By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor

He came to the 'Cats late, and only after reconsidering his commitment to Indiana State. Still, as their point, he choreographed their rise to basketball relevance and led them to the program's first ever appearance in the NCAA tourney. But long before that, years before he accepted Chris Collins' challenge to make his own history, Bryant McIntosh was already a baller, a young boy in love with a game as he grew up in the Indiana town of New Castle.

It's funny. My dad was a basketball coach. He was coaching in a game. My first memory is me actually walking up to him and pulling on his pocket because the concession stand had the absolute best popcorn. I just had to get some money so I could go get some popcorn.

It's just so funny to me now. With all the things that go along with the game, just something so simple as some popcorn and watching a game was always so special to me. That being my first memory of being in a gym, I can remember vividly the whole situation.

I was probably three-years old, just running around. I usually had a ball. The manager was supposed to take care of me. At practices, the managers were not allowed to let me shoot at the ten-foot goal. So I'd always play one-on-one against them (with) the little pull-up bar that's attached to the wall. That was my basket.

So I wouldn't form bad habits.

My dad would coach and I'd be off to the side, and I'd do a lot of ball handling and occasionally play one-on-one on the pull-up bar.

It started with my dad being a coach. My mom was pregnant with my sister at the time, so I spent a lot of time with my dad. My mom was pretty sick with my sister. So I was always with my dad, I was always in the gym, so it was just something— I was around it so much, you couldn't help but to fall in love with the game.

Four-years old, I played at the Salvation Army. My job was to just stand in the corner. My dad coached. I would stand in the corner— I was three years younger than everybody. The ball was bigger than me. But I could shoot. So I would stand in the corner my first year.

My dad ran like a simple pick-and-roll at the top of the floor on the right side for our guys to drive right because everybody's just right-handed. So our best player would drive right and either shoot a layup or my man would help and he'd pass it to me and I'd hit a shot.

It was eight-foot baskets. I didn't play on a 10-foot basket until kindergarten or first grade.

I was at a camp. It was a Steve Alford camp. They were asking, 'Who's your favorite player?' I'd watched (the classic movie) Hoosiers so much that Jimmy Chitwood (who hits the shot that wins the state championship) was my only answer.

He could shoot. I loved his form. His demeanor on the floor. In the movie he was confident, but he was really quiet and just kind of hung to himself. I saw a lot of myself in his character.

It's pretty cool now, looking back, being able to say I did something similar to him. In the movie he took a really small team, a really small program and community— to go win a state championship was pretty cool.

There are definitely parallels. Everybody thinking it's not possible. A lot of naysayers. The history wasn't there. So being able to create that history of your own, with a team and a bond of guys, is something that's really special. It's kind of storybook.

He continued to ball and, as a freshman, he was already a starter on the New Castle varsity. But then, on Dec. 10, 2010, his coach punched him while yelling during a time out, and that not only ruptured that love affair he was having with his game. It also prompted his family's move to Greensburg, some 50 miles away.

At the time, the fun of the game was kind of taken away from me. I was ready to quit.

I told them (his parents) I wanted to quit. My dad basically said, 'You're not a quitter. You're not going to let him get the best of you. There's more for you to do than this. You've worked too hard, we've worked too hard together to just quit.'

So I finished the season.

After the season, I still felt the same way. We had high school basketball workouts and I wasn't going. I didn't want to go.

I went on a drive with my mom. We went to Baker Park. It's a big, big park. In the scene we're sitting almost at the top of a hill. On the right is a big basketball court. There's a beach volleyball court. Tennis courts. Then there's a big shelter house there where everybody would have their birthday party.

We're sitting there and she just said, 'This has been your dream your whole life and I don't want this to be the end of it. You've worked too hard.'

It was really an emotional conversation.

Basically what she said was she's willing to sacrifice everything for me to be able to reach my goals. For her to take her son out of the high school she went to, away from people that she trusted, that she grew up around and that she had a lot of success with— for her to say this isn't the best situation for you and to have our family up and move an hour away and to start at a new school was a huge step.

It was the best step for me. But looking back I realize how difficult that was on my mom.

I was about 14-years old.

Definitely mentally if effected me a lot. It caused me to kind of lose trust in a lot of coaches. It really just made me grow up a lot faster.

I had grown up there my whole life, all my friends were there. For them to turn their back on me and side with the coach even though they'd all seen what happened— and seen the stuff that went on behind the scenes.

It wasn't just the hit. There were a lot of other things. Mentally, there was a little bit of mental abuse I guess. So for them to side with him— I lost a lot of trust in people. I found out there's only a certain amount of people you can trust.

It was my second workout with Greensburg.

At the time we didn't know if I was going to be cleared to play, so they didn't want to put me with the varsity. We didn't know, so I was playing on the JV. It was our morning workout. We were scrimmaging the varsity. The varsity the year before won 15 games. They were really young. They had my friend Sean Sellers on the team and a lot of young pieces. So we were scrimmaging.

It got really competitive. That's when I knew I was in the right place.

To see the fire come back, the passion. We actually ended up winning. That's when I knew.

That's when the passion came back in me. And the competitive spirit.

He did get cleared to play and, during his three seasons at Greensburg, his teams went 77-3 and won a pair of state titles. He also, along the way, committed to Indiana State, which was coached then-as-now by Greg Lansing. But then in July of 2013, just four days before the start of an open recruiting period, he decommitted. "Just took a gamble on myself," he will explain. But there was more to it than that.

What really happened was I was really close to Coach Lansing at Indiana State. I'd heard that he had applied for another job. So I was worried that he wouldn't be there all four years with me. That was kind of the reason I committed there. I had a lot of trust in him. I had built a lot of trust with the coach. To see that he might not be there kind of made me lose some trust. That was not a situation I wanted to be in again.

So I thought it over and talked it over with my parents. We decided to kind of gamble on myself, to roll the dice.

An hour later I get a call from a Coach Gates. It was actually Coach (Dennis) Gates from Florida State. They actually offered me a scholarship. So an hour after decommitting I get a phone call from Florida State and get an offer.

I hang up the phone. It rings and my dad answers it. I hear, 'Hey, this is Coach Gates.' My dad's like, 'I just got off the phone with a Coach Gates.' Coach Gates here said, 'Oh. You must have just gotten off the phone with my brother. This is Coach (Armon) Gates at Northwestern. Coach Collins and I would like to talk to Bryant.' So we talked.

I grew up a huge Duke fan. J.J. Redick (a former Duke star currently with the 76ers) was a big idol. My dad would order the white tee-shirt. It would have Duke with his number on it, front and back. I always wore number four growing up. That was our family number.

He was number four, so it was perfect.

It was basically a three-way. He and Coach Collins were in the same room. They wanted to let me know they were interested and they wanted to come evaluate me (at an imminent tourney in Indianapolis). Coach Gates came and watched my first couple of games and then Coach Collins came for the Friday and Saturday games.

I played really, really well. So after the tournament they offered me.

No. I went through the process. I visited Purdue August 1st and they offered me.

Coach Collins was actually at a Cubs game at the time that I went on the visit. I texted him and said, 'Visit went great. It's going to be hard for you guys to top.' Just kind of giving him a little pressure.

You know. Coaches give pressure to the player to commit. So just kind of messing with him.

So I visit August 10th, 2013.

Had a terrific visit. My whole family came up here. My grandparents, my Godfather, all the people I leaned on for support. They loved it. They were ready for me to commit that weekend. I wanted to get home to see if the aura of it all wears off.

Then we had my in-home visit with Coach Collins. It was the first day they could come. I had open gym. They came there. A lot of coaches were there. Iowa. Purdue. A lot of teams came just to show they were interested. But it was Northwestern's in-home visit that day.

After open gym we all go home. I shower, we're talking, my mom makes a huge meal. It was a good meal. We're talking. I kind of walk out of my room and talk to my dad.

I'm like, 'Dad, this is the place I need to go.'

Because my grandma was there I remembered our conversation on the way home from the August 10th visit. They were always selling me, 'You need to be all in with us. We want people who are all in. We're all in on you. We're not recruiting any other (point) guards. We're putting all our chips on you.'

We actually had a poker set at the house. So I run into my parents' room and get two poker chips for Coach Gates and Coach Collins, who are both there. And I write 'All' and 'N' on them.

At the end of the conversation, I'm like, 'Coach, I'm all in too.' Then I put the chips on the table and slide them to them.

First off, the people here. There's a lot of good people. Just being around here, you can tell there's just terrific people here. I also trusted coach (Collins) because he never promised me anything.

A lot of coaches in recruiting say, 'You're definitely going to start if you come here.' They try to sell you on stuff they can't guarantee. Coach Collins, he told me, 'The only thing I can guarantee you is you're going to get my best. I'm going to give you my best.'

I believed in him. I became a believer. I knew together we could do something really special.

I believed I could do it. That was the biggest thing. Believing you could do it. He gives you that belief. That's when I knew he was right.

I could leave my own legacy, and write my own book, and not just be another chapter with some other program.

He lost three games in his first three weeks as a 'Cat, matching the total he had reached in his last three years of high school. Then came a 10-game losing streak that included a zero-for-January, and finally there was a first-round loss in the Big Ten tourney. There was improvement his sophomore season, but still there were a 32-point loss at Indiana and a 31-point loss to Michigan State and a bitter overtime loss to Michigan in their conference tourney's opening round.

They (those two seasons) really tested my mettle. They tested my belief and my strength. That first year was the hardest year I've ever encountered with basketball.

I never lost my love for the game. But I questioned if I was a winner, if I could do it here.

I had always had that belief that, no matter where I was, I was going to win. I just had that belief in myself. When we weren't winning, it just tore me apart.

That's what I'd always hung my hat on. No matter what, whether I play well, whether I play bad, my team was going to find a way to win and I was going to help do that, I was going to be one of the reasons why. Then we went through that 10-game losing streak.

I questioned if I was a good enough player to play in the Big Ten. If I could do what I wanted to do when I agreed to come here. So, yeah. It just really tested my belief in myself and everybody here.

But last year, for the first time since '67-'68, the 'Cats finished a regular season with a winning conference record, and then they picked up two more wins in its tourney. Finally, at last, they got their invite to the NCAA Tournament.

It's funny. I looked at the picture (of Selection Sunday) last night.

The first thing I wanted to do was hug Coach Collins. It was such a dream we had talked about, it felt like ages ago just because we'd been through so much. Finally getting over the hump, accomplishing what we had talked about, it was just an incredible feeling. It felt like all the meetings, the talks, the hard work had finally paid off.

It was Coach Collins that changed everything, having that trust in him. He's become a father figure. It's great. He can just sit me down— he actually sat me down yesterday (and said) I don't think you're playing with the passion and the love I've seen you play with. Is something going on?

He just allows you to open up and talk about anything that's going on in your life that can carry over onto the basketball floor. Him having that ability is what's going to make him such a great coach down the line.

I think it's a couple of things. I do put a lot of pressure on myself. It can weigh on me. I think another thing that sometimes gets me in trouble is I have a really high basketball IQ. I don't think anyone that knows me would question that. But sometimes I have such a high basketball IQ that I question everything.

I end up thinking too much. My mind gets in the way of my instincts.

Those two things can hinder how well I play at times.

Coach Collins is great about saying you have to throw yourself into competition. So just thinking about, 'OK. How can I help my team win?' Let's not overanalyze everything. Let's not be too mental. That's been a key for me.

Sometimes your greatest gift can also be your greatest downfall. So trusting those (instincts) is the key. Rely upon those even when things aren't going well.

When I'm at my best I'm playing off my instincts, I'm being aggressive and not overthinking.

F. Scott Fitzgerald avowed that "There are no second acts in American lives." But there was another season for the 'Cats to play even after their history-making run, and they opened it with some poor performances as they adapted to a different kind of pressure they never before experienced.

There definitely is. There definitely is. We've been there now. The question no longer can be, 'Is this the year?' Now it's, 'Can you do it again?' So it's completely different. But I think with the leadership that we have, with Coach Collins at the helm of everything, that we're in a great situation.

We're starting to play a lot better than what we were. So I'm not too worried thinking about if we'll be a one-hit wonder.

We had everybody returning. We just thought we'd pick right up where we left off.

That's just not how it works. Guys get better. Guys stay the same. Roles change. Guys leave. So you can't just pick up where you left off seven months ago. Guys change. They want more. That's what you want in a program too though. You want guys to grow. You want guys to get better and want more.

I think our chemistry is a lot better than what it was the first month. I think you can tell, especially defensively. That's where your chemistry is really tested.

We were immature at the beginning of the year.

We had to grow. We had, I guess, to get our nose rubbed in a little bit of dirt to wake us up. But we're starting to turn the corner and be the team we were last year and the team that we should be.

He has, then, most-certainly journeyed. But even now, even after all of those many experiences, Bryant McIntosh is at root still a baller, a young man in love with the game he fell for so many years ago.

Yeah. Yeah I do. The joy of hearing a ball bounce, of hearing a ball go through a net. I think what I enjoy more now is understanding how hard it is to win with a team. When you're young, you can win games by yourself. Now you really need everybody.

They say basketball's a team game. But when you're young, your best players can just go win you a game. But as you get older, when everyone is good, it takes everybody.

Learning how to find a way to fit all the pieces together and make a winning team, that's really fun.

••••••

Be the first to know what's going on with the 'Cats -- Follow @NU_Sports on Twitter, become a fan of Northwestern Athletics on Facebook, check us out on Instagram, visit our Social Media page and download our mobile app from the Apple Store and Google Play! To get involved with the #B1GCats, become a season-ticket holder or join the Wildcat Fund!

All N: Every Life Is A Journey

••••••

Players Mentioned

Bryant McIntosh

Northwestern University Athletics

Northwestern University Athletics

All N: Every Life Is A Journey

••••••

Related News

Players Mentioned

Bryant McIntosh

Related Videos