Guard Boo Buie and coach Chris Collins both played a pivotal role in turning around the Northwestern program.
Nam Y. Huh/AP Photos
MINNEAPOLIS — Sometimes, it takes only one great game — 40 mighty fine minutes — for a struggling team to get its postseason going.
Is Big Ten No. 5 seed Wisconsin, which obliterated Maryland 87-56 on Thursday at the Target Center, such a squad?
The blistering Badgers (20-12) led by 42 at one point en route to their biggest victory margin of the season, and their 87 points was their highest total ever in a Big Ten tournament game. The Badgers shot 10-for-13 from deep in the first half and 16-for-25 for the full contest, with eight different players burying at least one.
It’s a tale of two teams, really, the one that was ranked No. 6 in the country entering February and the one that fell off a cliff after that, losing eight of 11 along with its aim. In the regular-season finale at Purdue, a 78-70 loss in which they otherwise played well, the Badgers missed 19 of 24 three-point attempts. In two games against the big, bad Boilermakers, they were 8-for-43.
“It’s such an unselfish group when you get 25 assists on 31 made field goals,” coach Greg Gard said. “And I think we’re starting to see more of what we were back in January. …
“I kept telling them all the time when we were going through this, ‘We’re a really good team. We’re a really good team, and we’ll fight our way out of it.’ ”
They’re a good enough team, apparently, that they favored by 3½ points in Friday’s quarterfinal matchup against fourth-seeded Northwestern (21-10).
The Wildcats already lost guard Ty Berry for the season. They’ll also be without injured center Matthew Nicholson for this tournament — and maybe for the NCAA Tournament to follow.
They dropped a close one at Michigan State and blew out Minnesota at home without both.
“It’s going to be the guys we rolled with the last couple of games,” coach Chris Collins said. “We have confidence. These guys have played really well.”
A “Fight for Victory” sign hung in the practice gym in Evanston on Wednesday. The Wildcats will have to fight like crazy to move on and solidify their NCAA position. Collins’ assistant coaches were in the seats for Wisconsin’s triple-fest and surely felt some “uh-ohs.”
But the Wildcats have guard Boo Buie, perhaps the league’s most valuable player not named Zach Edey. And they have surging forward Nick Martinelli, who has been excellent since stepping into the starting lineup about a month ago and had a 27-point outburst against Maryland.
And they surprise and impress often, don’t they?
“Just how tough-minded our group has been,” Collins said. “It’s always been a next-man-up mentality.”
Only seven schools have won a Big Ten tournament title. Northwestern isn’t one of them. Northwestern has been to the semifinals only once, in 2017 — on the way to its first Big Dance — but got dumped by Wisconsin 76-48.
The Wildcats’ record in this event — 10-26 — is pretty awful.
But it only takes 40 mighty fine minutes to get it going.