By Woodrow Carroll
For a team that lost three of its final four regular-season games, Northwestern University’s men’s basketball team ended up very well.
Faced with a four-game losing streak entering this week’s Big Ten Conference tournament, Northwestern closed out regular-season play with a 65-53 victory at Rutgers Sunday, March 5, and, when the curtain came down on Big Ten play, the Wildcats found themselves the No. 2 seed in this week’s Big Ten tournament at the United Center. in Chicago. See page 9 for the schedule.
After making the NCAA tournament for the school’s first time in 2017, Northwestern had struggled again, and, the Wildcats were not predicted to do well this season.
After the Sunday victory over Rutgers, the Wildcats were 21-10 overall and 12-8 in the Big Ten tightly-compacted race. By way of comparison, the 2017 Wildcats finished 24-12 overall with a 10-8 Big Ten record that left Northwestern tied for fifth place in conference play.
Being the No. 2 seed this year means the Wildcats will end up playing the winner of the 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 9 Penn State-Illinois game.
An Illinois-Northwestern match in a quarterfinal game Friday, March 10 has all the earmarks of a real thriller. The two sides each won at home this season. Northwestern prevailed by 13 points at home in Evanston and Illinois came from 18 down at halftime to win a 76-72 overtime thriller.
Conference tournaments can be brutal. Even No. 1 Purdue and No. 2 Northwestern will have to win three games over a short three-game stretch be the Conference champion.
The Big Ten will have many teams in the men’s NCAA tournament that will be announced on television Sunday, March 12. Winning a conference tournament championship removes all doubt on qualifying for the 68-team NCAA tournament.. There are other conference tournaments where the winner is often the only team in the NCAA tournament. The Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), which in the past has had multiple entrants in the men’s finals, might find the conference tournament champion its lone representative.
In spite of an outstanding season, the Bradley Braves have reason to worry about reaching the NCAA Tournament. Bradley suffered a 77-51 loss to Drake in the championship game of the MVC tournament Sunday, March 5 in St. Louis. For a team that captured the MVC regular-season championship with a 16-4 record and ahead of Drake’s 15-5, Bradley has the best overall record, 25-9, of any of the State’s 13 Div.-I men’s teams. The Drake thumping last weekend hurt Bradley.
Once upon a time, Bradley was the best NCAA Illinois team. The Braves reached the NCAA championship game in both 1950 and 1954 only to fall first to CCNY (City College of New York) in 1950 and to LaSalle four years later.
The 1950 version of the Braves lost to CCNY in the championship game of the NIT (National Invitational Tournament) when the NIT was viewed as on a par with the NCAA Tournament.
• Northern Illinois will begin its postseason run at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 9 when the Huskies play Kent State in a MAC (Mid-American Conference0 Tournament quarterfinal game in Cleveland.
The MAC men’s tournament will be played at Rocket Mortgage Field House, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The top eight finishers in the 12-team MAC qualified. Northern Illinois finished No. 7 and will face No. 2 Kent State.
Northern Illinois head coach Rashon Burno’s Huskies ended the regular season with a record of 13-18. Northern Illinois closed 9-9 in the MAC. Kent State will be favored in Thursday’s game the Huskies for sure, however, Northern Illinois defeated Kent State, 86-76, when the two sides played in DeKalb in January. At the time, Kent State was undefeated in MAC play, 6-0.
Northern Illinois, which ended 9-21 last season, showed improved play this season as the campaign moved along. Ten of the 13 Northern Illinois victories were double-digit margins for the Huskies,. however, slow starts often proved their undoing. Home was not overly friendly! Northern Illinois was 5-4 in MAC games on the road and 4-5 at home in the Convocation Center in DeKalb.