Entering Wednesday night’s contest against Illinois, the Northwestern Wildcats could take solace in the fact that they were facing a team they had previously beaten three times in a row at home.
However, NU’s clutch home victories against its cross-state rival seemed to have no bearing on this year’s rendition. The ‘Cats fell 79-68 against a No. 13 Fighting Illini squad that capitalized on mistakes and scored consistently on the interior.
“We’re playing really hard, guys,” Wildcat head coach Chris
Collins said postgame about his squad after it fell to 8-9 and 0-6 in the Big Ten. “That’s what’s frustrating.”
Frustrating, indeed. And although the Wildcats made big plays in front of a divided crowd — as they have in past home Illinois games — the Fighting Illini proved too much to overcome in the end.
But what felt strange about Wednesday’s matchup is that the Wildcats didn’t lose in their typical ways. Sure, the ‘Cats allowed Illinois to get offensive boards, but they only suffered a minus-three rebound margin in the contest as a whole. The ‘Cats also shot a respectable 36% from deep, and they showed a willingness to make lineup switches, starting first-year guard Jake West for the first time all season in place of Jayden Reid.
At times, the results were positive. West was quiet in scoring just three points, but he managed to make some impact plays while holding down the fort defensively. In addition, Nick Martinelli had what Illinois head coach Brad Underwood called a “quiet 20” during the latter’s postgame praise of NU’s star forward.
And then there was Reid, who seemed to have a fire under him playing off the bench. The USF transfer scored a career-high 28 points in 31 minutes, showing a willingness to take tough shots and a penchant for knocking them down in critical situations. If the ‘Cats are able to get more performances like that out of their 5-foot-10 guard, their rest-of-season outlook will almost certainly be far brighter.
“It was the same mindset for me,” Reid said about coming off the bench. “Just do anything the team needs.”
On Wednesday, the team needed Reid, and he certainly did his part while battling hard defensively against an Illinois lineup with a lot of size. But in the end, the precision passing of the Fighting Illini was what doomed the ‘Cats. NU’s passing game continued to look slow and out of sync, while Illinois was able to generate tons of open looks and important buckets in the paint.
The Fighting Illini are a quality basketball team, and this year, their talent was simply too much for Northwestern to overcome. Nonetheless, Underwood’s respect for the Wildcat program continued to shine through postgame, 404 days after his quote calling for people to “wake the h*ll up and realize this is a really good team with a really good basketball coach.”
“It’s never easy playing against [the Wildcats],” Underwood said on Wednesday. “No one has any more respect for Chris Collins than I do.”
Clearly, despite the loss, the respect for Collins’ program still exists. Nonetheless, it’s past time for a reckoning with this basketball team.
In reality, Northwestern sits at 0-6 in the Big Ten. It lacks the identity of past teams that managed to take down Illinois. Every accumulated loss brings the team closer to an unrelenting disaster of a season.
It’s clear that the character of this Martinelli-led team is strong. But the frustration for fans and players alike has been about the lack of on-court results. If the losses keep piling up, it’s fair to wonder just how long the proverbial NU train can keep chugging along.
“We’re definitely battling,” Martinelli said. “We’re laying our hearts on the line each night and just can’t get it done.”
Heart has been what has driven the NCAA Tournament teams of Northwestern’s past, and it’s also what drove the ‘Cats to their three straight home victories against the Illini, capped off by last year’s win in a truly electric atmosphere. In a lot of ways, though, that win feels like the last relic of a past Wildcat era. The old NCAA Tournament guard is largely gone, and once Martinelli departs, no leaders from those successful teams of the past will remain.
The talent is there, but the team-centric basketball of NU’s past is missing, and it has been for most of the season. Only time will tell if the Wildcats can rise out of their funk.
