats regrouped and had their best stretch of the season. Northwestern won 5 straight games from here for their 3rd 5-game winning streak of the season.
Again, they survive a late game stalemate against Wisconsin. This time in Madison. Then, they win in Columbus avenging their loss to OSU. Next, Northwestern had their two biggest wins of the season by beating No.1 Ranked Purdue in Welsh-Ryan Arena and beating no.14 IU off of Buie’s dramatic game winner (yes, he pushed off). They finish off the incredible stretch with another home win over Iowa by 20 points.
Big shoutout to Chris Collins. Not only did this stretch end the silly game of, “Is Northwestern good or not?”, but it solidified them as a tournament team. Despite their 17-7 (8-5) record Northwestern was a bubble team entering the Purdue game. The win over the top ranked Boilermakers and then beating the Hoosiers cemented a spot in the Big Dance for just the second time in school history.
With the high profile performances of Buie and Audige in this stretch they also locked up the kind of cache to make the 2nd team All-Big Ten. Personally, I fell in love with Brooks Barnhizer around this stretch. He and Ty Berry were filling in as great complimentary pieces next to Buie and Audige. Collins was pushing all the right buttons, established an elite defensive identity and had coached up an experienced tournament level team.
After the best stretch of the season, Northwestern was sitting at 11-5 and, only a game and half back, had an outside shot at passing Purdue for the Big Ten Title.
Yet, the Wildcats stumbled at the finish line.
First, Northwestern blew an 18 point halftime lead to Illinois off the back of a tremendous Terrence Shannon Jr. performance. Next, they were jumped by the Terps 59-75 in College Park. Finally, Northwestern lost a backbreaking game at home to a hot Penn State team off the game winning three by Camren Wynter in overtime.
The Wildcats might have fumbled the bag, but off the back of a big Brooks Barnhizer game they finished the season with a 65-53 win over Rutgers to finish 12-8 in conference.
The ‘22-23 team set a school record with 12 Big Ten wins and tied IU for a share of 2nd place in the Big Ten. Like every team in the Big Ten this year there were plenty of highs and lows, but Chris Collins and the players delivered quite the season to remember.
The best part… it wasn’t over yet. Atypical for Northwestern.
Post Season
With two victories over IU in the regular season, Northwestern owned the tiebreaker and was the 2 seed in the Big Ten Tourney. They met Penn State for the 2nd time in 10 days and once again went into OT. Northwestern lost after missing the desperation shot in a scramble as time expired. Penn State was the story of the Big Ten tourney and Northwestern was just a forgotten casualty.
An all time season for the Wildcats earned them a 7 seed and first round meeting with Boise State.
In maybe the biggest game of the year, Northwestern’s best players showed up.
Chase Audige scored 20 points, grabbed 6 boards, and the Co-Big Ten Defensive player of the year had 4 steals in the game. While Boo Buie had 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists to lead NU to their 2nd tourney win ever. The game was tied 40-40 with 17 minutes left, and Northwestern held on to a slim lead until pulling away for good around the 4 minute mark.
After a declarative win over Boise State, Chris Collins and the Cats were up against the 2 seed UCLA Bruins.
Northwestern and UCLA was predictably a tough defensive game. Many Northwestern players really struggled. Ty Berry went 1-8 from the field and 1-6 from 3. Brooks Barnhizer went 1-8(0-3). Audige scored 16 points, but he went 6-17 (2-7) to do so.
UCLA jumped out to the early lead and built it over the first half to double digits with a 35-25 halftime lead. But, Northwestern battled back. The Wildcats clawed back in the early second half tying the ball game at 45 with 11:26 to go. The game was back and forth the rest of the way, but UCLA never gave up the lead, keeping Northwestern at bay by one or two possessions.
The Wildcats fought hard with heart and lost to a top UCLA team. It wasn’t their shooting night, but they locked in on defense and worked to stay in it. Beating Boise State and staying in it with UCLA is a great showing.
I asked before the season is it enough for a Northwestern coach to make the tournament once in 9 years? Is that a fair expectation for Northwestern fans?
Chris Collins proved he belongs at the Northwestern job this season.
This was one of the best seasons ever for Northwestern. 2nd most wins in a season, most Big Ten wins in a season ever, highest finish in almost 100 years, etc.
I think it is fair for Northwestern fans to expect to make the tournament every few years. I think it is also fair that to be relevant and have memorable tourney games once in a while is a reasonable ceiling. Ohio State and Maryland fans won’t be happy with one and dones forever, but if Collins can do that a couple more times… he might be the best coach in program history.
Looking ahead to next year, can Collins and Northwestern repeat and sustain success?
Chase Audige stayed in the draft and will turn professional. That hurts. Robbie Beran and Julian Roper transferring doesn’t help. Still, Northwestern will return its best player in Boo Buie. The next evolution of Barnhizer, Berry and Nicholson is exciting. Add in transfers like Ryan Langborg, Justin Mullins and Blake Preston to fill out the margins and you have a team ready to scrap again next year.
One of the best moments of College Basketball this season happened when Northwestern beat no.1 Purdue. It was the program’s first win over a number 1 ranked team. As fans stormed the court around them, Chris Collins and his son Ryan embraced each other and were emotional as they gave the post game interview with ESPN. You could visibly see what it meant to Collins, his family, the fans around him etc.
College Basketball doesn’t always have to be about conference titles, March Madness results, or Final Fours. Sometimes it can just be a celebration of the hard work of 13 players and the staff around them.
I hope Chris Collins can keep giving us these moments.