As Bryant McIntosh goes, so go the Wildcats.

Northwestern has its best team since the star guard arrived in 2014, but even with all of those additional weapons, that adage still holds true. And if the Wildcats hope to make the school’s historic first NCAA tournament appearance in March, they will need to get better play out of their floor leader.

While a lot of factors contributed to Northwestern’s three losses this season, one constant was the subpar play of McIntosh, who struggled in each defeat – and in the Wildcats’ last nine games overall.

McIntosh’s numbers in the Wildcats’ losses to Butler, Notre Dame and Michigan State are not pretty. The 6-foot-3 junior from Greensburg (Ind.) shot a combined 25.0 percent (11 of 44) from the floor in those three contests. He averaged 9 points per game, almost 3 points fewer than his season average, and had 14 assists and 14 turnovers for a 1-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio that is exactly half of his season average.

McIntosh’s shooting wasn’t bad against Butler, as he hit 41.7 percent (5 of 12) of his shots for 13 points. But he committed a season-high 8 turnovers, including the game-deciding one. With 31 seconds left, Northwestern put the ball in McIntosh’s hands with the game on the line and he was stripped by Butler freshman Kamar Butler, who then hit the game winning jumper on the ensuing possession with two seconds left.

Against Notre Dame, McIntosh shot an abysmal 16.7 percent (3 of 18) from the floor, including 1-for-5 from beyond the arc, and finished with 7 points, 4 assists and 4 turnovers. His biggest miss was his last one, when his difficult jumper over two defenders, with the Wildcats trailing by 2 and six seconds left on the clock, rimmed out and sealed Northwestern’s fate.

Then, in Friday night’s 61-52 loss to Michigan State, McIntosh again struggled from the field, hitting just 21.4 percent (3 of 14) shots, including 0-for-3 on 3-pointers, to finish with 7 points. He added five assists and two turnovers.

McIntosh, of course, is not solely to blame for Northwestern’s losses. But when he doesn’t play well, it’s going to be difficult for the Wildcats to beat a good team, especially in Big Ten play.

McIntosh’s spotty play goes beyond the Wildcats’ three losses. He had his best game in a win over Wake Forest on Nov. 28, when he scored a game-high 23 points and shot 62.5 percent (10 of 16) from the floor. He took the game over down the stretch in a brilliant display of clutch shooting. In the nine games since then, however, he has hit just 30.3 percent (27 of 89) of his shots. He hit less than 30 percent in five of those contests and had four or more turnovers three times.

With the return of Vic Law (13.7 ppg) to the lineup and Scottie Lindsey adding more offense than many expected (a team-best 15.7 ppg), McIntosh’s scoring statistics figured to go down this season. But his numbers have gone down across the board, despite having better options around him.

Last year, McIntosh averaged 13.8 points and 6.7 assists per game and shot 42.3 percent. This year, his averages are 11.7 points, 5.6 assists and 35.1 percent shooting. Maybe most troubling is his assists-to-turnover ratio, which has dropped almost a full point from last year to this one, from 2.8 assists per turnover to 2.0.

With Lindsey and Law, as well as role players like Sanjay Lumpkin and Gavin Skelly, in a lineup that will soon welcome back starting center Dererk Pardon, Northwestern doesn’t need McIntosh to carry the team. But he needs to up his game in the new year if they hope to reach the 10 conference wins many experts think it will take to reach the Big Dance.