It’s official, the 2015-16 Northwestern basketball season is now over. Of course, you pretty much knew that once you heard the seniors, Alex Olah and Tre Demps, speak postgame in the Big Ten Tournament. They both gave enough verbal cures that, once you read in between the lines, it became clear this team wasn’t going to accept a CBI or Vegas 16 bid.
Especially so for Demps, who candidly aired all his grievances and discontent in the locker room in Indianapolis.
If you’re a Northwestern basketball fan and you haven’t read his comments or heard the audio I suggest you do that here.
Demps made powerful statements about not just basketball but race, economics and class in America. It was definitely a meaningful way to close the door on his collegiate basketball career.
Getting back to the program at large, you also knew the NIT was out once they lost to Michigan because they just didn’t have the resume for it. Losing in such heart-breaking and controversial fashion was very unfortunate, but that’s what happens when you schedule as exceedingly soft as NU did this pre-conference season.
Can’t say “thank you” enough to Alex, Tre and Joey for all they have done for this program and for @NorthwesternU! pic.twitter.com/CedEjbvoLR
— Northwestern Basketball (@NUMensBball) March 14, 2016
Their extremely weak non-conference schedule is a big reason they’re not playing in any postseason tournament right now. This team won 20 games and tied the school single season wins record, yet they still had an RPI in the 100s at the end of it all.
Schedule somebody and maybe you go to the NIT. Nevertheless, as we’ve chronicled before, the program showed some progress this season. It wasn’t a lot of progress forward, but there was noticeable improvement. That improvement is also then window-dressed into looking like a much bigger step forward, due to the weak schedule.
Said Northwestern basketball coach Chris Collins in reflection of the season that just ended:
“I’m really proud of my guys. We don’t have that brand name on our chest, but you know what? We play good basketball. We’re a good team now. I hope people take notice of that. I hope people take notice of that. We’re a good basketball team and a good program. And we’re going to keep getting better and hopefully one day we will be viewed as such.”
All in all, the biggest and best Northwestern basketball story of the year is former NU Coach Bill Carmody, who now leads his new team in purple, Holy Cross, into the big dance on Wednesday night.
Carmody will take on Southern U. in the play-in game Wednesday night on TruTV. Get your Chardonnay, shoulder shrugs, and Princeton Offense study guides ready. #MakeShots #MakeShots
Also, we need a new hashtag for those who will be watching and rooting Carmody on.
@PaulMBanks we gotta settle on a hashtag for selfies of ol Carmody sympathizers wearing ascots and sipping wine that night.
— MacArthur Antigua (@macarthur31) March 14, 2016
Maybe we can hashtag #CarmodyMethod? It’s been allowed and approved by Carmody’s son Michael:
@bkbtNUmbers @PaulMBanks @macarthur31 You guys have my permission to use #CarmodyMethod if it helps. I will be.
— Michael Carmody (@MadCarmody) March 14, 2016
Both Collins, and Carmody’s former players still currently at NU spoke highly of him on Thursday.
For the full list of game tip times, channel assignments and announcer pairings go here.
Moving ahead to next year, the graduation of Demps and Olah means that this team is unquestionably Collins’ now. All of the Carmody recruits are now gone, leaving a roster of Collins’ guys meant to run his system. Taphorn and Lumpkin are the only Carmody signees left on the roster.
Bryant Macintosh is unquestionably the alpha dog now. Who will be second banana? Who will be the tertiary option? Those are great questions. Sanjay Lumpkin? Scottie Lindsey? Aaron Falzon? Vic Law?
Once again Northwestern basketball will be lacking talent and depth up front. 6’10” freshman from Hinsdale South Barret Benson will likely step right in get major minutes. The you other incoming freshmen are guard Isiah Brown and the only member of the trio with a top 100 national rating, Rapolas Ivanauskas (#64 overall by Rivals, #89 overall by Scout).
When you look at who’s coming in, and who’s leaving, you essentially see a team that will be playing again in the #8 vs #9 Big Ten Tournament game, or perhaps the #7 versus #10. The Wildcats entered this season returning 88 percent of their points and 78 percent of their rebounds from last season, so they were expected to make progress this season. With that kind of returning experience, you must get better.
Northwestern basketball will be greener next season, and not in a Michigan State kind of way. However, inexperience will not be an excuse, as expectations will only get higher.
Next season, you’ll see the true effect of Chris Collins making over the Northwestern basketball program. Now we’ll truly see what he’s built.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram