Buie, Collins never wavered in their belief in each other, NU on way to repeat tourney berth
Boo Buie compared Sunday's NCAA Tournament Selection Show to his recruiting visit at Northwestern.
The tournament show was over quickly. Northwestern vs. Florida Atlantic in Brooklyn was the second game announced. Players and fans gathered at Welsh-Ryan Arena cheered, then the show was shut off on the video board. Check the rest of the brackets on your phone.
Buie said his official visit felt about the same. He met with coach Chris Collins, toured the campus and was ready to sign.
“Northwestern and coach Collins, they were the only high major offer I had coming out of high school,” Buie said. “I've always been a very competitive person and felt higher about myself than anybody else does. I knew I had to capitalize on the opportunity.”
Buie and Collins have been a match made in heaven. The 6-foot-2 guard arrived in Evanston just as Northwestern nose-dived after making its first NCAA appearance in 2017.
Not only did Buie lift the Wildcats back to the tournament, he's now done it two years in a row and was a unanimous All-Big Ten selection.
“There's a poster in my locker that says '318 national rank,'” Buie said. “When I was coming out of high school, that's what they thought of me. Coach, he thought otherwise.”
Whether this was a coaching ploy, we'll never know, but Buie said Collins called with his recruiting pitch while on a family vacation.
“He was like, 'Hey, I never work during vacation, but I just want you to know how urgent this is,'” Buie said. “We really need a point guard and we really love your game and we'd really love you to come to Northwestern.”
The story got even better when Buie chose to return to Northwestern for a fifth season, rather than transfer or turn pro. Buie was even better this year, raising his key numbers to 19.2 points and 5.1 assists.
Collins reminisced about throwing Buie into Big Ten competition as a freshman, then enduring plenty of tough moments as the team won three and six conference games his first two seasons.
“I'm sure there were times where he was really frustrated,” Collins said. “There were times I was frustrated. But we never bailed on each other. It was always like, 'Hey, we're going to do this.'”
Northwestern is the No. 9 seed in the East regional. Friday's game will be an early start, at 11:15 a.m. Central time.
Florida Atlantic was a nine seed last year and advanced all the way to the Final Four. Eight of the top nine scorers from that team are back this year. One twist to the 2023 tourney is the Owls didn't have to get past a top seed because it matched up with Fairleigh Dickinson in the second round instead of No. 1 Purdue.
Not sure Northwestern and Florida Atlantic can count on Stetson knocking off defending champ Connecticut this weekend. The winner of this game most likely gets the Huskies on Sunday.
“It's exciting to be back in March Madness,” Collins said. “You just want to be invited. Everybody in this field is good. We've seen 16s beat 1s and and 15s beat 2s. You want to have a shot to compete.”
FAU's top scorer is Gary, Indiana, native Johnell Davis, a 6-4 guard averaging 18.2 points and 6.3 rebounds. The second-leading scorer is 7-1 Russian center Vladislav Goldin at 15.6 points, a player that surely makes the Wildcats wish they were playing at full strength.
Starting center Matt Nicholson missed the last three games with a lower body injury and was using a scooter on Sunday, so his status for Florida Atlantic isn't promising. Senior guard Ty Berry was also lost to injury late in the season.
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