EVANSTON-With 1:14 left in Northwestern’s 73-61 win over Nebraska on Thursday night, Dererk Pardon left the floor for the last time. He got a bear hug from head coach Chris Collins on the sideline while the Welsh-Ryan Arena crowd serenaded him with chants of “M-V-P, M-V-P!”

The sophomore center is certainly the Wildcats' Most Valuable Player whenever they play the Huskers.

Pardon dominated on both ends of the court, finishing with 19 points and 22 rebounds to go along with 3 blocks as the Wildcats won their fifth straight Big Ten game for the first time since – get this – 1966.

Nebraska hung around throughout the game and even cut Northwestern’s edge to 57-53 with about five minutes left. But the Wildcats responded with a 16-1 run featuring several dunks to clinch the game.

Pardon always seems to be at his best when playing against the Huskers, whom he's terrorized in just about every outing. Nebraska coach Tim Miles thinks that Pardon has a problem with the color red and jokingly vowed after the game to have his team wear all-black uniforms the next time the teams meet.

Here are our three pointers on the win that raised Northwestern’s record to 17-4 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten:

Pardon was the man for Northwestern: Northwestern’s big man can’t really explain his dominance against Nebraska, calling it “just a coincidence.” Pardon had his monster night after a better-than-it-looked 13 points and 5 rebounds against the Huskers earlier this season and, more memorably, a 28-point, 12-rebound effort against them in his collegiate debut last year. Pardon put on a show in this one, hitting 8 of 11 shots on stick-backs off of offensive rebounds, an array of dunks and even a pretty jumper from 17 feet in the second half. There’s really no secret to Pardon’s game: he runs the court, works very hard on both ends and is a relentless force on the glass. The fact that the Huskers were without big man Ed Morrow helped, as well. Northwestern finished with 43 rebounds as a team, meaning that Pardon came down with more than half of them. Pardon’s 22 boards were the most in a game for a Northwestern player since 1966.

The Big Three weren’t very big: Northwestern’s trio of Bryant McIntosh, Scottie Lindsey and Vic Law were quiet offensively for most of the game but found other ways to contribute. Lindsey, nursing a sore back after suffering spasms against Ohio State, shot just 2 for 8 to finish with 5 points. McIntosh was 3 of 13 for 9 points, but he dished out 9 assists and controlled the tempo of the game. Law was on his way to a quiet night until heating up during the Wildcats’ decisive run in the second half. His dunk off of an alley-oop from McIntosh nearly blew the roof off of the arena to give the Wildcats a 61-53 lead with 4:38 left. He also threw down a vicious jam off of a miss with 1:17 left that was icing on the cake. Law’s late heroics added up to a team-high 20 points, though Miles thought his team defended Law well most of the night.

The buzz keeps growing: Northwestern is currently a media darling, as pundits from ESPN to Sports Illustrated and all outlets in between are predicting that this team will finally break the drought and get to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. Miles was decisive in his assessment of the Wildcats’ chances: “These guys are a tournament team...they're a good tournament team,” he said. The Wildcats are also continuing to rewrite history in just about every game. They beat Ohio State on Sunday for the first win in Columbus since 1977 and followed that up on Thursday night by becoming the first team to win five straight in conference in 51 years. The Wildcats 6-2 Big Ten mark is the school's best after eight games since 1943-44. Maybe Law put it best: “Our goal is just to be different. This is a different Northwestern team, a new Northwestern.”