Discrepancy

From the very first bucket – that's a photo of it right there – you could clearly see the difference between the two programs. It was 100+ years of college basketball history in one play. The athleticism required for Morez Johnson to burst past his defender and dunk it is not something you're going to see from Northwestern. They've had some great individual players (Boo Buie just last year being an example), but they've never – like, ever – had a roster full of athletes who can overpower you.

So I had a moment with our very first basket in this game which flipped a switch for me. Beyond my frustrations with the last two games in the SFC (the losses to Maryland and USC) was a very clear "we've given ourselves a chance." Northwestern has zero chance (and I mean zero chance) to advance very far in the NCAA Tournament. It's doubtful they even make it. We have a roster where our starting center has mono and our backup center comes in and does that.

For whatever reason, I needed it. I somewhat lost it as the game went along, of course. When Northwestern cut our lead from 19 to 8 in only 1 minute and 54 seconds of game time, I was no longer settled into this perspective. I was instead wondering why Edward Hyde keeps showing up when I swore this was going to be a Dr. Jekyll game. But given enough time to reflect after the game, I settled back in. Beyond anything else, we are capable of something that Northwestern (and hundreds of other Division I schools are not).

The talent discrepancy was so incredibly clear in this one. When we pushed out to the huge lead – as the Northwestern players kept backing off of shots because they knew they were getting blocked – it was one of those moments where the discrepancy was all you needed to know. I'll try to explain that using... lawyers.