Oct. 15--Even the Cubs' 106-year championship drought isn't as fruitless as Northwestern's list of invitations to the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
Try never.
Third-year coach Chris Collins said he is trying to use the youthful 2015 Cubs' success as a model for his team when it comes to the historical burden of postseason futility.
"The thing that has been most impressive to me is that it is always thrown in the players' and manager's face that they haven't won in 100 years," Collins said Thursday during Big Ten media day in Chicago. "And I haven't noticed them playing with any pressure or playing tight. Maybe it is because they are so young. They are just out there playing and having fun, and you see the joy.
"That's something I hope we can take into our program because we face a lot of those same questions. It's a great example for our guys. Live in the moment and enjoy it."
Northwestern finished 15-17 last season and 6-12 in the Big Ten. About half of those conference losses easily could have gone the Wildcats' way.
"There's a confidence in our program right now. There's a belief we can be a good team," Collins said. "Certainly my goal every year I've been part of college basketball, as a player or coach, has been to be in the NCAA tournament. If that's not my goal, then I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing.
"I've said it all along: For me, it's a matter of when that happens, not if. That's the confidence level we all share. So it would be great if it was this year."
NU players seem to be buying into Collins' determined, patient approach.
"Honestly, I don't really follow baseball that much," senior guard Tre Demps said. "Being in Chicago, you read stories and hear things about the way they stayed patient with the process. They developed guys from the farm (system) and brought them up to the major leagues. They started from the ground up, really.
"It's encouraging that it paid off for them because you know that your work is not in vain. That's what we're trying to do, every day embrace coming into work and competing."
Collins, who grew up in Northbrook, said he has been enjoying the Cubs' postseason success especially because NU football coach Pat Fitzgerald is a White Sox fan from Orland Park.
"We have North Side-South Side arguments all the time," Collins said. "He's been a little bit quiet, so it has been nice to walk around the campus with the Cubs winning."
