Trying to capture the greatest moments of the decade for Northwestern basketball is a redundant task. Virtually all of them go back to 2016-17, the year the Wildcats made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

It's like attempting to catalog the highlights of Buster Douglas' boxing career: they all go back to one event.

So with that in mind, as we look back on the decade passed, we have divided the great moments into two categories: 2017 and non-2017.

Let's take a trip down memory lane and look at the 10-year period that will always be remembered as the decade Northwestern was finally invited to the Big Dance.

Northwestern finished the decade with an overall record of 178-164, slightly above the break-even mark at .520.

In Big Ten play, they went 66-118, for just a .359 winning percentage. While that conference mark is rather dismal, the Wildcats did finish above .500 in Big Ten play in one season for the first time since 1967-68. You can guess what year it was.

The category where this decade was undoubtedly the best ever for Northwestern is postseason appearances. The Wildcats, of course, finally made the NCAAs to get that monkey off the program's back, but they also appeared in the NIT four times in the decade. That total of five postseason invitations is a remarkable achievement for a program that had played postseason basketball just three times in the previous 103 years.

Coach Bill Carmody was the leader of the program for all four of those NIT bids this decade, but his 13-year run at Northwestern ended when he was let go after the 2012-13 season. He left as the second-winningest coach in NU history, with a record of 192-210 (70-150 Big Ten).

Athletic director Jim Phillips then hired Chris Collins, a former Illinois Mr. Basketball who had played and coached at Duke. Collins made his mark by pulling in some impressive recruits right away, including four-star Chicagoan Vic Law, but his first two teams were below .500. Then, his 2015-16 team matched the program record with 20 wins, and his 2016-17 team broke through by earning the NCAA bid and a school-record 24 wins.

Since then, though, the program has been on a downward slope, finishing with losing records and placing last in the Big Ten last season for the first time in 11 years.

By now you’ve seen it a thousand times. But it never gets old.

Nate Taphorn, standing under his own basket with 1.7 seconds left, threw a 92-foot pass to Dererk Pardon, who banked home the game-winner as the buzzer sounded to give the Wildcats a 67-65 win over Michigan on March 1.

Then, all hell broke loose in Welsh-Ryan Arena: the Wildcats were going dancing for the first time in school history. It also gave NU a record-setting 21st win and clinched a winning Big Ten record for the first time in 49 years.

At approximately 5:03 Central time on March 12, Greg Gumbel of CBS Sports said the magic word that Wildcat fans had been waiting to hear their entire lives: “Northwestern.”

The north stands at Welsh-Ryan were filled with fans who erupted when the Wildcats’ No. 8 seed in the West Region was announced on CBS, and it was all captured live on the NCAA Selection Show. Northwestern was the darling of the Dance.

Northwestern got its money’s worth out of its first NCAA Tournament game on March 16, in a nail-biter that had enough drama to make up for the 78 tournaments that went on without them.

The Wildcats, a No. 8 seed, built a 15-point second-half lead and then lost it, setting up a wild stretch run that saw six lead changes in the last 1:36. But when the smoke cleared, Northwestern emerged with a 68-66 win over ninth-seeded Vanderbilt in its first-ever game in the Big Dance, in front of a pro-Purple crowd at Welsh-Ryan West in Salt Lake City.

People forget about this one, but save for the Michigan game, no win meant more to NU's tournament resume. On Feb. 12, with starting shooting guard Scottie Lindsey out with mono, Northwestern went up to Madison and stunned then-No. 7 Wisconsin, 66-59.

Bryant McIntosh was brilliant, putting up 25 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists to give the Wildcats their first win over a Top 10 team since 2010 and second at the Kohl Center in 15 tries.

Four days after beating Michigan, Northwestern hosted No. 16 Purdue in the CBS nationally televised game of the week. And NU put on quite a show.

The Wildcats lost its season finale against the Big Ten champions, 69-65, but the story was the game atmosphere at Welsh-Ryan, which was hosting its last game before a complete renovation. CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz said that the game produced the loudest readings their audio team had ever recorded. He also called it one of the top five atmospheres he’s ever experienced, in any sport.

Northwestern had arrived on the national scene.

With just less than 11 minutes left in Northwestern's 64-53 win over Minnesota on Feb. 18, 2012, John Shurna dribbled beyond the top of the key and took a 3-pointer over the Gophers' Austin Hollis. It swished through the basket, enabling Shurna to surpass Billy McKinney as the school's all-time scoring leader. How appropriate that it came on a 3-pointer, one of 274 in his career.

Shurna would finish his career with 2,038 points.

Welsh-Ryan Arena was in desperate need of a facelift. Virtually untouched since 1983, Northwestern finally sunk $110 million into renovating its old barn. The Cats played one year at Allstate Arena in 2017-18 while the work was being done, but Welsh-Ryan reopened for the 2018-19 season to rave reviews.

While the building looks mostly the same from the outside, inside it is virtually unrecognizable. Purple seats replaced the old wooden bleachers, concourses and a club were added, and the locker room, bathrooms, concession stands and media capabilities were brought into the 21st century.

Drew Crawford scored eight points over the last 2:05 as Northwestern stunned No. 6 Purdue, 72-64, on Jan. 16, 2010. It was the program's first win over a Top 10 team since 1994 and the highest-ranked opponent the Wildcats had taken down since beating No. 4 and eventual-national champion Michigan State in 1979.

Naturally, fans stormed the court to celebrate after the game.

On Jan. 29, 2014, Northwestern was facing a Wisconsin team that manhandled them by 27 points four weeks previously in an arena where they had never won before. But behind 30 points from Drew Crawford, the Wildcats somehow overcame those odds to pull off a 65-56 win over the No. 14 Badgers.

It was NU's first win in 14 games at the Kohl Center, and its first win anywhere in Madison since 1996.

Northwestern gave No. 1 Ohio State all it could handle on Jan. 29, 2011, rallying from a 13-point second-half deficit to take a lead before falling 58-57.

Juice Thompson hit a 3-pointer to give the Cats a 55-54 lead with 3:50 left and almost blow the roof off of Welsh-Ryan. Thompson's runner in the lane then tied it at 57 with 1:32 left before OSU's Jared Sullinger hit the free throw that enabled the 22-0 Buckeyes to escape.

Oh, what might have been.