Northwestern basketball coach Chris Collins is metaphorically playing Black jack right now; reaching 21 equals success. That’s because Northwestern can break the school record for single season wins if they get four more to reach 21.
NU got their 17th triumph last night in Evanston, 58-56 over their hated in-state rival Illinois. The game was brutal to watch up until about the under 12 media time out or thereabouts, but was rather entertaining in the final minutes.
“I’m sure it wasn’t the prettiest game for you guys to watch, just as it was for me,” said Collins.
“In the second half I thought it was a different game, as both teams got into a rhythm offensively, and had a hard time stopping each other.”
Quite often Illini basketball Twitter this year during games has been pretty much crickets chirping. When there’s been more life to it, it’s usually Northwestern basketball fans Tweeting their schadenfreude. Although that pretty much stopped when NU’s 13-1 start turned into a 4-8 stretch which brought the Cats to 17-9 right now.
Credit Illini fans though; I didn’t seeing them chirping on Twitter when this Northwestern basketball team was getting blown out by MSU, Indiana, Iowa etc.
“I was fortunate to be a part of what is probably the best rivalry in all of college basketball for many years,” Collins said after the game referring to his Duke days and their battles with North Carolina.
Collins wants both Illinois and Northwestern to get a lot better than they are so that the rivalry can truly develop.
“The reason rivalries become special is when both are good and I want that. I want us (Illinois and Northwestern) to have high level games. I’m a local guy and I think that’s what Chicago and this state deserves.”
Collins said that he wishes Illinois and Northwestern basketball played twice a season, every season. He thinks Michigan and Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue and Northwestern and Illinois should all clash twice each season in order to protect the best rivalries within the conference.
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Win #17 was a big deal for Collins’ program because the Illinois game(s) is always circled on the calendar. Collins’ guys get keyed up for this one
“Of course we do. You got a lot of guys from the state playing. I want our guys to understand that it’s a big game and it should be one that everyone looks forward to.”
With a win over the Illini behind them, NU will be favored in certainly two, but possibly three, of their final five games.
Everyone projects them to win their last two home games (Rutgers, Nebraska). Their trip to Penn State is a pick’em, while the Wildcats will be heavy underdogs in their road trips to Purdue and Michigan.
Collins’ predecessor Bill Carmody broke the school single season wins in 2010, as he led the first Northwestern basketball team in history to win 20 times in one season. The next year they won 20 again.
If these ‘Cats win the three that they should, they’ll be at 20. Then Northwestern has the Big Ten Tournament, plus a potentially likely consolation bracket (the NIT is a real long shot but there’s the CBI), to give them two more cracks at hitting the magic number.
Or they could pull the upset at Michigan or Purdue and reach the mark that way. Northwestern could use a signature win too. Although the rate at which Wisconsin (RPI 58) is going, their win over the Badgers is going to look really nice when all is said and done.
Bucky absolutely pantsed #2 Maryland on the road tonight. If Northwestern finishes 8-10 in Big Ten play, in a year that the league is really strong, it would be convey true improvement too.
It would make Dr. Jim Phillips’ decision to replace Carmody with Collins look more closer to becoming the “New NU Era” that it was marketed as.
At the very least you can say this for Northwestern basketball- they are state champions. Looking at all the teams up and down the state of Illinois, NU is definitively the best one.
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