By Woodrow Carroll
The Northern Illinois men’s basketball program last week had the makings of one the best runs in a long time. Then was a difficult-to-fathom 87-69 home defeat at the hands of Ball State Saturday, Jan. 28.
Prior to the defeat, Northern Illinois won four of five games. In that stretch were road victories over Miami (Ohio) and Eastern Michigan. The real eye-opener, however, was the Huskies’ 86-76 conquest of Mid-American Conference (MAC) leader, Kent State, Tuesday of last week.
The Golden Flashes of Kent State entered DeKalb undefeated, 6-0, in Conference. The three non-Conference defeats suffered by Kent were to Houston, Gonzaga, and College of Charleston, three teams that entered the week with a combined 57-7 won-loss record. Pretty good company for Northern Illinois.
The Northern Illinois lone setback in that five-game stretch was 84-67 to Toledo. The visiting Rockets stormed to a 41-23 halftime advantage to make the final 20 minutes an exercise in futility for Northern Illinois.
Northern Illinois and Ball State each was 4-3 in MAC at game-time Saturday. Similar to the Toledo game, the Huskies staggered out of the gate.
Ball State was in front, 49-33, at the halftime break. Ball State was ahead as much as 72-50 in the final half and cruised to the victory.
Huskies’ Kaleb Thornton, with 18 points in the loss to Ball State and David Coit with 20 points led Northern Illinois in scoring. In the upset victory over Kent State, Coit scored a career high of 32 points with 11 of 11 free throws.
The loss to Ball State again deprived the Huskies of winning two straight games at home. It’s difficult to believe Northern Illinois has suffered three seasons since recording back-to-back victories at the Convocation Center in DeKalb.
Northern Illinois, 8-13, was seeking to get back on track this week with road games at Western Michigan, Tuesday, and Bowling Green, Friday.
• Northwestern is well-positioned for a berth in the NCAA men’s basketball postseason tournament. The Wildcats entered this week with record of 15-5 overall and 6-3 in the Big Ten Conference, the latter good for the second place in the Conference. In the Big Ten, a solid showing is usually good for an NCAA invitation. The Wildcats’ NCAA tournament berth would be most welcome.
The NCAA men’s basketball tournament was first held in 1939. Only once has Northwestern qualified for the tournament, in 2017.
As much as anything, Northwestern’s playing in the Big Show in 2017 was a product of the Big Ten’s prestige.
Northwestern ended up with a 10-8 record in Big Ten in 2016-2017. The Wildcats’ Conference record put them in a 5th-place tie with Michigan. Still, Michigan won the Conference tournament championship! Just how good was the Big Ten that season? Eight teams ended up with 20 or more victories. Rutgers, which finished 14th and last in the Conference with a conference record of 3-15, concluded with an overall record of 15-18.
After winning two games in the Conference tournament, Northwestern was upended, 76-48, in a semifinal game by Wisconsin. From there it was wait and see if the Wildcats were going to the NCAA Tournament. The answer was yes.
Northwestern opened play in the 2017 NCAA tournament by edging Vanderbilt, 68-66, before falling to eventual national runner-up, Gonzaga, 79-73, to finish with an overall 24-12 record.
If Northwestern has its sights set on this year’s NCAA tournament, the get-noticed game for the Wildcats will be a Sunday, Feb.12 home game with Purdue. The Boilermakers started the week ranked No. 1 in the Nation.
Other than Purdue, the lone Big Ten team in the Top 25 is Indiana at No. 21.