The greatest play in Northwestern history will finally get them into the NCAA tournament

EVANSTON, Ill. — Chris Collins said there were members of his staff who wanted to run out the clock and try to beat Michigan in overtime. Northwestern was inbounding the ball under its own basket with 1.7 seconds left, the score tied at 65, and the first NCAA tournament appearance in program history hanging precipitously in the balance.

Collins had challenged his team to embrace the pressure that comes with making history after losing a heartbreaker to Indiana in their last game. He’d be a hypocrite if he didn’t do the same right now.

So Collins made the decision to go for it — a risky choice considering an overthrown pass meant the Wolverines would be inbounding the ball under the Northwestern goal with enough time for their own game-winner. There was only one problem: Northwestern didn’t have a play for this situation. Collins wasn’t worried. He knew exactly the man to draw one up.

Before Collins was trying to become the first coach to ever lead the Wildcats to the NCAA tournament — before he was a star point guard at Duke or a two-time national champion as an assistant coach under Mike Krzyzewski — he was trying to make a different type of history.

Glenbrook North High School had never produced a Division I basketball player at the dawn of the ’90s and Chris Collins wanted to be the first. His head coach there was a man by the name of Brian James. When Collins got the head job at Northwestern in 2013, he knew he wanted James as one of his assistants.

It was James’ job to draw up the play that will go down as the most important in Northwestern history. It required a near-perfect pass from senior forward Nathan Taphorn and the grace of center Dererk Pardon to catch the ball, turn around, and score in less than two seconds. After that, everything was a blur.

“I felt like I was Jimmy V back in ’83,” Collins said after the win. “I was looking around, I didn’t have anyone to hug.”

This is the way it had to be for Northwestern, a near-late-season collapse saved by a miracle finish to get the program to where it’s never been. The fans stormed the court, the players mobbed Pardon and eventually Collins was able to hug his family.

To hear Collins tell it, these Wildcats were never scared of the moment. Now they have their own to define this dream season.

Everyone around Northwestern understood the magnitude of this night. Only a month ago, the Wildcats looked like a safe bet for an at-large bid. After beating Indiana on Jan. 29, Northwestern was 18-4 overall and 7-2 in the Big Ten. It had broken into the top 25 rankings for only the second time since 1969 — an event so rare that the AP didn’t even have their logo on file.

That’s when the wheels started to come off. Leading scorer Scottie Lindsey came down with mono. Vic Law’s jump shot abandoned him. An offense that had been so promising started to fall flat and so did Northwestern. The Wildcats lost five of seven before Wednesday and put themselves in dire need of a win against Michigan before facing conference champion Purdue in their final home game.

Saturday’s loss to Indiana in Bloomington was the type that could have dragged the whole season down. Northwestern was in control for most of the second half before coughing up an eight-point lead in the final three minutes. Indiana won on an and-one dunk by Thomas Bryant in the final seconds, with the ensuing free throw giving the Hoosiers a one-point win.

After the game, Law took it upon himself to share a little wisdom:

Law finally hit his stride against Michigan. He scored a team-high 18 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out three assists, and played tough defense against the Wolverines’ big wings all night.

He was in a reflective mood when it was all over.

“This is the game I committed here for,” he said.

Northwestern’s turnaround started with Law’s leap of faith. He was Collins’ first recruit, and he was a big one. The No. 66 prospect in the class of 2014, Law had offers from schools all over the country. He was close to committing to Shaka Smart and VCU at one point. Then Collins got the Northwestern job and sold him on his vision, which was Law, a Chicago kid by way of St. Rita High School, turning into the star player on the first Northwestern team to ever make the tournament.

Three long years later, it’s finally happening.

“When we started this whole thing, he was the local guy who jumped on first and said I want to be at the forefront of what we’re gonna build here,” Collins said of Law. “For him to play like this in the biggest game any of our guys have played in their careers, I was really proud of him.”

With this win, Northwestern clinched its first winning record in the Big Ten since 1967-68. It was also the 10th conference win for the Wildcats, the first time the program has accomplished that since 1932-33. Yes, 84 years ago.

Collins said after the game that Pardon’s game-winner reminded him of the most iconic shot in college basketball history — Christian Laettner’s game-winner against Kentucky to send Duke into the Final Four in 1992. Collins didn’t arrive at Duke as a player until the next year, but as a basketball lifer he knows a huge moment when he sees it.

Northwestern basketball had waited its entire existence for what happened on Wednesday. For Collins, it felt like this night was a lifetime in the making: His first recruit leading the charge, his high school coach drawing up the play, his destiny as the first man to lead Northwestern to the NCAA tournament likely fulfilled.

No one could have drawn it up that well — not even Brian James.