It can’t just be “one bad stretch” in a game if it ends up being the most consequential.
With just over four minutes left in the first half on Sunday, Jase Richardson hit a step-back three-pointer to extend No. 16 Michigan State’s lead over Northwestern to 41-21. He then ran to the opposite end of the court and threw his hands up, bringing the crowd to the loudest they’d been all game.
If you shut your eyes, you may have thought that Northwestern was back in 2023 and Boo Buie just hit a three at the buzzer. But in reality, you witnessed a team losing control of its own arena.
“I appreciate our crowd, 11 a.m. on a snowy Sunday morning. Part of you as a coach is like, ‘Man, are the guys really going to come out?’” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said after his team’s 78-68 loss to the Spartans. “Our crowd was great. It was a great atmosphere in there. And I wish we could have played better.”
A 10-point loss to a ranked team that’s gotten better since last season isn’t the end of the world. But it’s harder to stomach amid NU’s three-game losing streak, and given the context that the ‘Cats have fumbled nearly every game this season that could have been a resume win. And it’s especially hard not to be cynical when the loss was in Welsh-Ryan Arena, a place where Northwestern has built a reputation for being able to take on any team in the Big Ten. In fact, before Sunday, the Wildcats hadn’t seen a double-digit loss at home since Feb. 3, 2023.
When Richardson pumped up the away crowd, it served as a warning — that all the momentum and hype Northwestern built could also be torn apart if the Wildcat crowd didn’t have much to cheer for. It was also a symbol for how the Wildcats lost control throughout the game.
“That stretch in the first half is when the game got away from us,” Collins said. “We took some bad shots, we had a couple turnovers. It allowed them to get out and run a little bit. And then we just kind of melted down mentally on both ends.”
The Wildcats were up 16-14 with 13 minutes left in the first half, and it felt like they were finally putting their “slow start” woes behind them. However, Michigan State then went on a 33-12 run to finish the half to make the score 47-28 at the break. It was also a period where NU went 1-for-16 on field goal attempts.
It didn’t matter that Northwestern outscored Michigan State 40-31 in the second half, much to the dismay of Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who seemed more upset postgame about the Spartans letting their foot off the gas rather than their first-half dominance. You don’t just take the most defining 13 minutes of the game out of the equation and pretend like nothing happened, just like how you don’t forget about slow starts during the Purdue, Penn State and Butler games. These may just be bad stretches, but there have been far too many of them and they prove to be way too consequential to ignore.
Score aside, there were many other issues. Nick Martinelli was a bright spot with 27 points, bouncing back from a rough Purdue performance. But the Wildcats lacked a consistent paint presence (as they have all season) when rotating minutes between Keenan Fitzmorris and Matthew Nicholson, who exited the game midway through the second half after taking a hard fall.
The most glaring issue of all was Brooks Barnhizer who was held scoreless in the first half, finishing with just four points off 2-for-13 shooting. After going on an eight-game stretch with 15 or more points, he’s been held under 12 in back-to-back games. Collins said those first half struggles wore on Barnhizer as Michigan State’s defense frustrated him.
“When you’re number one on that scouting report, you’re going to get a lot of attention,” Collins said. “[Michigan State] rotated guys on him and did a really good job of trying to take him off his spots and being smart about not letting him get to the things he wanted to do.”
Even with much of the season left to play, it’s still okay to lament over Northwestern’s performance on Sunday for all the reasons above. There have been too many lapses that have become increasingly difficult to watch, and it’s especially noticeable when it takes place on the team’s beloved home court. The Wildcats are now teetering between needing a generational conference play stretch to make the NCAA Tournament and being ruled out completely.
That being said, even if Northwestern doesn’t reach its final goal, it can still salvage its own fire. The team has a great chance to bounce back at home Thursday against Maryland, a team closer to the Wildcats’ caliber than top dogs like Purdue and Michigan State. But in order for that to happen, these bad lapses cannot keep happening.
“We got a lot of winning in my locker room and kids that have died for this program, so we’re not going to lay down,” Collins said. “Sometimes you get beat. That’s the nature of sports. These last two games, we got beat by really good teams, and we got to play a lot better, then you got to evaluate, dust yourself off and get back and fight.”