Three out of four ain’t good, at least as far as Northwestern’s record is concerned.
Still, the Wildcats are two victories shy of breaking the school record of 20 in a season and are close to securing a spot in the NCAA tournament for the first time despite their recent struggles.
Northwestern was without junior swingman Scottie Lindsey for all four of those games, but the team’s leading scorer will be available to return from his bout with mononucleosis Saturday against Rutgers, a source told the Tribune on Friday.
Two of the three recent losses were to ranked teams — Purdue and Maryland — and the other was a stinker at home against Illinois.
But a win at then-No. 7 Wisconsin followed, the Wildcats’ first victory against a top-10 team in their last 17 tries. It propelled Northwestern back into serious NCAA tournament conversation and sparked talk of it being the program’s biggest win.
The 1979 team that defeated eventual national champion Michigan State and Magic Johnson in front of 4,965 fans at old McGaw Memorial Hall might argue for its 83-65 shocker. But that game hardly had the implications of the upset at Wisconsin, which halted the Badgers’ home winning streak at 19.
Having Lindsey back in the mix Saturday could be the boost the Wildcats need to hang on to their tournament lives.
"We got lucky Lindsey didn’t play tonight," Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said Wednesday after his team topped Northwestern 74-64.
Rutgers might not be so lucky, although Lindsey, who is averaging 15.4 points and is one of the Wildcats’ top defenders, might not be game-ready.
Still, it would be a good opportunity for him to work off any rust before the Wildcats (19-7, 8-5 Big Ten) finish their regular season with games at Illinois and Indiana and at home against Michigan and Purdue.
"We don’t have a whole lot of margin for error with the guys we’re playing right now," NU coach Chris Collins said after Wednesday’s loss. "We’re not capable of throwing up 75 or 80 points. We just don’t have that firepower."
Should that three out of four turn into four out of five against the last-place Scarlet Knights (13-14, 2-12), the Wildcats could be facing an uphill climb to earn an NCAA tournament invitation.
When the teams met Jan. 12 in Piscataway, N.J., Vic Law (23 points), Lindsey (14 points) and Isiah Brown (11 points) came to the rescue in a 69-60 NU victory. The Wildcats were behind by nine late in the first half, but they cut the deficit to three by halftime and moved ahead to stay early in the second half.
"We had to earn it," Collins said after that game.
He said this week he doesn’t expect that to change Saturday.
pskrbina@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @ChiTribSkrbina
Red Panda performs at Northwestern game
Krystal, the Red Panda Acrobat, performs at halftime during the Northwestern-Maryland game at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston on Feb. 15, 2017. Red Panda rides a 7-foot unicycle, kicks several bowls at a time into the air and lands them in an ever-growing and wobbly stack of bowls on her head. Each successive flip is done with a greater number of bowls. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)
Krystal, the Red Panda Acrobat, performs at halftime during the Northwestern-Maryland game at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston on Feb. 15, 2017. Red Panda rides a 7-foot unicycle, kicks several bowls at a time into the air and lands them in an ever-growing and wobbly stack of bowls on her head. Each successive flip is done with a greater number of bowls. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)
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