There’s a lot of hard questions that the Wildcats have to answer.
On paper, Northwestern women’s basketball continued its streak of seasons to forget in 2025. It finished with a 9-18 record, went 2-16 in conference play and was one of just three teams that failed to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament. Since 2022, the Wildcats have not won more than nine games in a season, let alone go above .500.
However, the games tell a different story from previous seasons. To be clear, this is not sugarcoating Northwestern. There’s no way to spin a beyond sub-par season. But unlike its 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, there were also instances where Northwestern showed signs of life.
It started in the offseason when head coach Joe McKeown recruited Kyla Jones, Taylor Williams and Grace Sullivan from the transfer portal. Those additions gave Northwestern fans hope that things could improve in 2024-25. And while that didn’t happen, the three transfers were net positives for the program, as they all finished top-five on the team in scoring. In addition, Williams led NU with 9.4 rebounds per game and earned honorable mention All-Big Ten from the media.
Then, the actual season started. After opening with disappointing losses against Illinois State and Lehigh, things finally started to look better during Northwestern’s third game of the season against Utah. After trailing 51-37 midway through the third quarter, the Wildcats roared back to a 71-69 victory, upsetting a Utes team that eventually finished the regular season 22-7. That game was Northwestern’s best win of the season, but it wasn’t the first time it neared this height.
After the Utah game, NU went 6-2 for the rest of out-of-conference competition. But once Big Ten play began, the Wildcats tried to replicate another Utah moment on several occasions but could never pull through. They were ahead of a then-ranked Michigan on the road in the fourth quarter, but late-game fouls gave the game to the Wolverines. They lost to Indiana, Iowa and No. 15 Maryland by four, five and six points respectively. They had a double-digit lead against Minnesota and were on the precipice of claiming their first ranked win since 2022 but let things fall apart in the final minutes. Northwestern lost to all these Big Ten teams by double digits last season but put up incredible fights this season despite falling short.
But as much as the scorelines improved against tough opponents, a loss is still a loss, which gets magnified when Northwestern only had two Big Ten wins. The team still had its fair share of blowout defeats and its performance toward the end of the season was especially disappointing — falling to programs with similar losing records like Purdue and Wisconsin to eliminate itself from Big Ten Tournament contention.
And to cap things off, Northwestern was unable to deliver in a must-win game against Nebraska to get to the Big Ten Tournament, losing 98-77 in its final match of the season.
After the Nebraska game, Northwestern head coach Joe McKeown emphasized his optimism for the 2025-26 season and an increased need to utilize NIL money and the transfer portal. While the portal was beneficial for the Wildcats this season and certainly could be in the future, there’s a bigger elephant in the room.
McKeown’s contract with Northwestern is up after this season. He’s had a successful tenure in Evanston, producing two NCAA tournament appearances, multiple first-round WNBA draft picks and the first Big Ten regular-season championship in program history. But he’s also coming off three disappointing seasons and has been at the helm since 2008. As great as he’s been for the Wildcats in the past, it’s reasonable to want change, especially knowing what this program was capable of just half a decade ago.
But regardless of who is in charge next season, Northwestern will start from a blank slate. Four of its top five scorers — Jones, Williams, Melannie Daley and Caileigh Walsh — will be gone. Consistent starters like Caroline Lau, Casey Harter and Sullivan will return, but expect the rotations to change significantly. And that may not be a bad thing. As important as the graduating players have been, this group was unfortunately also a defining part of Northwestern’s disappointing stretch these past few seasons. With a fresh start and a new style of team, things could take a turn for the better.
Northwestern will be at a crossroads during the 2025 offseason. It can either realize that things aren’t working and make significant improvements, or it can stay complacent, trapped at the bottom of the Big Ten while the rest of women’s basketball passes it by.