Northwestern senior point guard Daniel Richard Buie, colloquially known as Boo Buie, is living it up in his fourth college basketball season. Boo Buie, not to be confused with Baby Booey, the nickname given to Howard Stern show producer Gary Dell’Abate, is averaging a new career high in scoring, rebounding, steals, assists and free throw percentage.
Then you have his team, which moved into second place in the Big Ten standings today with a 81-61 win at home over Minnesota.
NU is quietly building a very solid postseason resume, and as it is stands now, they would be in the double bye of the Big Ten Tournament come mid-March. Earlier this season, Buie became the 39th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points.
But he’s been a major impact player since day one. Let’s flashback to his rookie season in 2019-20.
“Look at who he’s played against these past two games, Cassius Winston and Charlie Moore, two old point guards that are very good,” said Northwestern coach Chris Collins during the rookie season of Boo Buie.
“So what better experience for him to not only play, but to get 26 and 25.”
Buie is a pure scorer kind of point guard, who specializes in the long-range jump shot.
“I thought he was unbelievable tonight,” said Michigan State coach Tom Izzo after the two teams met that season. “He had what, 26 points? Unbelievable.”
Then DePaul coach Dave Leitao added, after playing Northwestern that season.
“[Buie’s] skill is obvious, catch and shoot from deep, puts it on the floor, attacks, got a nice touch standing still or on the move.”
“There was no moment that he wasn’t ready for…helluva freshmen not just skill, but poise, when a freshman can do it, there’s a wow factor to it.”
Buie is the half-brother of Northwestern assistant coach Talor Battle, one of the best players in Penn State history.
Point guard was the number one position of need for NU when Buie first came to Evanston, and he’s filled the bill, and then some.
“We brought him here to be the guy at the position,” Collins said when Buie first arrived.
“He’s made a big jump over the past couple of weeks, he’s fearless…His confidence has grown, but he’s a cocky kid anyway, grown up with brothers who played at this level.”
“He’s been around the game. Now he’s just got to continue to study the game, and I’m really excited about his future.”
Now looking back at it- that future has arrived, and it has been very exciting and interesting to say the least.
Now it’s time to flash back to the present tense, where NU enters the final full month of the regular season in sole possession of second place in the league.
Boo Buie is one of the team’s most important players, in every way, shape and form, just as he has been during all four of his years in Evanston.
In the postgame presser, Buie discussed the zone defense that NU faced in Minnesota today:
“We were prepared for the zone. We knew they liked to go under on ball screens. Also, the middle of the zone we had to do a good job of attacking it or passing it to the middle. Once you get to the middle it’s hard to guard.”
Buie also discussed the advantage of getting to stage home conference play in front of fans again this season, versus last term, when a wave of the Omicron variant of the covid-19 virus limited attendance.
“Having that extra set of voices now is good,” Buie said of the regained home court advantage.
Boo Buie and Northwestern return to action on Tuesday night when they travel to Iowa for another rescheduled COVIDed out game. They’ll then host Michigan on Thursday night. Like last week, NU will play three times this week.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
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