Since losing star guard Brooks Barnhizer and then point guard Jalen Leach for the season, the Wildcats have lost three straight games, each in a different way.

They’ve had to rely on previously seldom-used sub Justin Mullins and never-used sophomore Jordan Clayton as starters recently, and freshmen like KJ Windham and Angelo Ciaravino to play key roles.

All that inexperience comes at a price. Call them growing pains.

Take the play of Windham, for example, a rookie who has seen his fortunes ebb and flow like the stock market as his minutes have increased.

In the Wildcats’ 76-71 loss at Washington, he was a non-factor, failing to score while taking just two shots in 14 minutes. His two assists were offset by two turnovers.

Then, against Oregon, he was sensational in Northwestern’s 81-75 defeat. He put up a career-best 20 points in a career-high 27 minutes, draining 8-of-14 shots overall and 4-of-7 from deep.

But any hopes of his turning a corner evaporated quickly on Sunday afternoon against Nebraska. Windham was once again shut out on the stat sheet, going 0-for-7 from the floor and fouling out after just 19 minutes as the Wildcats blew a lead in a 68-64 loss.

That’s a three-game output of zero, 20 and zero points. Windham’s average of 6.7 points during that three-game swing is pretty good for a freshman, but when they come in feast-or-famine fits like that, it’s hard to depend on his output.

Windham isn’t the only one riding the rollercoaster, either.

Mullins posted what seemed like a breakout 13-point effort against Washington, on a very efficient 4-for-6 shooting. But he followed that up with two points on 1-for-6 shooting at Oregon and four points, with three turnovers, against the Huskers.

Clayton, who selflessly burned his redshirt to help his team in a pinch, turned in an encouraging seven-point, five-assist, zero-turnover performance in his first action of the season that seemed to portend good things to come. But then he followed that up with a six-point effort against the Ducks that included zero assists and four turnovers in 15 minutes, and no points against the Huskers.

Ciaravino produced just two points against both Washington and Oregon, and then had a microburst of six points and five rebounds against the Huskers.

NORTHWESTERN GAME TAKEAWAYS:

Cats can't overcome injuries, Collins ejection in loss to Washington l Windham's career-high 20 points not enough in 81-75 loss at Oregon l Wildcats run out of steam in 68-64 loss to Nebraska

Not surprisingly, the Wildcats as a whole have been inconsistent, too.

In Seattle, they fought back to take a four-point lead with three minutes to go but couldn’t hold it. In Eugene, they fell behind by 14 by the half and never led. Back home in Evanston, they jumped all over Nebraska and built a 20-point second-half lead before letting the game slip away in the closing minutes.

Northwestern has gotten dependable production from two of their veterans in Ty Berry and Nick Martinelli. Berry has gone for 14, 23 and 23 points over the last three games while shooting 44.4% from beyond the arc. Martinelli has poured in 72 points in this stretch, an average of 24 a game, and still leads the Big Ten with 19.8 points per game.

After that, however, finding that third scorer has been elusive. Windham stepped up as that No. 3 against Oregon with 20 points, but his counterpart, Oregon point guard Jordan Shelstad went off with 26 points. The Wildcat defense just couldn’t stop the Ducks, wasting a rare 52% shooting night.

It was a similar story against Nebraska, when the Wildcats gave up 47 points in the second half to blow what might be their last, best chance at a win this season.

These are painful times for the Wildcats, who a few weeks ago were still trying to chase a third straight NCAA Tournament bid. Now, they are just trying to finish in the top 15 of the Big Ten to make the conference tourney. It doesn’t look good, either: the Wildcats are sitting at 17th in the league at 4-11, with losses to the No. 15, 16 and 18 schools.

Head coach Chris Collins knows this and was blunt in his assessment of his team after the Nebraska game on Sunday. He has no choice but to play the guys he has. They are going to have to just grimace and bear it as young players are put in situations they’ve never been before.

"Brooks isn't coming back, Jalen isn't coming back," he said. "These are the guys that are going to be in the game. Hopefully, as hard as it is, we learn some of these lessons."

But he also explained that the positive of those lessons they are learning now will hopefully pay dividends in the future.

"It's going to be great for the young guys to get key minutes in clutch time, on offense, defense and learn what it takes to win," he said. "I've had to go through it twice, and we're back here because of injuries, playing a bunch of young guys who haven't done it.

"There can be a lot of heartache there, but then you get to the other side. We've done it twice... They get better from it, that's all we can do with these guys."