Last week, with Northwestern in the throes of a 13-game losing streak, we reached out to former Wildcat Jordan Ash to talk about the team’s seemingly endless slide.

Of course, the very next night, the Wildcats finally won a game, beating Minnesota to end their dismal string and change the tenor of this story.

Still, this year has gone horribly wrong for Northwestern since a 3-0 start to Big Ten play in December. And if you’re trying to figure out why, Ash is a pretty good guy to talk to.

Ash not only played point guard for the Wildcats, but he played for head coach Chris Collins, from 2015-16 to 2018-19, so he is uniquely qualified. He was a role player off the bench for the legendary 2016-17 Wildcats that became the first – and thus far only – team in school history to play in the NCAA Tournament. He also was a member of the 2018-19 squad that suffered through a 10-game losing streak.

As he explains it, “I’ve been through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.”

Ash graduated from Northwestern in 2019 and spent last season at Wright State as a grad transfer. He now lives in Dayton and is back to watching Wildcat basketball – and talking and writing about it. You might have seen his YouTube podcast, Garbage Time, or read his tweets about NU basketball on his Twitter account, @JordanAsh_3. Ash says that he’d like to eventually get into coaching, so this is a way for him to stay connected to the game.

The bottom line is that Ash knows what he’s talking about. As a former Wildcat who played with current players like Anthony Gaines, Miller Kopp and Pete Nance, and for Collins, he’s not going to rip individual players or advocate the firing his former coach. But he offers a perspective that your average fan or media member doesn’t necessarily have.

When Ash looks at this year’s Northwestern team, he sees a number of issues that have led to the Wildcats winning just four of 17 Big Ten games this season.

“It’s a combination of things from my perspective,” said Ash. “As far back as I can remember, this is the worst year to have a rebuilding year in the Big Ten. The good news is the games keep coming, and the bad news is that the games keep coming…

“They haven’t been able to find the plays they need to win, whether it’s rebounding, getting to the free-throw line or just finding a way to score in general. In the Big Ten, games are going to be low-scoring. If you can’t score, it’s going to be hard to win games.”

That’s certainly been proven true. Northwestern is averaging just 66.4 points per game in conference play, better than just four Big Ten teams, and they seem to suffer through a prolonged scoring drought in just about every contest.

Ash has noticed differences in how the Wildcats played during their 3-0 start in Big Ten play in December, when they were ranked 19th in the nation, and how they’re playing now. The cuts and passes aren’t as sharp, he says, and the number of mistakes, mental or otherwise, have increased.

“Early on in the season, they were one of the leaders in the nation in taking care of the ball,” he said. “During this losing streak they’ve turned the ball over a lot more.”

He’s also taken note of little things like the way they’re communicating on the floor. “They’re not really connected like they were earlier in the season,” he said. “They’re not talking the same way.”

Ash said that the challenge of going through a losing streak as long as the one the Wildcats experienced is “keeping the spirit of the team up.” That’s something that Collins and his staff have been able to do. While you can question the team’s decision making and the quality of their play, you can’t really question their effort every night. That’s an impressive feat because it’s difficult for players to maintain their trust in each other, as well as in their coaches, according to Ash.

“Everyone questions everything (when you’re losing),” he said. “You question yourself, players question whether coaches are running the right plays, coaches ask if they’re using the right rotations.”

When players start to question things, they have a tendency to try to take things into their own hands because they trust themselves more than anyone else. That only makes the situation worse, says Ash. It might result in the breakdown of a play because someone tried to go one-on-one and forced up a shot rather than running the offensive set. Or it might result in a missed defensive assignment on the other end because someone went for a steal.

The good news is that Ash sees Northwestern’s problems as fixable. But the solutions must start with player accountability. While he admits that he is biased because he sees things through a player’s eyes, he thinks that the onus is on the players more than the coaches to right the Wildcats’ sinking ship.

“I never played very many minutes, but I had ownership of the team and my role on the team,” he said.

The Wildcats’ 2017 NCAA tournament team had veterans like Nate Taphorn and Sanjay Lumpkin who held players accountable, he says. If everyone buys in and fulfills his role, “close losses can turn into close wins.”

One of the Wildcats’ most maddening traits is their tendency to break down late in games. It’s happened multiple times this season, as well as during the last few years. The cause is usually what Collins calls “self-inflicted wounds.”

Ash doesn’t see that as a systemic problem with the coaching or the players. He points out that the teams he played on suffered through a lot of similar losses. Even the tournament team blew leads to lose to Notre Dame, Butler and Indiana during their magic run.

Ash says that the Wildcats struggle in late-game situations this season because, when they’re playing Big Ten teams that know all their sets and plays, they’re not going to be able to run the plays they want. Their opponent is going to take those away, forcing them to make shots that they didn’t necessarily work on, in situations they weren’t expecting.

“They’re not going to be able to run a handoff at the top of the key and the pass to the wing,” he said. “(The defense is) going to make you make plays.”

When Ash was playing, Northwestern could run a pick-and-roll with Bryant McIntosh, isolate Vic Law on the wing or depend on Dererk Pardon to get an offensive rebound when they need a bucket. The Wildcats don’t seem to have identified a player or play they can run when things break down and they need a basket.

Compounding matters is that player development is difficult to do during the season, according to Ash.

“Player development is not a huge thing during year round, when you’re in the season,” he said. “You work on your shots within plays, but not just getting a shot.”

This is where Northwestern’s deep playbook can work against them. Collins is known for having an extensive list of plays and sets, and the more time they work on “plays, wrinkles to plays and wrinkles to the wrinkles,” the less time they spend on player development.

You can see how things can snowball on a team and how losing can become a habit. It’s a vicious circle.

The good news, says Ash, is that “winning cures all.” Just as easily as a loss can become two or three or four, a win can become two or three or four.

“It’s really about confidence,” he said. “If you win three in a row, you feel great. If you lose three in a row, you feel not so great.”

The Wildcats hope they can capitalize on their win over Minnesota last week and string a few together a few more Ws to close this dismal season on a high note.