Northwestern coach Ricky Byrdsong came back Thursday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena, but his team couldn’t.
The warm reception Byrdsong received when he returned from his four-game leave of absence yielded to the cold, hard reality of trying to cope with Indiana coach Bob Knight’s defending Big 10 champions.
Northwestern couldn’t cope for about six minutes midway through the first half and for two minutes at the beginning of the second half.
That was the story of the game.
The Hoosiers gained a substantial lead early in the game, then survived a late counterattack for an 81-74 victory.
The volatile Knight left triumphantly but silently, refusing to participate in the postgame press conference and declining to send any of his players.
Indiana (17-5 overall, 10-3 in the Big 10) remained second in the conference race and still has a shot at overtaking idle Michigan (20-4, 12-2).
The Wildcats (11-11, 2-11) grudgingly dropped a little deeper into the Big 10 cellar. But they’re still hoping to earn a bid to the National Invitation Tournament.
Senior Kip Kirkpatrick, who sank five of seven shots from three-point territory in scoring a career-high 24 points, said Byrdsong’s return was “a big boost.”
“A lot of us were pumped up,” said Kirkpatrick. “We really wanted to get him a victory. It didn’t work.”
This was Byrdsong’s first game since Feb. 5 in Minnesota, when his strolls through the stands and other out-of-character actions during the game persuaded his wife, Sherialyn, to request the leave of absence from Northwestern President Arnold Weber.
During Byrdsong’s absence, the Wildcats were coached by his top assistant, Paul Swanson, and gained their only two Big 10 victories.
Byrdsong was greeted with applause when he made his first appearance on the court shortly before Thursday’s game. When he and Knight were introduced with the starting lineups, Byrdsong was again cheered.
“Obviously, that made me feel awfully good to know that people feel I’m doing the best job I can,” said Byrdsong.
But as the first half progressed and Northwestern regressed, it was the Indiana fans in the capacity crowd who had the most to cheer about.
Northwestern used its outside attack to offset Indiana’s inside game and take an early 12-8 lead. Then, the Wildcats lost their shooting stroke and the Hoosiers took command with a 15-2 surge that sent them ahead 23-14. Alan Henderson produced six of the points during the spree, Damon Bailey accounted for five.
“They caught fire and we didn’t,” said Byrdsong. “I thought that was the point that cost us the game.”
Todd Leslie’s outside shot with a free throw tacked on opened the second-half scoring. But then, Henderson and Bailey went back to work. They collaborated to score nine unanswered points, enabling the Hoosiers to expand their lead to 50-31.
Just when it seemed the Wildcats were going to be crushed, they came back and twice narrowed their deficit to five points, 55-50 with just under 10 minutes remaining and 72-67 with 2:23 to play.
Bailey led Indiana with 33 points and the 6-foot-9-inch Henderson delivered 24 from his power-forward position.
