EVANSTON-If you want to know how far Northwestern basketball has come in the last few years, look no further than the program’s series against Indiana.
On Wednesday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena, the Wildcats dispatched the one-time Big Ten blue bloods rather summarily, 79-70, fueled by a season-high 13 3-pointers. The Hoosiers held a 7-point second-half lead, but the Wildcats got hot and drained nine shots from long distance to put the game away with a 54-point second half.
It was Northwestern’s fifth straight win in the series, a number that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. Hoosier coaching legend Bob Knight went 51-3 against Northwestern from 1971-2000. The Hoosiers have still won 120 of 177 games in the all-time series, but lately the Wildcats have had Indiana’s number.
It’s the most consecutive wins for the Wildcats against the Hoosiers since 1913-15, before the United States entered World War I. That was so long ago that Northwestern opened that 1915 season with a win over First National Bank.
Indiana hasn’t beaten its former punching bag since 2021. The Wildcats have bested them twice in Bloomington and three times in Evanston. This was the biggest margin of victory during the streak, as the Wildcats found ways to win by four, two, one and eight in the previous four matchups. Hoosier head coach Mike Woodson is now 0-5 against the Wildcats.
Indiana isn’t the brand it once was. But the program still has all the trappings of basketball royalty, especially for fans that are a certain age and remember when the Hoosiers used to run roughshod over the rest of the Big Ten. They still have the banners at Assembly Hall, the iconic uniforms, the candy-striped warmup pants and the large and vocal fan base that filled most of the second level for the early tipoff at Welsh-Ryan.
Once upon a time, a win over Indiana would have spawned commemorative T-shirts for the Wildcats. Now, they’ve become routine.
Head coach Chris Collins is well aware of his program’s history, but didn’t want to take a trip down memory lane after the game. He wants to keep the focus on the future. When asked what it says about his program to beat a storied program like IU five straight times, he wouldn’t bite.
“We're just trying to earn our respect in this league,” he said with a shrug. “We're in the best league in the country. And, you know, we know, [when] you play a team like Indiana that's got five…national championships and [22] Big Ten titles and historical players and coaches…
“We're trying to build something here, you know, and it's a fun process. But you also know it's going to be harder. It's going to be harder for everybody. It's hard for fans to understand that.”
Then Collins, who has been beating the drum all season that his team doesn’t get as many foul calls as they deserve, gave the conference officials a little elbow in the ribs.
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“It's hard for other people who wear striped shirts to understand that. But we're we've become a good team. We've become a good team, and we have good players, and we have a winning identity, and we fight really hard, and it's shown over these past couple years.”
In many ways, these two programs are polar opposites. Indiana is the fading powerhouse. Northwestern is the up-and-comer.
The Hoosiers had three former five-star prospects on the floor in Oumar Ballo (15 points), Mackenzie Mgbako (20) and Malik Reneau (2), who was playing his first game after missing the last five with a knee injury. Yet it was Northwestern, without a five-star on the roster and sharpshooter Ty Berry as their lone four-star, that carried the day.
Berry drained 7-of-10 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 23 points. Brooks Barnhizer, a native Hoosier whom no other Big Ten program offered, finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Nick Martinelli, the Big Ten’s leading scorer who was once an Elon commit, put up 19. And Jalen Leach, the transfer from Fairfield who wasn’t even ranked as a prospect, scored all 15 of his points in the second half.
None of them were recruited by Indiana. But together, they took them down.
It’s Northwestern that is trying to earn a third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. Indiana didn’t make it last year. In fact, since Northwestern’s first trip in 2017, the Wildcats have been to the Big Dance three times. The Hoosiers, who once made it to 18 straight, have two in that same span.
Indiana has plenty of talent this year, as they always do. But Woodson has repeatedly criticized the inconsistency of his team’s effort this season. He lamented on Wednesday night that the Hoosiers didn’t have the same resolve in the second-half, when they were outscored 54-39, than in the first half, after which they led 31-25.
"We just didn’t answer the bell in the second half…,” he said. “We didn’t defend in the second half like we did in the first."
Effort is never the issue with the Wildcats. They don’t always win, of course – they have already lost a few heartbreakers this season and are just 3-5 in conference play, six spots behind 5-4 Indiana in the Big Ten standings. But they play hard from tip to buzzer, game-in and game-out, week-in and week-out.
It’s simple mathematics that as one program rises in the Big Ten, another one must fall. A case can be made that as the Wildcats wax, it’s Indiana that is on the wane.
The Hoosiers may have the blue blood, but Northwestern has the blue collar. And right now, the underdog is having his day.
