Northwestern had a chance Sunday to pull off a road victory in one of the nation’s toughest arenas. But NU squandered yet another opportunity handed to them by a team superior on paper.
Now, with just four games left until the Big Ten tournament, an NIT bid seems like more and more impossible by the day.
Illinois played Sunday’s game missing two players and fighting injuries on the entire roster. They were uncharacteristic in their sloppiness and poor execution, throwing passes out of bounds or into the hands of Wildcat players. Besides Rich McBride’s five three-pointers, the Illini showed little life. On one memorable possession at the end of the first half, two Illini guards passed the ball back and forth for about 25 seconds before heaving a desperation three to end the half. They were vulnerable, and good teams – or at least average ones – take advantage of these sorts of opportunities.
But the Wildcats managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again. Kevin Coble drained a three to take the lead just after halftime. For the rest of the game, the ‘Cats scored only 12 points. There was no semblance of an offensive scheme during the entire game; on multiple possessions, the ‘Cats just dribbled the ball around the perimeter, making no cuts to the basket or strong picks to open up shots. And when they did get shots, they missed many of them spectacularly.
The ‘Cats fell to 12-14 with the loss. They must win three of their last four games and then one game in the Big Ten tournament to get a winning record. That means they must beat Texas Pan-American on Wednesday night, and either sweep the home-and-home set coming up against Purdue or win one against the Boilermakers and then pull off an upset at Welsh-Ryan against a surging Indiana team.
In other words, I wouldn’t make plans to travel to any NIT games.