Northwestern headed to NIT
EVANSTON — Northwestern will have to wait at least another year for an NCAA invitation.
The school that hosted the inaugural championship game still is seeking its first bid after missing out again Sunday. Instead, the Wildcats (18-13) are headed to their fourth straight NIT and will host Akron (22-11) in the first round Tuesday night.
Northwestern players and coaches gathered in private to watch the NCAA selection show, hoping the call would come. That it didn't was hardly a surprise.
A 75-68 overtime loss to Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten tournament just might have been the crushing blow, and the school that hosted the first title game in 1939 remains on the outside looking in.
"We're obviously — staff and team — disappointed that we weren't selected, but it's the fourth year in a row we're playing in the postseason," coach Bill Carmody said. "You have to move forward. ... Four straight years in the postseason, and you have something to play for.
"Two years or three years ago, they were so excited to be in the NIT. ... I think it just says something about this class of seniors that now they're really disappointed not to get an NCAA bid."
Long a Big Ten doormat, Northwestern has made big strides the last few years. The Wildcats were eyeing their first NCAA bid, but it slipped out of sight just as it seemed to be within reach.
That Minnesota game was a huge hit. Northwestern made only one basket over the final 9:53, missed an opportunity to win it with a buzzer-beater at the end of regulation and got outscored 6-0 in the final minute of overtime to fall out of the Big Ten tournament — and the NCAA.
"It's still in my stomach about the last game we played," Carmody said. "Could you have done this? Could you have done that? Substitute here? I'm still thinking about that more so than the (NCAA) selection, actually."
A win or two in Indianapolis surely would have strengthened their case, but the Wildcats can also point to a long line of close losses. They fell twice in overtime to Michigan and dropped five more games by eight or fewer points, including a 75-73 defeat against Ohio State on Feb. 29.
No doubt beating the Wolverines or Buckeyes would have impressed the selection committee. Instead, they remain on the outside, still seeking that elusive invitation.
The Wildcats are 178-190 in 12 seasons under Carmody, and although the bar is higher, the zero NCAA appearances is hard to ignore. Then again, Northwestern went nine seasons without making the postseason before this run.
Now, the fourth-seeded Wildcats get fifth-seeded Akron in what they hope will be the first step in a championship run, even if they were hoping to be in a different tournament.
It won't be easy. The Zips entered the Mid-American Conference tournament with the top seed and lost 64-63 to Ohio in a wild final.
"One thing that hasn't happened here, I don't think there's ever been a postseason champion in basketball, and so we're going to play to win a championship," Carmody said.