Wild but true: Chris Collins and the ’Cats are finally back on the NCAA Tournament bubble

Forty-nine years passed in between winning seasons in the Big Ten for Northwestern’s men’s basketball program. That’s an unthinkable, if not interminable, time spent in the hoops wilderness.

It only seems like the last six years have been even longer.

But that’s what can happen when a coach — seemingly the perfect one for the moment — comes in and builds to a school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. It took four seasons for Chris Collins to get the Wildcats to Salt Lake City, where in 2017 they nearly made giant-killing magic, taking No. 1 seed Gonzaga down to the wire in the second round.

After a thrill like that, what did everyone want and expect?

More, of course. Dial that sucker up and do it again.

But Collins, now in his 10th season, is still trying to find his way back to the Big Dance.

“I want it for everybody,” he said. “I remember the first go-round, just how happy I was for so many people — the players, the people who had been coming to games for so many years, everyone who didn’t get to taste those types of environments late in the season and going to a March Madness. I remember the emotion on all their faces.”

When Collins brought back the core of that team — Scottie Lindsey, Bryant McIntosh, Vic Law, Dererk Pardon — the college basketball world looked to Evanston and saw a Big Ten contender. It didn’t come close to playing out that way.

“We thought it was going to be another run with those guys, but it didn’t happen,” Collins said. “To me, probably my greatest disappointment was that team, that I wasn’t able to lead them better through that success.”

Consider this his next — and potentially his last — chance to get it right. Coming off five seasons over which they were 45 games under .500 in conference play and 29 games under overall, the Wildcats are 14-5 with a 5-3 mark in league play. A win at home Saturday against last-place Minnesota would lift them into a second-place tie with Rutgers behind seemingly uncatchable Purdue.

And guess who has officially entered the bracketology picture? ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Wildcats as a 10 seed. CBS’ Jerry Palm has them as one of his last four teams in the field.

This thing could really happen. Again.

“We want to get there,” Collins said Friday before practice at Welsh-Ryan Arena. “We want to leave our mark on this program by getting this team back to the tournament.”

Collins, signed through 2024-25, needed this boost, and not merely for his peace of mind and his reputation. Coaching gigs don’t last forever, even if the leashes have been longer for football and basketball coaches in Evanston than they are pretty much anyplace else in the power conferences.

“I understand the tradition of this program, or lack thereof, of success and all those things,” he said. “Obviously, for me, the goal is sustainability. I don’t want it to be a roller coaster — never have — but the reality is that happens and it has happened. Fortunately for us, we’ve continued to fight and kind of figure things out. We’ve really had to kind of build it twice.”

The building blocks this time are Chase Audige, Boo Buie, Robbie Beran and Ty Berry. They’ve stuck around — stuck it out — and grown. They’ve had their rear ends handed to them time and again but are getting some payback. They’re making games at Welsh-Ryan matter for the first time, really, since the arena was being renovated while the disappointing 2017-18 squad was forced to play home games at All-State Arena in Rosemont.

“Hitting the reset button was not what I wanted,” Collins said, “but it’s where we were and we kind of had to start over. And starting over meant these guys now. I’m so proud of them. And I think the whole experience really has helped me grow as a coach.”

Collins didn’t take the reins at Northwestern thinking that, 10 years in, he wouldn’t be able to look up and see a few banners hanging. Or that he wouldn’t be able, by now, to point to some NBA success stories. It can be a bitter pill to swallow.

It has simplified his message to core players now and those on the way.

“Be someone that can have an impact on a place that maybe hasn’t had it,” he said, “and then you can be remembered forever.”