Why NU basketball fortunes never change

Editor's note: The author of this commentary, Max Heerman, has an undergraduate and law degree from Northwestern. He practices law in Minneapolis, where he has contributed editorials to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Minnesota Law & Politics.

Northwestern is on its way to another lopsided losing record. No surprise there - everyone knows Northwestern's basketball program has been bad for a long time.

But how bad has it been?

Northwestern, in the Big Ten since 1908, has the league's worst all-time winning percentage, at a paltry 32 percent. And that number is skewed upward by NU's modest success during its first few decades of conference play. The Wildcats have not had a winning Big Ten campaign in more than 40 years. (They eaked out an 8-6 Big Ten record in 1967-68.) Worse, Northwestern last won the conference more than 75 seasons ago. In that span, Indiana has won the Big Ten 18 times. And worst of all, Northwestern is the only major conference school in the nation that has never earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

It's hard to understand why Northwestern hasn't been able to win, at least occasionally. NU's relatively small enrollment, private school status, and strong academics are its excuses for its roundball futility. But Duke, Stanford, Georgetown, and Vanderbilt have overcome the same obstacles that face Northwestern - and all without the potential fan base of a metro area of more than 8 million. Northwestern's football program, with three Big Ten titles and five bowl appearances since 1995, is further proof that the school can succeed at big-time sports.

The problem doesn't seem to be bad coaching. From 1997-2000, the 'Cats were led by Kevin O'Neill, who had turned around Marquette. O'Neill left NU after a 5-25 season, and it has taken him years to recover his reputation. But O'Neill can coach. He was recently named to one of the best jobs in the country - Lute Olson's replacement at Arizona. Another big name coach, Bill Foster, won the ACC with Duke in 1978 and 1980 but lost consistently while coaching the 'Cats in the late 1980s and early '90s. No Northwestern coach has had an overall winning record since Arthur Lonburg's tenure ended in 1950.

NU's current leader, Bill Carmody, is also a quality head coach. Carmody was a big success when he was at Princeton, and he runs a motion offense that can be very effective with the right players. Carmody is also willing to try creative defenses. In the Wilcats 62-50 loss to Wisconsin a few weeks ago, Northwestern kept the game close by frustrating the Badgers with an unorthodox zone defense. Carmody put 5-10 point guard Michael Thompson under the basket, where his quickness was effective. But in the end, it wasn't enough, and the Wildcats lost again.

NU boasts that Carmody is starting to change NU's fortunes, but the facts indicate otherwise. The NU athletic department's website proudly proclaims that Carmody has 32 conference wins in the last six years. This, the school says, is the highest conference win total in any six year span since 1966-1971. What the Northwestern athletic department fails to realize, it seems, is that 32 Big Ten wins in six years is lousy. That's an average conference record of 5-11. Three times in Carmody's vaunted six-year hot streak, the 'Cats were 3-13 or worse in the Big Ten. So far this year, they're 0-8.

At bottom, NU's problem is that it doesn't recruit or develop top-tier players. No 'Cat has been named a consensus All-American since 1946 (Max Morris), and Northwestern has never produced a Big Ten player of the year since that honor was first given in 1985. Depressingly, in the last 30 years, only four Northwestern men have made an All-Big Ten basketball team.

NU's current roster includes only one player who was seriously recruited by other major-conference schools, a solid inside-outside threat named Kevin Coble. This lack of overall talent is most evident under the basket, where the Wildcats simply cannot compete against Big Ten opponents. This year, Northwestern averages about 21 rebounds per game in the conference, while its opponents average almost 35. In games against Ohio State and Michigan, Northwestern was out-rebounded almost 2 to 1.

Wildcat fans can't be blamed if they fear that the team's biggest bright spot - Coble - will transfer to a better program after this season. A sophomore, Coble averages 17 points per game. He scored 34 points in the Wildcats home loss to fellow Big Ten cellar-dweller Michigan. On other occasions when 'Cat players have had breakthrough sophomore seasons, they have not stayed at NU. Aside from former center Evan Eschmeyer, the two best underclassmen NU has had in the last two decades were guards Rex Walters and Gino Carlisle. Both transferred to better basketball programs after just two seasons with the 'Cats.

All of this is depressing for Northwestern students and alums who want to support our school, but cannot justify wasting money or time watching uninspiring basketball. It's also bad for the Big Ten. Surely the city of Chicago, by far the largest city in Big Ten country, deserves a decent Big Ten men's basketball program. After all, Los Angeles has one respectable Pac-10 team (USC) and another fantastic one (UCLA). Washington DC has a great Big East school (Georgetown) and a consistent ACC program (Maryland). New York and Philadelphia have good Big East teams to watch (St. John's and Villanova, respectively). And Atlanta has Georgia Tech, a solid ACC program.

Until DePaul joined the Big East in 2005, Chicago's hoops fans had to choose between cheering for the lowly Wildcats, rooting for teams that play in mid-major conferences, or pulling for college hoopsters whose home games are hundreds of miles away.

Historically, very few Chicagoans chose to support the 'Cats and, if anything, that support seems to be dwindling. In NU's six non-conference home games this season, the average reported attendance was less than 3,400. And that's not just because most of NU's non-conference opponents were low-profile. Other Big Ten teams can draw fans when they play the same no-name teams. For example, when Wisconsin played Savannah State in November, more than 17,000 showed up. When Northwestern played the very same team in December, the crowd was barely over 3,000.

It may be true that, in the grand scheme of things, Northwestern's college basketball program is insignificant. NU brings more important positives to the Big Ten Conference and to the Chicago area. Unquestionably, it's a top-flight academic institution with brilliant faculty. And the university sponsors important research and brings enlightenment and culture. But that just makes you wonder, why this institution - one that excels at almost everything - is utterly incapable of excellence in men's basketball.