“The Streak” had taken on an ominous life of its own on the Northwestern University campus, growing uglier by the day.
But Saturday afternoon at Welsh-Ryan Arena, the longest Big Ten basketball losing skid in 55 years came to an end when the Wildcats upset the 14th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes 69-61 in front of 7,887 startled fans–about two-thirds of whom made the trek from Iowa.
“It’s great to win and see [fans] on the court, especially against a team who I think is very good,” first-year Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said as disbelieving NU students celebrated on the floor. “I can’t tell you how happy I am for our guys because they’ve labored all year.”
Northwestern, loser of 32 straight regular-season Big Ten games, beat Iowa at Welsh-Ryan for the first time since 1990. The Wildcats (9-15 overall, 1-10 in the Big Ten) had not won a regular-season conference game since Feb. 6, 1999, at Penn State. The Hawkeyes (17-6, 6-4) were off to their best start since 1989 and were the highest-ranked Big Ten team at No. 6 in the latest RPI ratings. But losing shooting guard Luke Recker to a fractured kneecap has been disastrous–they’ve lost two in a row.
Winston Blake (20 points), Jitim Young (16) and Collier Drayton (nine points and nine rebounds) led an energized Northwestern team that beat a ranked team for the second time this season. The Wildcats upset Southern Cal on Dec. 27.
“I’m happy for Northwestern,” Iowa coach Steve Alford said. “Anytime you’ve got a team that’s lost as many Big Ten games as they have, you’ve got to give credit to the coaches and kids who are staying in there and hanging tough.”
Dean Oliver, Iowa’s standout point guard, led the Hawkeyes with 20 points.
“I’m sure there are quite a few people laughing at us,” Oliver said. “If I were a fan, I would be laughing at us.”
Oliver acknowledged that the Hawkeyes “didn’t respect [Northwestern] the way we should have.”
Northwestern led 26-24 at the half but soon after saw Drayton and Young saddled with four fouls.
“I told them at halftime that I didn’t think it had anything to do with basketball,” Carmody said. “We just had to get over this hump that everybody talked about.”
Tavaras Hardy (five points, five rebounds and five assists) picked up his fourth foul with 5:59 left, but Carmody kept the 6-foot-8-inch sophomore in the game until he fouled out with 29.4 seconds left and the Wildcats on top 65-56.
“I left them in there because I liked the combination,” Carmody said. “I liked the way Tavaras was playing, and I liked the way Collier and Jitim were playing.”
Iowa missed four straight three-point attempts with one minute left and Northwestern leading 62-52. The Wildcats gave Iowa a chance to stay in it by missing 17-of-32 free throws in the second half, but the Hawkeyes couldn’t capitalize.
“I don’t think we were overconfident. We didn’t come to play,” said former Deerfield High School guard Ryan Hogan, who finished with eight points. “They capitalized on our bad shots. They just out-toughed us today.”
Hardy, who celebrated his 21st birthday Friday, and Blake are the only members of the Wildcats who experienced the entire 32-game league losing streak. Northwestern did beat Penn State on March 4, 1999, in the Big Ten Tournament.
“A lot of people tried to hype the streak up more than it should have been hyped,” Hardy said. “Especially [Northwestern] people who should have been supporting us.”
Young, a freshman guard from Gordon Tech, also had four steals and blocked a shot.
“I looked at the upperclassmen who played hard enough to win and didn’t experience a win,” Young said. “I wanted to play harder for them.”
Northwestern travels to Indiana on Wednesday night.
“We’ve got a winning streak ourselves now,” Drayton said.
