Moments before Northwestern coach Chris Collins and his team learned they were bound for Sacramento, California, to take on 10th-seeded Boise State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, they sat and listened to a message.
This one didn’t come in the form of a taped video shown on the Jumbotron at Welsh Ryan Arena. These words were off-the-cuff, heartfelt and direct from the mouths of four individuals — Nate Taphorn, Tino Malnati, Gavin Skelly and NU assistant coach Bryant McIntosh — who six years ago sat in the same seats Boo Buie and Chase Audige found themselves in Sunday.
Collins didn’t anticipate so much time would separate his program from its return to the tournament. Turns out, sustaining success is just as difficult as building a program from the ground up.
“To get there, have success, take a step back and then kind of rebuild it and get back there, it’s been a lot of hard work from a lot of people,” Collins said. “A lot of belief. A lot of time where we just had to hang in there because we saw we were making progress.
“We had a bunch of guys stay the course, see this through, and now they’re going back to the tournament, which is very exciting and obviously really special.”
Senior guards Buie and Audige and senior forward Robbie Beran are three of those players. They remained after teammates departed for blue-chip programs. But their commitment to Collins and the program guaranteed nothing.
Even after victories against ranked opponents and talk of their return beginning to swirl, it didn’t feel real for Buie until he heard NU’s name called.
“It didn’t feel like [we were making history] in the moment,” Buie said. “After certain games, it did. Seeing our name up there in the bracket is the moment we’ve been waiting for.”
Sunday started with a workout, and it wasn’t a light one, either.
“Big cardio day,” Buie said with a laugh.
“Humbled us a little bit,” Audige added.
They needed it after their early exit against Penn State — which went on to lose to top-seeded Purdue 67-65 in the Big Ten title game — on Friday. Collins called the loss a blessing in disguise, giving his team the added benefit of rest ahead of Thursday’s game.
At this point, though, the seventh-seeded Wildcats aren’t looking back on the Big Ten tourney for any kind of motivation. The slate is clean, and they’re locked in on Boise State.
“[Playing in the Big Ten] has prepared us,” Audige said. “We played so many great teams that had their names called today. That experience and the confidence we built in ourselves and our system is going to help us Thursday.”
Eight Big Ten teams made the NCAA Tournament, including Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State and Illinois. The Wildcats had two wins over the fourth-seeded Hoosiers during Big Ten play and one win over the top-seeded Boilermakers.
“You look at this last 10-game stretch, we played Illinois, Iowa, Purdue, Indiana, Penn State twice and at Maryland,” Collins said. “We’ve been playing NCAA Tournament games for about three to four weeks in a row.”
As Collins takes his team back to the tournament, there isn’t much he plans to do differently. After the celebration, he dove immediately into game-planning and travel schedules. What he hopes is different this time around is sustained success.
“We’re going to be guns blazing this week,” Collins said. “But whenever our run ends, we’re going to roll up our sleeves and work even harder.”
