This was more surprising than Cinderella’s emergence as a princess, more unlikely than the Beast turning into a prince at the simple kiss of Beauty. This was more stunning than any transformation ever conjured up by Aesop or the Brothers Grimm or any of the other masters of the fairy tale.
This was Northwestern, younger than the presidential campaign season, traipsing into Iowa Wednesday night off a pair of truly ugly losses, and performing with a will that belied its battered condition. This would not be another rout, which the Wildcats suffered last week at the hands of Southern Cal and Oakland. This would be hand-to-hand combat, which NU led for much of the way and had a chance to steal at the end.
But with just 15 seconds remaining and the Hawkeyes up three, Winston Blake’s shot to tie from the left wing rattled in and out. With that Northwestern (4-6, 0-1) was doomed to a 58-52 loss to Iowa (7-5, 1-0) in its Big Ten opener.
“We played awful last week and our guys were embarrassed,” Wildcats coach Kevin O’Neill said later. “When you hit rock bottom like that, you have two choices, to lay there or fight. I think our guys fought.”
“Coming into the Big Ten season, we had to make a statement to other teams. We had to let them know we’re not cupcakes anymore,” added freshman guard Ben Johnson, who finished with a team-high 17 points. “So even though we’re not happy with the loss, I think we did that.”
“It stings. It’s a heartbreaker because we were winning most of the game,” concluded sophomore guard Collier Drayton, who scored nine points of his own while holding Iowa’s leading scorer Dean Oliver (14.7 ppg) to a mere three. “But on the other hand, it was a boost. We were down in the pits.”
They had played like the pits against USC and Oakland. A day after that latter defeat, a players-only meeting was called. Drayton did much of the talking, impressing on the freshmen just what kind of effort was needed.
At the start of Wednesday’s affair, all NU played as if it had listened well. The Cats rushed to an early 10-point lead, but then hit just one field goal during an 8-minute stretch, allowing Iowa to tie the game. Again, after trailing by four at halftime, the Cats ran away, rushing to a 14-point lead at 18:17. Again they hit a drought, this time scoring only two points in the next seven minutes.
“The biggest reason that happens is because we don’t have an inside player we can throw it into who can score,” O’Neill said. “That’s not to say they won’t be able to do that. But right now they’re freshmen.”
But with the game tied 47-47 at 8:54 to play, those freshmen displayed an unexpected steeliness. Although they finally tired and managed but five points in the minutes that remained, they never disappeared or displayed the tentativeness that had doomed them last week.
