Sunday night, as the Northwestern basketball team was utterly destroyed at home by #4 Wisconsin, it reminded observers of just how far Northwestern has to go before becoming competitive again. Yes, the Badgers are the class of the league, head and shoulders above everyone else, but the Wildcats were never competitive in that game.
However, the Wisconsin Badgers are the perfect example of what Northwestern basketball Coach Chris Collins should aspire to. Their program is an excellent role model for NU.
“They are truly an elite team, I think they’re one of the few who could really be there at the end,” said Collins of Wisconsin.
Said Northwestern basketball player Tre Demps of the blowout Sunday night:
“I think everyone of us got blown by, at some point.”
Yesterday, we began our two-part feature on the future of Northwestern basketball. On Monday we looked at the current freshmen on the team. Today, we’ll look at the incoming freshmen. As we said, 2016-17, when the current freshmen are juniors and next year’s freshmen are sophomores, is when we should see the first “green shoots” of growth.
If you’re a Chicago Cubs fan, you should be familiar with this drill, especially under the Theo Epstein regime and his longer than long term rebuilding plan. And the Cubs, Blackhawks and Northwestern are all in bed with each other anyway via WGN so this isn’t news to anyone.
“This is a process, we all knew what we signed up for,” said Collins of the Badgers.
“Men’s bodies versus boy’s bodies. There’s a big jump between what you look like at 19 versus what you look like at 23,” said Collins said referring to the youth of his team versus the experience of Bo Ryan’s side.
Ryan provides an exemplar of what Northwestern basketball can aspire to be- a place where the coach does the cliche “recruiting to his system.”
Neither the Wisconsin nor Northwestern consistently pursue 5-star or 4-star recruits. You rarely, if ever find someone headed to UW or NU in the McDonald’s All-American game. One-and-done will never ever happen in Madison or Evanston.
Instead, Wisconsin gets talented guys who fit a certain mold prioritized by their coach. This identity is well-established at Wisconsin. Credit to UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, in both sports, they know exactly who they are.
“Kaminsky was not Kaminsky when he was a freshmen,” said Collins.
“He’s only been Kaminsky the past two years. He hardly played as a freshmen. They’re a developmental program, they develop guys, they work, they get better and then you see the finished products.”
“Let’s put a couple years of experience and strength on Bryant McIntosh and Vic Law and Scottie Lindsey and add some more pieces and then let’s see where we are.”
Northwestern basketball hasn’t established their identity yet, it will take time for Collins to do so. He needs three-four classes of his own guys, made to run his system. The current upperclassmen on Northwestern were recruited to run a Princeton offense and a 1-3-1 zone defense. Let’s look at the next wave of players to run Collins systems as the culture of Northwestern basketball changes as the Collins regime develops.
Jordan Ash, like Vic Law, is a highly rated recruit from a prestigious Catholic school in the Chicago suburbs. Ash hails from St. Joseph’s high school in Westchester, which you might have seen in the famous documentary “Hoop Dreams.” The program led by the legendary Coach Gene Pingatore produced Isaiah Thomas, Evan Turner and Demetri McCamey.
Ash’s teammate, Nick Rakocevic, could also end up in the Big Ten. Illinois and Wisconsin are recruiting him heavily. As are all the blue bloods, UCLA, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas etc.
Back to Ash, the 6-2, 175 shooting guard will provide the Cats with an outside scoring threat. This will be a glaring need once Tre Demps and Jershon Cobb exhaust their eligibility.
Entering NU next year along with Ash is 6-8 forward Aaron Falzon. The four star recruit is ranked #91 overall by ESPNU and #99 by Rivals. Falzon is one of the higher ranked recruits to come through Evanston in quite awhile. With two bigs and two littles, you have a nice core nucleus in place.
So, as you grow weary of the uninspiring results this conference slate, if the Big Ten season manifests itself in numerous losses, look to the future of Northwestern basketball: Vic Law, Bryant McIntosh, Jordan Ash and Aaron Falzon.
In other words, NU hoops fans need to emulate the title of a Green Day hit song from 1994 and take the “Longview.”
“bite my lips and close my eyes….take me away to paradise…..”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2