CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Everyone wants to be in the NCAA Tournament, and understandably so. You want to compete for a national championship, and with the nation watching closely as they always do in March. But when your program has a chance to make history and it comes in the NIT, that’s not a bad thing, and Northwestern is doing just that right now. They continued to do that with Saturday’s 85-67 win at Boston College.
The Wildcats have still never been to the NCAA Tournament, although they’ve had their chances the past two seasons. That’s a fact that has bothered some in the fan base and a reason why there has been a little speculation about the future of head coach Bill Carmody. (Not much, but frankly, more speculation than should be warranted given what he’s done there.) But progress doesn’t often come instantaneously, and this is one such example. Still, it is undeniably progress all the same.
With Saturday’s win, the Wildcats have 20 wins for the second season in a row. The program never had a single 20-win season in its entire history prior to last year, and Carmody has a sense of perspective about it all, knowing it can still be better.
“In some places, that might not be anything special, but it’s the second time in 100 years,” said the Wildcat mentor.
Hopes were high for this year’s team after a 20-win season a year ago and an NIT bid. The Wildcats brought back a lot of that team, and Carmody was optimistic about this team’s chances. But as February wore on, it became clear that the only way this team would make the NCAA Tournament would be via a Big Ten championship, and that didn’t come. They had a chance, as they played Ohio State tough in the quarterfinals, but couldn’t pull it out in overtime.
Carmody said the team was inconsolable after that loss. While the team knew before that game that they were likely going to another postseason tournament unless they won the Big Ten title, the tough loss made it a little more difficult to get back up for the NIT. They knew an NIT bid wasn’t guaranteed since the automatic bids that go to regular season conference champions that don’t make the NCAA Tournament make them harder to come by now. But they got in, and a senior has been a big reason they have moved past the disappointment from not making the NCAA Tournament and now head to the quarterfinals of the NIT.
“I think that comes from our senior captain (Michael) Thompson. He’s been playing at a high level for the last five weeks,” said Carmody. “We sat down and talked, and I said, ‘Mike, you have to play now, you can’t just ride the season out.’ He’s been a pleasure to coach, and I think it’s contagious, and he deserves a lot of credit for keeping these other guys up.”
The senior guard has been a big part of this program’s rise since coming to Evanston. He’s the school’s all-time leader in assists, third in scoring, and has started all 128 games in his career, another school record. Saturday was just another day at the office, as he scored 22 points on 8-14 shooting, including 6-12 from long range, and had six assists with one turnover.
Thompson has been part of the winningest class in school history, and by a good margin. Saturday’s win puts them at 65, seven ahead of the previous record. The 40 wins over the past two seasons are also a record over such a stretch. While the fact that teams play more games nowadays can undervalue win numbers by themselves to a degree, it’s a sign of where this program has moved.
“The program is still on the rise, and we’ve moving forward,” said Thompson. “We’re winning a lot more games, and we’re getting recruits that are highly-touted. As a team and as a coaching staff, we’re doing a lot of better things and playing really well.”
Saturday’s win broke more new ground, as Northwestern has never been to the quarterfinals of the NIT. The Wildcats put on a clinic at the offensive end, as they ran their offense very well and shot nearly 55 percent from the field, including over 63 percent in the second half. When they weren’t hitting three-pointers (they were 15-36 from long range), they were getting behind the Boston College defense for layups off of backdoor cuts. Northwestern had 27 assists on 34 field goals, a sign of how well the ball moved.
As impressive as that was, they seemed to have Boston College well-scouted defensively. The Eagles shot over 52 percent from the field and had 11 turnovers, numbers that by themselves don’t sound impressive. But in this game, possessions were at a premium because of the pace Northwestern plays at, and they were constantly disrupting the Eagles’ offense by getting in passing lanes. They never let BC star guard Reggie Jackson get going, and that went a long way towards the win.
“The coaches did a great job preparing us for it,” said junior forward John Shurna, who had 20 points and nine rebounds.
Shurna, the team’s leading scorer, was the primary helper for Thompson. All five starters scored in double figures as Northwestern rode them hard, playing them a combined 173 out of a possible 200 minutes and getting all but five points from them. Quietly, Luka Mirkovic had a stellar outing with 13 points on a perfect 6-6 shooting, seven assists and no turnovers in 29 minutes.
The Wildcats will head on the road to play either Oklahoma State or Washington State with a chance to get to New York. They have more opportunities to continue to move the program forward, and at this point that counts the most.
“We’re still able to play, it’s the postseason,” Thompson said. “It’s not the NCAA Tournament, but it’s still a chance for us to win a championship and continue to play together.”
