Finally, the “basketball gods” have smiled upon Chris Collins and his Northwestern basketball program.
“I’m a believer in the basketball gods, I got that from Coach K, there’s basketball gods and sometimes the basketball gods are really harsh to you; and sometimes they can be good to you when you deserve it.”
“I really feel that shot by Uthoff [to send the game to overtime] went in to test us, in a sick kind of way,” said Collins.
“We’ve had so many of those games.”
Indeed they have; about half of the ten contests NU lost in conference play could have easily been wins. Northwestern had chances to win in in the final minutes in five of those ten.
As the Wildcats lost in every way imaginable; and also in some ways that no one could even imagine, I’ve seen SB Nation’s Purdue site Hammer and Rails tweet out “God hates Northwestern basketball,” (@HammerandRails), quite often during the conference season.
A lot of what’s transpired on the court during league play for NU would back up that tweet.
NOT TODAY THOUGH!
Call it karma, the basketball gods, providence, serendipity, “what goes around, comes around” etc. but there isn’t a team and a coach in the Big Ten currently more “love to hate ’em” than Fran McCaffery and Iowa right now.
McCaffery was once again defensive and surly towards the media today. He’s been testy and rude in every press conference since the Adam Woodbury eye-poking story blew up nationally. Today, when a reporter asked McCaffery if he’s frustrated by the loss at Northwestern, he snapped back with a sarcastic “what do you think?” and then abruptly ended the session.
So if indeed there are basketball gods, and those deities are just, then it’s fitting Iowa would fall victim to Chris Collins today. Adam Woodbury was 0-5 from the field to boot!
“Losing stinks and winning is fun. That’s what sports is about, that’s why it’s fun. That’s why we compete,” said the second year Head Coach.
Chris Collins said his team had a very different look today then they did in the games that NU failed to close.
“The looks I saw in the huddle were determined, and different from those against Michigan State and Maryland.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive Inc.
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