EVANSTON-It was an emotional night at Welsh-Ryan Arena as Northwestern honored legendary player and broadcaster Billy McKinney with the first retired jersey in the history of the school, in any program.
Unfortunately, Iowa spoiled the festivities by handing the Wildcats their first home loss of the season in Big Ten play.
With Ryan Langborg out and Matt Nicholson missing most of the second half, Iowa's hot shooting proved too much for Northwestern in an 87-80 loss.
Boo Buie led all scorers with 27 points and Brooks Barnhizer chipped in 20, but Iowa had 20-point scorers of their own with Josh Dix at 24 and Payton Sandfort at 23.
Here are our takeaways from the loss that dropped Northwestern' to 20-9 overall and 11-7 in the conference:
Reason for optimism for Langborg, Nicholson remains under evaluation: Langborg missed his second straight game with a sprained ankle he suffered against Michigan on Feb. 22. Though Collins said that if the game had been more crucial -Langborg would have played.
"Ryan's really close," Collins said. "He wants to be out there, for sure, we just felt that today wasn't the day to push it. If it was an NCAA game or a game of that magnitude, could he have played and gone out there at less than 100%? Probably, but it just wasn't the right decision.
"Everyone was in agreement to take a few more days. He's made amazing progress the last three days in particular, if we get three more days, I think everybody was in agreement that was the right thing to do even though we missed him."
The severity of Nicholson's injury, which appeared to occur in a non-contact setting, is still to be determined. Collins said it was a foot injury, but he wouldn't say more than that until their medical team evaluates him.
"I'm not in the speculation business," he said.
No moral victories for the Cats: A stark tone was set from Collins, Buie and Barnhizer in the postgame press conference. It was hardly likely they would throw a pity party for themselves, but some leeway is naturally granted when the team is without three starters who were injured within the last month, and two of those three within the past two weeks.
They were having none of it.
"We're not in the moral victory business," Collins said. "With our program, our mentality now is you figure it out with who you've got."
"[Winning] is our culture and our standard," said Barnhizer, who led Northwestern with six rebounds. "I don't think a lot of other people think that about us, but it is our culture."
NCAA basketball is no place for participation trophies, but it was impressive to see the dogged determination from the team's three lead players: Buie, Barnhizer and Nick Martinelli, who combined to play 119 of 120 possible minutes. Buie was the only player to leave the game, doing so from 8:23 to 7:28 in the first half.
Walkon Blake Smith set career highs for minutes (29) and points (11) for the second straight game.
"There's no sob stories from anybody," Collins said. "We're not an excuse-making program and I promise our guys will keep fighting. Our guys fought, man. Our guys fought their tails off."
Buie and Barnhizer are the last men standing, so to speak, the only two healthy, Day 1 starters of this season by the end of the game. Buie said the team's expectations don't change depending on who is in the game.
"It's the mentality that it doesn't matter who is out there, we have to step up," he said. "Everybody is believed in. Know that if you're on the court with me, I believe in you. Even if you don't really believe in yourself, I still believe in you and I'll try to make you believe in yourself more.
"We have enough to win, no excuses."
Iowa's pace proved too much: The first half was a seesaw affair with Iowa leaping out to an early lead. Northwestern stormed back to build one of their own and the Wildcats led 37-36 at the half.
Then the Hawkeyes really put it in gear, dropping 51 in the second half on 63% shooting from the field and 57% beyond the arc. Their furious pace was too much for the Wildcats, and the 87 points they scored are the most NU has allowed at home in regulation this season and the second-most they've allowed the entire season, behind only a 96-66 loss at Illinois on Jan. 3.
"I thought there were stretches of the game we got fatigued by [the pace]," Collins said. "I tried to use my timeouts during that stretch but they're a fast-paced team. They do a great job of what they do, their motion offense is hard to guard. There's a reason they average 80-something per game.
In their last game, Northwestern and Maryland combined for 95 field goal attempts. Tonight, against Iowa, that jumped to 112.
"I was really proud when we got down 11, I thought that was a real breaking point... I called timeout and true to form with our guys, we said we're going to fight back."
The Wildcats cut the lead to two as late as the 5:43 mark, and down to three as late as 1:42, but could never get back over the hump.
McKinney's jersey takes rightful place in the rafters: Northwestern legend Billy McKinney is short $20 after tonight, paying out a bet to a friend who said he wouldn't cry during his jersey retirement. "How can I not?" asked McKinney as the crowd changed, "Billy! Billy!"
McKinney's speech lasted a little more than three minutes, thanking friends, family and fans for the amazing opportunity and recognizing the unifying power of basketball.
"Look around at your neighbors," he said. "Look at the people next to you. What an art form to bring people together: all races, creeds, colors, nationalities. That is the United States of America." He then asked the fans to treat each other "with dignity and respect."
McKinney's No. 30 jersey is the first jersey retired not just for men's basketball, but in any sport at Northwestern. McKinney, who broadcasts games alongside Dave Eanet for WGN Radio, was lauded throughout the runup to halftime with touching video tributes from former coaches, teammates, colleagues and other key Northwestern alums whose lives he has impacted so strongly.
"There was no question who the first [jersey] should have been, and that was Billy" Collins said. "What he's meant to this program, what he represents, the kind of person he is, the career he had on the floor and off it. There is no one better, I would love for every single guy in our program to have the characteristics of Billy...
"Long, long overdue in my opinion. I've been pushing for this pretty much since Year 1 [in 2013]. I love when people honor the great history of programs and hopefully, now that we've been able to honor Billy, it can lead to more in other sports, as well as our program."
Where the Wildcats stand: Thanks to losses from Wisconsin and Nebraska, Northwestern's place in third in the Big Ten standings is unchanged. However, the margin is razor-thin at a half-game with two games remaining.
Northwestern is still in a very strong position at 20-9 (11-9 Big Ten) with two more opportunities to reach the same mark that sealed a trip to the NCAA Tournament last season as a No. 7 seed: 21 regular-season and 12 Big Ten wins.
The Wildcats have two games left: at Michigan State on March 6, and vs Minnesota on March 9 for Senior Night.
Winning at the Breslin Center is always a tall task, even with Spartan Killer Buie on your side, and the injuries make it trickier than ever. Collins all but confirmed Langborg's return is critical to take some of the scoring workload off Buie and Barnhizer's shoulders.
But should Nicholson's injury be season-ending, it will be a difficult task for Northwestern to feel secure heading into the Big Ten Tournament or Selection Sunday.
The Wildcats really missed Nicholson down the stretch. He left the game with Northwestern trailing by 3. He was the only player to finish the game with a positive +/-, a +2, as Iowa rattled off a significant run in the immediate aftermath of his departure. Northwestern made its last five shots in crunch time with the game on the line; the problem is that the Hawkeyes did too.
Luke Hunger has shown strong flashes this season but is still a sophomore and prone to foul trouble. Blake Preston has not been able to fill the shoes of Tydus Verhoeven so far as the defensive stopper, and has not played double-digit minutes since the overtime win over Purdue on Jan. 31.
The excellent play of this team's guards, combined with the emergence of Martinelli as a scorer at forward, can still give them a puncher's chance against almost anyone in the country. But without Nicholson anchoring the middle of their defense, rolling hard off screens and finding cutters, this team turns from an apex predator back into a scrappy underdog.
