When Northwestern players boarded the bus bound for Evanston after Sunday night’s victory against then-No. 7 Wisconsin, the giddy was up.
So coach Chris Collins had a simple message for his Wildcats: You have 2 ½ hours to revel in the upset victory. Then it’s time to move on from Wisconsin.
“I told them, ‘Get all your text messages out of your system; get back to your family and everybody telling you how good you are,’” Collins said. “’When we pull into campus, we gotta move on to Maryland.’”
The Wildcats have no choice but to turn their attention to the No. 23 Terrapins (21-4, 9-3 Big Ten), who will be in town Wednesday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Northwestern will be without leading scorer Scottie Lindsey for the fourth straight game as he recovers from mono. The Wildcats (19-6, 8-4) lost their first two without him and his 15.4 points per game, including a head-scratcher to Illinois at home.
Collins said the 6-foot-5 junior guard/forward is “doing really well.”
“Hopefully sooner rather than later,” Collins said of Lindsey’s possible return, which could come at home Saturday against Rutgers. “He’s just not ready to go (Wednesday).”
Maryland has lost two of three, including one on the road to Penn State, but defeated Ohio State in its last game. Anthony Cowan (19 points) and Kevin Huerter (18 points) led them during that win, while junior Melo Trimble scored 10, the 23rd time this season he’s scored at least that many.
The Terrapins are 8-1 away from home, and freshman Justin Jackson is averaging a team-best 15.4 points and 8.1 rebounds in those games.
While Collins acknowledged that Wildcats’ 66-59 victory at the Kohl Center, just the Wildcats’ second win in that building ever, was big, he was cautious about labeling it the biggest in program history.
But barring any epic collapses, it could go down as the game that clinched the Wildcats’ spot in their first NCAA tournament.
“I want the guys to enjoy it, but I’ve talked a lot (about) not getting sidetracked of (how) we got to this point,” he said. “If you get sidetracked, the cameras go away real quick and the microphones go away real quick and it goes the other way.”
pskrbina@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @ChiTribSkrbina
(Shannon Ryan)
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