Boo Buie, Northwestern's GOAT

Let’s get right to the point here: Boo Buie is the greatest basketball player in Northwestern history. Period.

Head coach Chris Collins has called him “the GOAT” several times this season. We agree.

It’s not because of his many records. It’s not because Buie scored more points than anyone in school history, or played more games than any other Wildcat. It’s not because he was named first-team All-Big Ten in back-to-back years, either.

All of those impressive career milestones and accolades definitely bolster Buie’s case. But they’re not why he’s the best to ever do it in Evanston.

Here are five reasons we think that the fearless point guard from Albany, N.Y., is the greatest to ever wear Purple & White:

The No. 1 reason is that Buie won a scale we’ve never seen before at Northwestern. Think about what Buie’s teams accomplished over the last two seasons, in 2022-23 and 2023-24.

The Wildcats won 24 Big Ten games over the last two seasons, 12 each year. To put that achievement in context, the program won the same number of games, 24, in total, in the 10-year period from 1990-91 to 1999-2000. These last two seasons are just the second and third time Northwestern finished above .500 in league play since 1967-68.

They placed second in the Big Ten standings in 2023, and fourth in 2024, the first time the Wildcats finished in the top four in the conference since 1958-59 and 1959-60. They tied the school’s all-time record for most regular season wins with 21 both years.

With Buie running point, Northwestern beat the No. 1 team in the nation for the first time in school history when they knocked off Purdue in February of 2023. Then, they did it again last December, beating the top-ranked Boilers at Welsh-Ryan for a second time.

And most impressive of all, they made the NCAA Tournament both years. Northwestern had, of course, made the tournament just once from 1939-2022. With Buie, they did it in consecutive years. They won a first-round game both times, too.

It’s been an unprecedented run for the program and, frankly, most fans didn’t see it coming. The first three years of Buie’s career, the Wildcats went 32-54. Buie himself called those teams “trash.” Since then, they are 44-24.

The two-year run also probably helped save head coach Chris Collins’ job. He looked to be on his way out two years ago, after five straight losing seasons and the equivalent of a win-or-else ultimatum from new athletic director Derrick Gragg.

Boo didn’t do it all my himself. But there was no question he was the leader. The Wildcats were his team the last two years.

Buie could do it all.

He was a deadly three-point shooter whose range went out to more than 25 feet. When he was feeling it, Buie could just dribble down and drill a three-pointer before the defense was even set. He would call for a screen, and then just take a step-back three whether the defender went over or under the pick. It didn’t matter.

He was a mesmerizing ball handler who had the ball on a string. In the Wildcats’ overtime win over No. 1 Purdue in December, he played 43 minutes, scored 31 points, dished out nine assists and didn’t turn the ball a single time. The ball was in his hands all day and he didn’t give it to the Boilers once.

He was a master of the hesitation dribble. He could put his head down and drive past a defender with his lightning-fast first step, get to a spot in the lane and then deliver a signature floater that fell through the rim like a feather.

He was a phenomenal finisher in and around the paint. He knew just how to maneuver his slight frame to create the sliver of daylight to get the shot over or under an outstretched arm.

Buie could put the team on his back and score 25 or more points, like he did seven times this season, or, when teams were focused on stopping him, he could just drop dimes. He totaled seven or more assists 13 times this season alone.

His stamina bordered on unbelievable in his final season. He led the Big Ten in minutes with 36.9 per game, with only his running mate, Brooks Barnhizer, close at 36.7. In his final season, he'd barely flit out of the game ahead of media timeouts, buying back seconds he would need for the stretch run.

He was an iron man who played 40 or more minutes in a game five times this season. He played 39 or more minutes 10 times. He finished the season ranked 10th in the NCAA for minutes per game, and second for most minutes per game on an NCAA Tournament team.

Buie was also an underrated defender, and he was just named one of 25 finalists for the Lefty Driesell Defensive Player of the Year Award.

He’s a singular player in Northwestern history, but he also made his mark in the conference. This season, Buie became the first Big Ten player to average 20+ points and 5+ assists per game during conference play in eight years.

Maybe the most drastic impact Buie had on the Northwestern program was the transformation of Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Wildcats’ home floor went from a beautiful but sleepy library swamped with opposing fans, to a snake pit for visiting teams and one of the best home-court advantages in the conference.

The program built its gleaming basketball palace in the afterglow of its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2017. Then, the Wildcats did a face-plant, putting up losing records in the arena’s first four years, including an ugly 8-23 (3-17 Big Ten) campaign in 2019-20. It was like the Wildcats built themselves a state-of-the-art, high-tech garage with marble floors, and then parked a Yugo inside it.

But these last two years, with Buie leading the way as the face of the program, Welsh-Ryan became an electric environment. For big games, students would cue up outside the building in lines more than 50 yards long, more than an hour before the game. The student bleachers behind each basket would regularly fill up 45 minutes before tip-off, and a ticket to Northwestern games became as coveted as stolen questions for a midterm.

The rise of Buie led to Northwestern instituting a points system for basketball seating, giving students priority based on their support of other Northwestern sporting events.

The crowd stormed the court in SportsCenter-ready fashion after both wins over No. 1 Purdue during the last two seasons. In one magic week, it may have been the center of college basketball. From Sunday, Feb. 12, to Sunday, Feb. 19, the Wildcats beat the top-ranked Boilermakers and No. 14 Indiana in thrillers, and then ran out Iowa out of the building in a 20-point beatdown. The roars during those games equaled anything produced at Allen Fieldhouse or Cameron Indoor.

Welsh-Ryan was an unprecedented pro-Purple environment. No Northwestern team, in any sport, not even the 1996 Rose Bowl football team, had home cooking like that.

We can’t rightfully call Welsh-Ryan the House that Boo Built. But that buzz you feel inside the building on the night of a big game? You can thank No. 0 more than anyone else for that.

Northwestern has had a lot of great players over the years, but they never really had one like Buie. What made him a unicorn was his ability as a closer. Late in the game, with the game on the line, there was no question what the Wildcats were going to do: give Buie the ball and get out of the way.

And he was a killer in high-pressure situations. He wanted the shot with the game in the balance. He wasn’t perfect, but there was no one else fans would rather want with the ball in their hands.

The Wildcats never really had a guy like that before, at least in the 40 years I’ve been watching them. The 2017 team tried multiple guys to take the last shot, whether it was Byant McIntosh or Vic Law or Scottie Lindsey. John Shurna was maybe the best pure shooter and scorer in school history, but he wasn’t a guy who could create his own shot. Pete Nance was marvelously skilled, but didn’t have that killer mentality.

But Buie, all 6-foot-2 (ahem) and 180 pounds (cough, cough) of him, had the confidence bordering on cockiness blended with the mental makeup of an assassin to take on that role. He had a full repertoire of offense he could go to.

With the clock winding down in crunch time, Collins typically eschewed timeouts to call plays because the guy bringing the ball up was the guy he wanted to take the last shot. Everyone knew where the ball was going, but very few could stop him.

One that stands out was against Indiana in 2023. Northwestern built a lead that peaked at 21 in the first half and then held on for dear life as the Hoosiers came all the way back to tie it with just 28 seconds left.

No problem. Buie, with fans of both teams creating a hurricane of noise around him, nonchalantly dribbled the ball up the floor like he was playing a pickup game at Blomquist. He patiently waited until the clock got under 10 seconds and drove to the right side of the lane, where he casually flipped a floater over Trey Galloway with two seconds left.

Swish. Game. Bedlam.

Buie didn’t come in as a highly-ranked recruit. He was an underdog and, as he has said many times, so were the Wildcats. It was a perfect match.

Northwestern was Buie’s first power-conference offer, and he constantly thanked Collins over the course of his career for believing in him. He showed flashes of what he could be as a freshman, when he scored a combined 51 points in back-to-back game against Michigan State and DePaul – both losses.

He was reckless with the ball, and a streaky shooter prone to taking ill-advised shots for his first few years. But over time he developed into a lead guard who could expertly run the offense and distribute the ball, as well as score in bunches. He didn’t transfer. He didn’t leave early. He stayed the course and became a legend.

Buie chose Northwestern three times. Once out of high school (Gould Academy in Maine). He did it a second time after the 2021-22 season, when star big man Pete Nance, backup center Ryan Young and promising freshman Casey Simmons all transferred.

Finally, he chose NU a third and final time last spring, after he surprised everyone and led the Cats to the NCAA Tournament. He took his name out of the NBA Draft, turned down at least one lucrative NIL deal from another Big Ten school and came back to the Wildcats. He was rewarded with a return trip to the Big Dance and a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten selection, as well as All-America recognition.

Buie seemed to love Northwestern as much as fans did. He was the symbol of the program. Epic Burger named a burger after him. He routinely shouted out Northwestern's Wildside, the school's official student section group, in postgame interviews. The program gave away Boo Buie head bands on the night he broke the scoring record, and his teammates and coaches donned them postgame to show him their love and respect. Rafael Davis of BTN called him “the best point guard in the country” and facetiously brought a bucket labeled “Boo Buie Statue Fund” onto the set.

One day a monument may be erected in Buie’s honor. His No. 0 will almost certainly be retired by the program. He deserves it all. Northwestern can never repay Boo Buie for all he’s done for the program.