I'm tired. I've only been a NU basketball fan for a little over four years and I'm already frustrated and mentally exhausted beyond my imagination. To those who have stuck with the program through all the years of misery: I salute you. See, I can deal with losing. Originally from Seattle, I root for the Mariners and Seahawks. All they do is lose. But Northwestern basketball is the worst kind of failure. It's the kind of failure where just when you think things are turning around, the rug is pulled from beneath your feet. I've only been a fan for 4.5 years and already there have been countless reasons to wonder why I care about sports at all. I have more on this depressing topic after the jump.
My freshman year in college Northwestern basketball started the season 10-3. Never has 10-3 looked so terrible. Even when the team experiences some success, it still feels like failure. Scores like Northwestern 40, North Florida 39, and Northwestern 41 Wheaton College 39 still are ingrained in my mind today. I can say with conviction that the North Florida game was the worst D1 or professional sporting event I've been to in my life. (The absolute worst sporting event was my sister's high school gymnastics meet, but I digress.) North Florida was in their second year of their transition to Division One, and only a Kevin Coble (more on him later) last-second jumper saved the Wildcats. The sentence that stands out in the recap remains "Tim Doyle led all Northwestern scorers with eight points."
Ah, Tim Doyle. He introduced me to the pointless spin move. Doyle would execute the spin move all the time; even when no one was guarding him. There was no rhyme or reason to it, that was just Tim Doyle. Doyle knew Northwestern was bad; he didn't fool himself into thinking the team could actually compete in the Big Ten. He summed up the NU experience when Greg Oden took Vince Scott to town one night: "I thought Vince played him as well as he could have, Oden's going to be a pro, and Vince is going to be an investment banker."
Doyle often jokes on the Big Ten Network about his time at Northwestern, and for good reason. He was a guy who got the most out of his limited skill set, but he knew all along the Wildcats could never actually compete in the Big Ten with the talent they had at the time.
Even when NU does have a good game against a good opponent, they find a way to screw it up royally. Their adventures in the Big Ten Tournament have often been comically inept during my time here. Take the 2007 Big Ten Tournament at the United Center. A furious rally led by Craig Moore propelled the Wildcats to a last possession chance at forcing overtime. Down by three, a miscommunication between Moore and Jeremy Nash on a routine pass led to a turnover and the end of all hope. MSU was not pressing after a missed free throw...Nash simply passed the ball casually to Moore...and Moore wasn't looking. Ballgame.
An early deficit, false hope, and the final macabre twist of the knife. That is Northwestern basketball.
My sophomore year was probably the low point. Without Doyle, NU went from two Big Ten wins to one. They lost to an Ivy League school for the second straight year (Cornell got 'em my freshman year, this time it was Brown.) Rock bottom specifically was a 70-37 loss to a mediocre Illinois team. The season ended with Sterling Williams, not exactly a play-maker, attempting to the last shot in a three-point game against Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament. Well, at least he wanted to take the last shot, he ended up just turning it over in classic Northwestern style. Ballgame.
At that time I wanted Bill Carmody fired. I've since changed my mind, but we'll get to that. It's impossible to discuss the life of a Northwestern fan without discussing Bill Carmody. Carmody is really all NU fans ever talk about, because the action on the court is often unwatchable. Carmody is watchable. He's the most the entertaining part of Northwestern basketball. His facial expressions are legendary. The looks of pain, anguish, and bafflement on his face are the perfect expression of all our frustrations. We are suffering with him. He has a system; it's been proven to work in the past when he was at Princeton. But the players he has here never seem to get it. During my time, there have been a couple key recruiting misses that have set the program back. Kyle Rowley was the biggest one. There was a belief among NU fans that if the Wildcats could simply get a legitimate big man, all would be well. Rowley arrived on campus in 2008 as part of the most heralded class in Carmody's tenure. John Shurna, Nick Fruendt (another huge bust), Davide Curletti, and Luka Mirkovic joined Rowley in a class that was supposed to finally get Northwestern to that ever elusive NCAA Tournament,
It hasn't happened, and I don't think it will happen. Not this year, not next year, not in the near-future.
Rowley proved to be lazy (Carmody realized this right away in his opening presser, he warned that they had to get Rowley working harder...the attempt failed.) and ended up transferring. He threw down his only dunk in his final game as a Wildcat. A 7-footer with one career dunk in two seasons despite getting a fair number of minutes...only at Northwestern. If you want to blame the coaching staff for Rowley's failure, fine, but let it be known that everyone, Georgetown and scouting services included, were excited about Rowley. He was considered a project, but you can't teach seven feet. Sometimes guys just don't work out and that can kill you in a game like basketball. You can't hide them like you can in football.
Meanwhile, the other two big men have had their moments but are simply not strong enough to compete in the Big Ten. They are not Big Ten players. But it's Mirkovic that really makes me angry sometimes. He does look like a Big Ten player, about half the time. This has been well-documented, but he's way better at home than he is on the road. On the road he might be the worst major conference college basketball starter in the nation. This is a mental issue and shows to me that he is soft. Mirkovic likes to be very demonstrative out on the court, but it rings very hollow when you can't get yourself motivated to play away from the friendly confines of Welsh Ryan Arena.
Welsh Ryan Arena is the most schizophrenic gym in the country. NU fans are very fair weather..when the team is doing well they'll show up and make W-R one of the toughest places to play in the conference. When the team is not doing well, you sit there and wonder if you're back in high school at the JV game. Just like Ryan Field, other schools' fans come out in force, but it's not as embarrassing on TV because they are generally in the upper rafters of the old building, out of sight, out of mind. Most NU fans will tell you that they are very conflicted on the gym. Part of them likes how old-school it is, part of them are furious that it lacks a video board, decent practice facilities, or the ability to accept credit cards. I haven't made up my mind either. If every game was like the Illinois game last season...the greatest atmosphere I have ever been part of, then maybe I'd be more in favor of keeping the arena as is. However, this program needs a kick in the ass...aka they need a brand new arena to spark excitement among the fans and potential recruits.
Old timers will tell you that us young NU fans are spoiled, and that is true. This is the most successful era in modern NU sports history. Football has been to three straight bowl games, and the basketball program has made the NIT in back-to-back years. However, the astonishing bad luck of the basketball program really has been a wonder to behold. Now, we arrive at Kevin Coble and John Shurna.
Shurna's freshman year was highlighted by a buzzer beater to knock off Ohio State at Welsh Ryan Arena while he was dealing with a nasty bug that had kept him in bed for most of the day. But he didn't get much playing time and was mostly a non-factor. That team was carried by senior sharpshooter Craig Moore, who finally emerged as the vocal leader the team needed, and Coble. Coble was a junior that year who had already gone through a lot. His mom was diagnosed with cancer the previous season, forcing him to miss a significant amount of games. Nonetheless, he was a proven scorer who only got better that season. His peak was a virtuoso performance in a stunning win at Michigan State. It was that squad's second straight win over a top 25 team and everyone started talking NCAA Tournament.
Of course, they forgot to remember that the team had managed to start 0-4 in Big Ten play before those wins, including a loss to Penn State. Northwestern's maddening inability to beat fellow after-thought Penn State is one of the most amazing things about this team. No one gives a rat's ass about Penn State basketball because Penn State basketball is almost always bad. But they always beat Northwestern. It is truly embarrassing.
The Coble-led team was pretty fun to watch, but the epic collapse at home against Illinois on February 12 left NU fans everywhere shaking in anger. Luka did his home thing and somehow recorded a double-double. Coble also poured in the buckets, and NU found themselves up nine with 2:20 to go. Naturally, they lost the game because they simply could not break the Illini's full court press.
The season ended with a NIT loss to Tulsa that's so forgettable the only thing I remember is that we didn't get to watch the game (it was on ESPN U, which no one who likes quality TV has), until after halftime due to the previous broadcast going to triple OT or something ridiculous like that.
Typical NU, not even their fault, but their first post-season appearance in years and no one can see it until it's already almost over.
Last year was supposed to be the year. Coble's senior season. Everyone always talked about giving Carmody until Coble's senior season, which would be his last chance to lead the team to the tournament.
The senior season never happened.
On November 16, 2009, he opted to have foot surgery after injuring himself nine days earlier at practice. He told everyone he'd be back the next season, which of course then became, "the year."
Sans Coble, NU still played very well thanks to the emergence of Shurna and freshman Drew Crawford. The kid with the goofy grin and the part-time rapper started knocking down threes and throwing down dunks like they were born to do it. They started 10-1, with their only loss to the eventual national runner-up Butler Bulldogs. Then the unthinkable happened, they entered the AP Top 25 poll at number 25. The 'Cats headed to Illinois as the ranked team for their Big Ten opener, while the Illini were unranked.
And in typical NU fashion, they lost. And then they lost again when MSU came to town. The season basically stagnated from there (including a sweep at the hands of...Penn State, and an inexcusable road loss to Iowa.) There were definitely some incredible highlights, wins over Purdue and Illinois at home stand out, but in the end, they fell short despite winning a program record 20 games.
Another NIT bid left me hating the NIT because it's basically the ugly stepchild of the NCAA Tournament. Of course, they exited nice and early with a first round loss to Rhode Island that featured a Luka Mirkovic self-destruction, including a technical foul. That was the game Rowley threw down his one and only dunk.
But all was good, because Coble would be back for a fifth year. Well, you know what happened next. Quitting the team over Italy, his injury, his lack of motivation, or probably all of the above, was the ultimate betrayal of his teammates and especially senior leader Michael "Juice" Thompson.
Thompson, Shurna, and Drew Crawford were still a nice core to have. But Thompson has been trying to do too much this year and Crawford has been extremely streaky after an excellent freshman campaign.
Meanwhile, the John Shurna high ankle sprain that occurred literally the game before Big Ten play was to start has to be the coup de grace. Shurna had propelled himself to All-American consideration, and like that...he was crippled.
Now, just as he was finally back mentally and physically from the sprain, Shurna has a concussion and will miss the Ohio State game, which is NU's last chance to make a big impact on the national stage this year.
NU is finished for this season and for the foreseeable future. Thompson is the straw that stirs the drink and he's done after this season. Without a veteran point guard, there is no way this team makes the NCAA Tournament next year unless one of the freshmen recruits is the second coming of...well...gosh I can't think of anybody.
That's because when you're a Northwestern basketball fan you don't have a strong history to remember, you have the worst history in major college sports to remember. You don't have a historic or brand new arena to enjoy, you have an arena that has often been compared to a high school gym. You don't have other major sports to focus on because your football program's history isn't much better.
Yes, being a Northwestern basketball fan is the ultimate exercise in masochism.
This is coming from a guy who has only been around 4.5 years and has seen two of the greatest seasons in the history of the program.
I admire greatly those who have suffered through decades of incompetence.
Then again, maybe you're numb to the pain at this point.
Filed under: Basketball
Tags: Bill Carmody, History, Losing, NCAA tournament, NIT, Northwestern Wildcats Basketball, Pain, Suffering
