Northwestern sends Buie out a winner in rout of Minnesota

EVANSTON-Boo Buie slowly dribbled across the time line and over to the sidelines, where head coach Chris Collins signaled for him to slow down and milk the clock. Northwestern already had the game in hand, but the coach wanted to send one of the greatest players in school history go out the right away.

Buie dribbled over to the middle of the floor, waited until the shot clock got under 10 seconds, pulled up and let fly with a three-pointer that swished through the basket with 1:07 left. It was the last basket in what eventually was a 90-66 demolition of Minnesota.

On Northwestern’s next possession, Collins subbed for Buie. The crowd gave him a standing ovation and he hugged Collins and assistant Brian James, and then walked to the bench for the last time.

It was a perfect ending to a sensational career at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

"I knew I was gonna shoot the three the whole time," Buie said with a laugh after the game.

What was Collins’ message to his star, and the player who resurrected his program when it was on the ropes a few years ago?

"I just told him I loved him,” he said. “I’ll aways be indebted to him for what he’s meant to this program, what he’s meant to me."

Just about everything went right on this night for Northwestern. Many times we’ve seen teams come up flat on an emotional night like Senior Night. But not these Wildcats. Not on this night. They weren’t going to let their all-time leading scorer, a seminal player who is destined to have his jersey retired one day, go out with a loss in his last game at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

With students dressed in their white Boo Buie T-shirts, the Wildcats buried Minnesota behind an offensive blizzard and avenged an earlier loss to the Gophers. The Wildcats destroyed the same Gopher team that beat them by nine, in overtime, in Minneapolis a little over a month ago.

And they did it without two senior starters – Ty Berry and Matt Nicholson – who both played in that contest but were out with injuries on Saturday night. The win gave the Wildcats a final record of 9-1 at home in Big Ten play.

If the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee had any lingering doubts about whether the Wildcats were worthy of an invitation to the Big Dance without two starters, this performance erased them.

It may have been Buie’s night, and he finished with 23 points and six assists, but everyone got into the act. Brooks Barnhizer scored 23, Ryan Langborg, another Senior Night honoree, chipped in with 17. Nick Martinelli had 14.

In all, the Wildcats shot 59% for the game and committed just one turnover, which came with 1:37 to play.

The first half was an offensive clinic as the Wildcats built a 53-41 halftime lead by shooting a scalding 70% from the floor and assisting on 15 of their 21 baskets. They were more than halfway to a hundred by the break.

“We’re not perfect, but that offensive performance in the first half was about as close as we’ve come,” said Collins.

Minnesota pulled to within 11 in the second half after a Wildcat scoring drought of 5:40. But a Barnhizer three quickly restored order and the Wildcats expanded their lead to 20 after Langborg hit a jumper with 3:26 to go.

As for Buie, he took fans on a tour of some of his greatest hits in his last game.

His first basket came on a typical pull-up three from nearly the Welsh-Ryan Arena script on the floor, about five feet beyond the arc. He knifed through traffic in the paint for a layup high off the glass and well above the square.

The biggest roar of the night came on his final three-pointer, but the second biggest one came when he threw up a lob on a fast break that Blake Preston thunder-dunked through the rim and drew a foul. That one brought the crowd to its feet, even if Preston failed to convert the three-point play.

Buie even hit a shot while lying in his back in the second half.

While Collins concedes that Purdue’s Zach Edey will be the Big Ten Player of the Year, he thinks Buie is a close second. Furthermore, while he acknowledges that there are many talented point guards in the country, he doesn’t think anyone is better for his team than No. 0.

"There is no other point guard that you can put on our constructed roster and do what Boo Buie has done," he said.

Buie was happy the way his game started, and his Welsh-Ryan career ended.

“With a three-pointer,” he said.