Wildcats upset No. 10 Illinois in overtime thriller
EVANSTON-The Wildcats did it again. A Top 10 team came into Welsh-Ryan Arena and left with an overtime loss.
After an embarrassing 96-66 loss in Champaign to start the calendar year, the Wildcats exacted revenge on No. 10 Illinois. They were the ones who scored 96 tonight, opening up overtime with a 9-0 run that sealed their 96-91 win.
"I feel like I'm spinning, like a heavyweight title fight," head coach Chris Collins said. "Two really good teams, every time one threw a punch the other responded."
Boo Buie was sensational with 29 points, eight in overtime, on 12-for-25 shooting, and Brooks Barnhizer delivered his best performance yet as the second-in-command with 23, 12 in the second half.
There were no holes in the Wildcats' attack. All year they've had bits and pieces of their offense click, but this game, against this team, it all game together.
Ty Berry poured in 12 of his 14 points in the second half and big Matt Nicholson burst back onto the scene with 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and four blocks.
Marcus Domask and Coleman Hawkins both scored 22 to pace Illinois, but the Illini lost their legs in extra time and the Wildcats ran away with it.
Here are our takeaways from the upset that lifted the Wildcats' record to 14-5 overall and 5-3 and in a third-place tie in the Big Ten:
Northwestern's offensive renaissance is in full swing: A year after making the tournament while ranking 280th in points per game with 67.7, the Wildcats have beaten two Top 10 teams at home by dropping 90+ points.
"I certainly would have hoped," Collins said on if he anticipated this explosion after last year's defensive focus. "Anyone who knows me knows I was never really viewed as a defensive guru.
"When I played, I was a gunslinger. I was out to score, I wanted to put it in the basket and at heart I want to put points on the board. I think every team takes on its own identity."
He specifically highlighted not just Buie's excellence, but Barnhizer's continued delivery and the critical return of Matt Nicholson to form.
"You're seeing the emergence of Brooks," Collins said, calling him an all-league player later in the press conference. "He's really come on these last few weeks and what's really added to our team has been the reemergence of Matthew Nicholson.
"He had struggled a little bit, didn't have his normal pop or explosiveness. Tonight, six dunks or layups? That lob threat and that ability to finish makes our offense a lot better, more functional."
Even with eye-popping 46-32 rebounding advantage by Illinois, and 21 offensive boards that "felt like 50", Collins quipped, the Wildcats simply shot their way to a win.
They hit 55% from the floor and a blistering 61% from 3 with the guard quartet of Buie, Berry, Barnhizer and Ryan Langborg taking all 18 and making 11 of the team's triples.
"I have a ton of confidence in our guys," Buie said. "We definitely added some pieces that make our office flow a little bit better."
Students made their presence felt: It was the standard Welsh-Ryan Arena experience with the students and the few and faithful Wildcat fans going to battle with a swarm of visitors from a big time Big Ten opponent.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood denied noticing the chants, but students hounded Terrence Shannon Jr. in his first road game back from a suspension. He was issued a temporary restraining order last week that lifted his suspension and allowed him to play again while he is charged in a rape case.
Students chanted "No means no", "Guilty!" and "Lock him up!"
"There were?" Underwood said when asked about chants directed at Shannon. "That's life on the road. We get all kinds of chants on the road. We're playing basketball. We've been in a lot of environments in this league. I had chicken wings thrown at me at Maryland last year. That's stuff insignificant to anything that will have anything to do with the outcome of the basketball game."
Shannon finished with 12 points on 3-for-8 shooting while also being the primary defender of Buie on the other end of the floor. Underwood said that his star guard is still rounding into shape after nearly a month off due to the suspension.
Wildcats' conditioning pays off: Neither No. 1 Purdue nor No. 10 Illinois, which both have deep and talented rosters, had an answer down the stretch for the endless endurance of Northwestern on its home floor.
Three Wildcats played more than 40 minutes, with Barnhizer at 44, Buie at 42 and Langborg at 41.
"I think we do a great job of pushing each other in practice and pushing our conditioning," Buie said. "We know we're going to be in the game a long time, and we do a great job of making sure that we're staying on and getting reps in practice.
"Even when we're tired, if I try to step off or Brooks tries to step off, the coaches make sure we stay on because they know we won't get a break [in the game]. It's all about training yourself."
Collins agreed with that sentiment, lauding Buie and Barnhizer's competitive edge to take on that workload.
"Good players want to play," he said. "Good players are wired to play a lot of minutes and that's why you train with strength and conditioning, that's why you have nutrition, so that two times a week from January to March, you can get your guys at a high level.
"We train and condition so they're wired to play the whole game if needed. I've never met a player that wants to come out."
Cats in the driver's seat for postseason: The Wildcats stand at 14-5, 5-3 in Big Ten play with clutch, overtime wins over Top 10 teams. With a winnable game against Ohio State this weekend, the Wildcats are firmly in the driver's seat to determine their postseason potential and continue their unbeaten home record in conference.
Buie projects to repeat as First Team All-Big Ten, if not bordering on an All-American nod. Barnhizer is creeping upwards towards third-team, if not second-team honors.
This team simply delivers. There's no quit, no flinch. They left everything on the floor in heart-wrenching losses at Wisconsin and at Nebraska, and then got back to Evanston and played some of their best basketball of the season to get off the mat and into the win column again.
This overtime win enabled the Wildcats to pretty much erase their appalling December loss to Chicago State at home, as well as their 30-point beatdown on the road at Illinois on Jan. 2.
They firmly control their own destiny at this point and could clinch a second straight NCAA Tournament berth for the first time in school history. There's not even dust on their dancing shoes, and the Wildcats are again knocking on the door of the Big Dance.