The Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team is an NCAA Division I

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

team representing

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

. Men's basketball was introduced at Northwestern in 1901. Since 2013, the team has been coached by Chris Collins. The Wildcats have advanced to the NCAA tournament once, in

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, after being the only longstanding member of a

Power Five conference The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate ...

to have never made the tournament. The Wildcats have won two

Big Ten conference championships Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show presente ...

(1931 and 1933).

History

Although Northwestern had great success in the early part of the 20th century, it has spent most of the time since

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in the bottom half of the Big Ten. The Wildcats were retroactively selected as the 1930–31 national champion by both the

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and the

Premo-Porretta Power Poll The Premo-Porretta Power Poll is a retroactive end-of-year ranking for American college basketball teams competing in the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons. The Premo-Porretta Polls are intended to serve collectively as a source of informa ...

, and have won only one other conference title, in 1933. It has only finished above fourth place twice since World War II, and did not have a winning record in conference play from 1968 until 2017. During that time, only the 2003–04 team even managed a .500 conference record. On March 1, 2017, the Wildcats won their 10th conference game (a 67–65 win over Michigan) to clinch their first winning Big Ten record in almost half a century. That season also saw the Wildcats make their first NCAA Tournament in school history, winning their first NCAA tournament game 68–66 against Vanderbilt. The Wildcats have also appeared in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York Cit ...

seven times (1983, 1994, 1999, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). The very first NCAA tournament championship was held at Northwestern in March 1939. Until making their first NCAA tournament in 2017, Northwestern had been one of five original NCAA Division I schools and the only school from a power conference to have never played an NCAA Tournament game. Northwestern won their first Tournament game, defeating Vanderbilt 68–66. The Wildcats lost in the Second Round to No. 1-seeded Gonzaga.

Coaching history

Sources:

Postseason

NCAA Division I tournament results

The Wildcats have appeared in the NCAA tournament once. Their record is 1–1.

NIT results

The Wildcats have appeared in the

(NIT) seven times. Their combined record is 5–7.

Notable players

All-time statistical leaders

Career leaders

* Points Scored:

John Shurna John William Shurna (born April 30, 1990) is an American–Lithuanian professional basketball player for Herbalife Gran Canaria of the Liga ACB. He is the 2012 Big Ten scoring champion. He played in the 2012 NBA Summer League with the Atlanta H ...

(2,038, 2008-2012) * Assists: Bryant McIntosh (541, 2014–2018) * Rebounds:

Evan Eschmeyer Evan Bruce Eschmeyer (born May 30, 1975) is an American retired professional basketball player who was selected by the New Jersey Nets in the second round (34th pick overall) of the 1999 NBA Draft. He spent six years on the Northwestern Univers ...

(995, 1995–1999) * Steals: Pat Baldwin (272, 1990–1994) * Blocks:

Alexandru Olah Alexandru Lucian Olah (born 15 October 1993) is a Romanian basketball player for Rapid București of the Liga Națională. He also plays for the Romanian national team. Professional career On 20 January 2018, Olah signed a 2-week try-out contra ...

(169, 2013–2016)

Single-season Leaders

* Points Scored: John Shurna (661, 2012) * Assists: Bryant McIntosh (213, 2016) * Rebounds: Jim Pitts (321, 1966) * Steals: Pat Baldwin (90, 1991) * Blocks: Jim Pitts (123, 1966)

Single-game leaders

* Points Scored: Rich Falk (49, 1964) * Assists: Bryant McIntosh (16, 2018) * Rebounds: Jim Pitts (29, 1965) * Steals: Nate Carter (9, 2011) * Blocks: Jim Pitts (10, 1966) Source for all statistical leaders: