Northwestern Basketball: 2018-19 season preview for the Wildcats
How will the Northwestern Wildcats bounce back?
With Northwestern losing guys like Scottie Lindsey and Bryant McIntosh would make you believe that Northwestern was in for a really bad season. But what could be worse than last year, finishing under .500 after being ranked in the preseason? Because really besides those two and Gavin Skully, the Wildcats have everyone coming back.
Dererk Pardon and Vic Law are more than capable of being the leading scorers for Northwestern. They’re both seniors and are ready for big things.
Ryan Taylor and A.J. Turner are pretty nice looking transfers that Chris Collins landed for this season. Aaron Falzon and Anthony Gaines are already battled tested as key reserves for the Wildcats. It’s not going to be as bad as some may think.
The knock will be that Northwestern is no longer going to be led by guards, but two forwards. The one guard that will score a lot is coming from a smaller conference. There’s no telling how his game will translate over.
They’re going to see a lot of minutes from their two incoming freshmen. Both are four-stars which are actually a rarity in program history. There just one that is probably guaranteed playing time off the bench. Other than that, Pete Nance and Miller Kopp are in line for big things this season.
As for the schedule, it’s not NCAA Tournament-worthy. There’s no easy way around it. The first three should be wins. They draw Fresno State in the opening round of the Wooden Legacy. Nothing about being matched up with the Bulldogs sounds great for Northwestern. Miami isn’t what they were last season and more than likely, they won’t see Seton Hall. This is not a strong Tournament for resume building.
From there, they draw Georgia Tech in the ACC/Big Ten challenge. It’ll be an even match up, but the Yellow Jackets won’t be strong this season. They have two brutal games against Indiana and Michigan, go back to a couple easier non-conference games, there’s Oklahoma and then the Big Ten once again.
They won’t finish last because Rutgers has hardly anyone returning this season. My initial thought was second to last. After looking at it closer, Ryan Taylor will be a scoring threat, Vic Law and Dererk Pardon are seniors so they should avoid 13th place.
Northwestern has Rutgers and Illinois twice. That could possibly equal to four wins right there. They only have Penn State once and that’s at home. The Wildcats could get the Nittany Lions at home even though Penn State will still be a high-scoring team. If Iowa’s defense collapses in one of their two games, the Wildcats could be on the verge of five or six Big Ten wins.
Next. Big Ten Basketball: Best / Worst case scenarios for each team in 2018-19. dark
It’ll be a tough go-around this season for Collins and the Wildcats. The only good thing is that they don’t have any lofty expectations. They aren’t going to be anywhere near the top-25 so the Wildcats are free to play basketball without being overly criticized if they start losing games. They’ll still be competitive with a few exciting basketball players on their team, but finishing inside the top-10 in a deep Big Ten will be awfully difficult.