Northwestern hadn’t lost to DePaul since the turn of the decade. Five years of dominance, taking care of business against its smaller crosstown rival. A “little brother” of sorts.
That was not the case on Friday night. In fact, the roles were reversed. Northwestern was the “little brother.” Literally. Both smaller in size and in depth, the Blue Demons exposed the Wildcats’ Achilles’ heel in their 20-point win.
“Our offense really struggled tonight,” said head coach Chris Collins in his postgame presser.
“A lot of it had to do with [DePaul]: their switching, their physicality, their ball pressure. I thought when the game was in the balance, we had a number of opportunities where we left points on the table in the open floor.”
Separation was nowhere to be found for NU in this one; its largest lead was two points, and it’s because of personnel.
DePaul’s pair of 7-footers Fabian Flores and Magoon Gwath anchored the Blue Demon defense, combining for 14 rebounds and four blocks on the night. DePaul finished with 45 and 11 in those categories, respectively, as its guards supplemented its play down low with relentless aggression and physicality, turning the game into a complete scrap.
And Depaul won in the margins where Northwestern lacked. Collins didn’t avoid that. He took responsibility for it.
“[Ade] Popoola had three offensive rebounds, [Noah] Meeusen had four — he’s the point guard. [He] wasn’t 7-foot. That’s seven offensive rebounds from their two guards. It’s got to be a collective effort. We knew they had good shot blocking. I thought we made some really poor decisions by taking some weak shots around the basket that they just cleaned up easily…we are shorthanded on the front line right now, but that’s not an excuse. You got to come out, and you got to compete.”
In a world where 20% of last year’s roster returned for the 2026-27 season, this rendition of the Wildcats eerily reflects what ‘Cats faithful saw last year: a small unit that struggled to keep opponents off the glass, giving up far too many second-chance points that its offense couldn’t make up. An offense that lived and died with one guy having a 25-point night.
Collins says it’s not fair to compare this year’s squad to last year’s in that same press conference, but if you’re a Northwestern fan, it’s awfully hard not to right now. Good defense doesn’t matter if the offense can’t keep up and the rebounding isn’t there.
“If you would have said to me they were going to shoot 35% and we were going to hold them to 67 points, I would have felt really good about our chances. But our offense really let us down tonight,” said Collins.
Same song, different orchestrators.
This year’s squad doesn’t have an offensive identity through the first four games of the season (and two exhibitions). It seems to change based on what’s presented each night, which works with low-to-mid-major that NU is more talented than, but it falls apart when the playing field is level.
In the second half on Friday, that’s exactly what happened. The Wildcats couldn’t get into their offensive sets often — reflective of their exhibition against Iowa State — and you feel how uncomfortable the team was with what felt like a sped-up shot clock.
“One of the things they made us play a lot of one-on-one. They were switching almost everything,” Collins said. “There were times when we got a little stagnant, and then guys were kind of standing and just watching Jake or LA try to play one-on-one against a set defense.”
The Collins philosophy completely went out the window against DePaul. What’s next? Recovery. Getting up and moving forward with the same goal in mind.
“Tonight we got knocked to the mat. I’m anxious to see how our guys are going to respond. The first time you kind of get knocked down, do you allow that to then trigger multiple games, or do you come back and you figure out a way on Monday night how to win?”
Maybe the greater question is: how does NU avoid a repeat season of slow second halves and lack of boards?
No answers yet.
