Northwestern star point guard Boo Buie is in Minneapolis, Minn., for Big Ten Basketball Media Day on Tuesday. It's the unofficial start of the 2023-24 season.

While hopes are high for the Wildcats again this year, it's hard to draw up a better season than the one Buie had last season.

Buie scored 17.3 points per game as the Wildcats floor general and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors as the Wildcats made March Madness for the second time in program history.

In the months since, however, following Buie has caused Northwestern fans' blood pressure to fluctuate.

First, he declared for the NBA Draft on April 2, a decision that would have left Northwestern with uncertainty at point guard for the first time in five years. He withdrew his name on May 8 and quickly squashed rumors he would transfer elsewhere -- a la Pete Nance -- by announcing he'd never play college ball anywhere but Northwestern.

Fans breathed a sigh of relief. Let's get ready to rumble, right? Not so fast.

On Aug. 1, Buie's right, shooting hand snagged in a teammate's jersey at practice, an injury that required surgery. The timeline was unclear but reports said he'd be ready for the start of the season.

Buie confirmed that at the Chicagoland Media Luncheon on Oct. 4. Wildcat fans heaved their second sigh of relief. He says he is feeling no ill effects whatsoever.

"I'm really feeling confident about where my hand is at," he said. "I don't have any pain, my jump shot is looking good. My game is looking tight and crisp, looking forward to picking up right where I left off."

The way Buie sees it, the injury may have been a blessing in disguise.

"I don't look at it as a setback," he said. "It's just more time to give my body some rest. Coming off of last season, I went through the draft process and I never really gave my body a rest from last season.

"These past couple weeks of being out, I've kind of been able to get my entire body a rest and get my hand right."

The draft process was taxing, but it was worth it. Buie now has firsthand experience with the preparation and expectations required to play pro ball, and what he needs to work on.

"I was able to take away that at the next level, especially for someone like me, they're really looking for consistency behind the three-point arc," Buie said. "[Also] being able to run a team, get guys shots and be a floor general. Getting that feedback was good and the biggest thing I got [out of it] was consistency and efficiency."

Buie took on a Herculean offensive load last season that carried Northwestern to March Madness. But his numbers in both of those categories actually went down.

As Buie's role increased last year, a combination of defensive attention and offensive isolation led to his three-point percentage dropping. His shot selection was a necessary evil, a bad shot for Buie was often good for Northwestern. That can be a tough sell to NBA scouts who aren't interested in the Wildcats' winning percentage, or that he played with an average of just five minutes of rest per game.

So Buie is back this season to prove he can elevate those parts of his game while keeping what has made him and his team consistent.

But it's not all about playing pro ball to Buie. Pro scouts may not be able to quantify, or particularly care about, what Buie means to the university, its students and its fans. But Buie does.

Once he chose to take his name out of the draft, he could have had a slate of suitors across college basketball. But there was not doubt in his mind he'd be back in Evanston.

"With my first four years [here], coming back for my fifth year was kinda easy based on those four years," Buie said. "The community and the support that the staff and Northwestern have given me... It's been some of the best years of my life.

"College sports, there's nothing like it. For me, it was best if I came back and did one more year."

Head coach Chris Collins, who gave Buie his only Power Six offer out of high school, agreed wholeheartedly. The pair had been working in tandem for so long, it was nearly unthinkable that Buie would go elsewhere.

"I really don't think there was a recruiting process," Collins said. "We got together and I really wanted him to pursue professional opportunities, and he did as well. We wanted to get the feedback and see where he was. I kind of left him alone with that.

"What happened was, he started showing up at the gym with our guys. We were still having workouts, and he was around the guys and his heart was still with Northwestern. He felt like he had more to prove."

Both Collins and Buie are aware of the opportunity they now have. Northwestern has never made March Madness in consecutive years. John Shurna's all-time scoring record of 2,038 points in a career is 495 away for Buie. If he scores again at last year's pace, he would eclipse Shurna's mark in his 29th game.

"He's big on legacy and the loyalty that he's had for us," Collins said about Buie. "He has an opportunity to become the most decorated player in the history of Northwestern basketball.

"He knows a big part of that is winning. No one's ever taken a [Wildcat] team to two NCAA Tournaments. He can do some things that have never been done in our program's history.

With those shared ideals in mind, Buie and Collins are ready to run it back. They now know what it takes to be a tournament tandem as coach and point guard. The are ready to impart the wisdom to a team that brings plenty of skill and experience back, but also introduces new faces.

"We just take it day by day," Buie said. "You can't really look at what we did last year, we have to focus on this year being a new year.

"This is a new team. This team hasn't really accomplished anything yet. It's important to keep that same hunger and not lose sight of what got us to where we were last year. Being bought in and connected as a team, that's what it's going to take."

There's no better player to lead this year's team potential charge into the record books than Buie.