March 07--Making the NIT might not happen for Northwestern, but the Wildcats have defied the odds on occasion already this season.
Entering their regular-season finale Saturday at Iowa, the Wildcats are 15-15 overall and 6-11 in the Big Ten. They have won five of their last six games, including Tuesday night's thrilling 82-78 double-overtime win against Michigan.
It would appear NU has to win at Iowa and at least two games next week in the Big Ten tournament to be in the NIT conversation. DRatings.com does not project Northwestern making the NIT in its current predictions. Bracketmatrix.com also has the Wildcats out.
"We really haven't talked about it," Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. "We really haven't talked about NIT, or winning record or any of that kind of stuff. The main thing we talked about is that if we take care of our business, we might be able to move up in the conference. Two weeks ago we were in last. Now, you win five out of six and you put yourself in a position going into (Iowa). We're just to take every game and win every game that is in front of us."
Northwestern dropped a 66-61 overtime decision to the Hawkeyes on Feb. 15 at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
"(Iowa) is playing, to me, as good as anybody in the league," Collins said. "Since we played them, they have been tremendous. So we know what is ahead of us. Our guys know how good Iowa is because we just played them. We need to get rested, we need to get rejuvenated."
Since dropping 10 straight games, the Wildcats have shifted to a 2-3 zone defense and received stellar play from the likes of Alex Olah, Tre Demps and Vic Law.
"You learn a lot about people's character when you go through tough times," Collins said. "You learn about how much fight you have in your belly. All of us ... coaches, players. It's easy to play hard and it's easy to do things when everything's going great. But how are you going to be when things aren't going great?"
fmitchell@tribpub.com
