The numbers defining the 2015-16 Northwestern basketball season are an interesting dichotomy. You see 20-11 and you think “good.” Then you see the 8-10 league record, in a tough Big Ten, and your thoughts are “okay, alright, not too bad.” Typical NIT team, that’s cool.
When you take a closer look though, and you see an RPI of 106, a SoS of 132 and just one RPI top 80 win, you think “meh.”
It’s really hard to call a season in which the school record for regular season wins is broken a “meh” year, but that’s exactly what it was.
2015-16 Northwestern basketball was rather pedestrian and uninspiring. It wasn’t bad, but it’s wasn’t captivating either. This is not how should describe a team that could break the school record for single season wins today.
Northwestern was really good at crushing really awful teams into a million little pieces. They did it in the non-conference, as well as in the Big Ten. They just weren’t anything when it came to beating good teams. Their best win is Wisconsin, which is no doubt a solid, quality victory (RPI 30). However, they caught the Badgers at a very opportune time, when Greg Gard’s bunch was still well under .500 in league play.
The Badgers went on a journey from a team that lost to lowly Western Illinois at home to a side that took out the Big Ten heavy weights and punched their ticket to the big dance.
NU beat them at a time when they were still closer to the former than the latter. However, they all count the same. (Sort of)
Year three of Chris Collins Northwestern basketball saw a slight improvement over year’s one and two. The marginal improvement just looks a lot better because record is beefed up by feasting on weaker teams. It’s really just window dressing. The next best win for Northwestern basketball this year, after UW, was Virginia Tech (RPI 84).
If they beat Michigan today that would be the knew second best, but they would also need to take out Indiana in the nest round to have a true signature win this season. Collins had two of those his rookie year (at Indiana, at Wisconsin) and none last year.
This year, they beat all the teams they were supposed to, and upset none of the teams that they weren’t supposed to beat. It was all extremely predictable.
Yes, Collins moved closer to bringing Northwestern basketball to its first ever NCAA Tournament, but only slightly closer.
Meanwhile his predecessor, Bill Carmody, completed a special run tonight and now heads back to the NCAA Tournament with his new school, Holy Cross.
The #9 seeded Crusaders were a 2000-1 shot to win the Patriot League Tournament and reach the big dance. However, they won four road games and they’re dancing now!
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