Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Purdue In Review
3/6/2017 10:28:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Here he is in the tunnel with his birth parents and step parents and other family members, and his emotions are clearly a-roil. Now, as part of this Senior Day celebration, he and his entourage exit that tunnel, and cross the court he has so often graced with his presence, and his lower lip is quivering and there are the tears, his emotions very much on public display. "I definitely knew I was going to cry leading up to that," Sanjay Lumpkin will later say.
"All yesterday, all this morning, it hadn't really hit me. But I knew as soon as I got in the tunnel with my family and heard the crowd and saw all they guys, it definitely hit me. The best advice I got before the game was to be emotional, to soak in everything, and then refocus when I went back to the locker room. When coach (Chris Collins) was first talking before we came out for our warmups, I started tearing up. I was crying in the locker room. Then we came out, warmed up, then we were in the tunnel, I was crying there too. Then when I went back in the locker room, I took some time to really refocus, and the guys had my back too. They told me they needed me to be ready to play.
"That's all it took. I had to be there."
••••••••••
This Sunday afternoon Welsh-Ryan hosted its final basketball game in its current incarnation, and the old girl chose the opportunity to put on quite a show. Already it promised to be filled with emotion, Senior Day always sees to that. But here there was also more. National TV was on hand, and the foe was Big Ten champ Purdue, and the 'Cats were tournament bound, and the air veritably crackled with an optimism that bordered on the giddy. "It was a special day," Collins later said.
"That crowd, it's everything I dreamed of here. Hopefully it'll become something that is the norm. I don't want that to be just something we did one time. I hope national TV games and sold out crowds— that's what we aspire to. That's what good programs in this league have. There's no reason why we can't have it."
"When you come here, that's what you dream of. What a way to send the arena out," Bryant McIntosh would soon echo. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a win. But the atmosphere was — that was the best atmosphere I've ever played in and I come from a great background of Indiana basketball in high school. It was a special night. It was unfortunate we didn't pull out a win."
••••••••••
On the first day in February, in West Lafayette, Purdue drilled the 'Cats by 21 without the service of leading scorer Scottie Lindsey and senior Nathan Taphorn. But here these teams offered up a game befitting the occasion, an exclamation point of a game filled with strategizing and spectaculars and surges that one moment catalyzed the crowd into hysteria, that the next moment left that crowd in muted despair. With seven-and-a-half gone, the 'Cats were up nine. But just over four minutes later, it was the Boilers up two. Then again it was the 'Cats up, this time by five with 2:26 remaining until half. But when the half finally came, this one was tied at 37.
This vertiginous voyage continued early in the second half, but then the Boilers went on a mini-run, stretching a one-point lead to nine on a dunk by Caleb Swanigan at 7:01. He is their star, the Big Ten's best player, a leading candidate for national player-of-the year honors, and he would end this game with 20 points and 14 rebounds. He would also affect it with the double teams he drew, which left his power forward Vincent Edwards open to go off for 25. "I thought that was the difference in the game," Collins later said.
A minute later, with his team still down nine, McIntosh missed a three, but Dererk Pardon knocked the rebound loose and Lumpkin corralled it for a layup that pulled the 'Cats to within seven at 5:55.
••••••••••
He has, throughout his 'Cat career, toted a lunch pail, and he did that again here in his final game at Welsh-Ryan, collecting seven rebounds and on occasion defending either the six-foot-nine Swanigan or the seven-foot-two Isaac Haas. But on this afternoon, and despite his early tears, Lumpkin also went five-of-five from the field and finished with 13 points. "He's just a warrior," Collins later said of him.
"I love that guy. I've always told you, whether he scores 13 and seven or not, just his presence on our team, his look, his fight, he's been a rock for me these four years. I'm just sorry we couldn't win this game because he left it out on the floor. He's giving away a lot of size out there. But he's battling. He's fighting."
"His toughness, his desire to win a game and do all the gritty work that not everybody appreciates — I thought he played great tonight," said McIntosh.
••••••••••
It was a dirty-work play, a non-spectacular, but fittingly enough that Lumpkin layup charged the 'Cats, who closed to five when McIntosh offered under-handed and spun home a layup under Swanigan. He too was special this day, going for 25 and six assists in a game-high 37 minutes, and now it was the turn of Pardon, who dropped a jumper to pull the 'Cats to within three at 4:35.
That trio—McIntosh (six), Pardon (five) and Lumpkin (four)—it accounted for all the 'Cat points in this one's final six minutes, and now just 30.7 seconds remained and their deficit was still three. In their huddle, just as they had on Wednesday night late in their game with Michigan, their coaches drew up a play, and 15 seconds later the ball was swung to Taphorn, the senior who was just inserted into this affair after sitting for over four minutes.
On Wednesday, against the Wolverines, he had inbounded a long strike to Pardon, who put in the layup that gave the 'Cats their win. But here, with a chance to author another spectacular in his final Welsh-Ryan appearance, his right-wing three was short and rebounded by the Boilers' Dakota Mathias. "One thing you can take from that is how hard it is to come off the bench and knock down a shot, especially when you're cold," McIntosh later explained.
"That put him in a tough position, but he's a great shooter and we believe in him. It's tough on him right now. I know he's upset, especially after making one of the greatest plays in Northwestern history in the last game. I'm sure the highs and lows are rough on him right now. But we believe in him."
••••••••••
The 'Cats finally fell by four, which left them to face the Rutgers-Ohio State winner Thursday night as the sixth-seed in the Big Ten tourney. But they were still very much undaunted. "It's a fun stretch coming up," said McIntosh. "It's a new start. It's almost a new season. You start zero-zero with a great opportunity."
"We're confident," said Collins. "We're disappointed. We came here today to win, not just to play close. But I do think we're confident. We all feel we're playing well again. I think the level of our play right now is in a good spot. I feel we're in a good place going into the post-season."
Then there was Lumpkin, who was sill in uniform when he appeared at a press conference some 40 minutes after game's end. "We all came to this school to play in games that mattered in March," he finally said. "Against Michigan, a game we had to get, we drew a line, we said we'd rather die than lose that game. Tonight was no different. We knew this was a game that mattered, that was huge for us going forward, and every game going forward is going to be like that. Every game from now on is win-or-go-home.
"It's awesome to play in games that matter. We all came here for this. The reason why I came to this school is to be part of history, to be part of something bigger than myself, to be on the first team that goes to the NCAA tournament."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Here he is in the tunnel with his birth parents and step parents and other family members, and his emotions are clearly a-roil. Now, as part of this Senior Day celebration, he and his entourage exit that tunnel, and cross the court he has so often graced with his presence, and his lower lip is quivering and there are the tears, his emotions very much on public display. "I definitely knew I was going to cry leading up to that," Sanjay Lumpkin will later say.
"All yesterday, all this morning, it hadn't really hit me. But I knew as soon as I got in the tunnel with my family and heard the crowd and saw all they guys, it definitely hit me. The best advice I got before the game was to be emotional, to soak in everything, and then refocus when I went back to the locker room. When coach (Chris Collins) was first talking before we came out for our warmups, I started tearing up. I was crying in the locker room. Then we came out, warmed up, then we were in the tunnel, I was crying there too. Then when I went back in the locker room, I took some time to really refocus, and the guys had my back too. They told me they needed me to be ready to play.
"That's all it took. I had to be there."
••••••••••
This Sunday afternoon Welsh-Ryan hosted its final basketball game in its current incarnation, and the old girl chose the opportunity to put on quite a show. Already it promised to be filled with emotion, Senior Day always sees to that. But here there was also more. National TV was on hand, and the foe was Big Ten champ Purdue, and the 'Cats were tournament bound, and the air veritably crackled with an optimism that bordered on the giddy. "It was a special day," Collins later said.
"That crowd, it's everything I dreamed of here. Hopefully it'll become something that is the norm. I don't want that to be just something we did one time. I hope national TV games and sold out crowds— that's what we aspire to. That's what good programs in this league have. There's no reason why we can't have it."
"When you come here, that's what you dream of. What a way to send the arena out," Bryant McIntosh would soon echo. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a win. But the atmosphere was — that was the best atmosphere I've ever played in and I come from a great background of Indiana basketball in high school. It was a special night. It was unfortunate we didn't pull out a win."
••••••••••
On the first day in February, in West Lafayette, Purdue drilled the 'Cats by 21 without the service of leading scorer Scottie Lindsey and senior Nathan Taphorn. But here these teams offered up a game befitting the occasion, an exclamation point of a game filled with strategizing and spectaculars and surges that one moment catalyzed the crowd into hysteria, that the next moment left that crowd in muted despair. With seven-and-a-half gone, the 'Cats were up nine. But just over four minutes later, it was the Boilers up two. Then again it was the 'Cats up, this time by five with 2:26 remaining until half. But when the half finally came, this one was tied at 37.
This vertiginous voyage continued early in the second half, but then the Boilers went on a mini-run, stretching a one-point lead to nine on a dunk by Caleb Swanigan at 7:01. He is their star, the Big Ten's best player, a leading candidate for national player-of-the year honors, and he would end this game with 20 points and 14 rebounds. He would also affect it with the double teams he drew, which left his power forward Vincent Edwards open to go off for 25. "I thought that was the difference in the game," Collins later said.
A minute later, with his team still down nine, McIntosh missed a three, but Dererk Pardon knocked the rebound loose and Lumpkin corralled it for a layup that pulled the 'Cats to within seven at 5:55.
••••••••••
He has, throughout his 'Cat career, toted a lunch pail, and he did that again here in his final game at Welsh-Ryan, collecting seven rebounds and on occasion defending either the six-foot-nine Swanigan or the seven-foot-two Isaac Haas. But on this afternoon, and despite his early tears, Lumpkin also went five-of-five from the field and finished with 13 points. "He's just a warrior," Collins later said of him.
"I love that guy. I've always told you, whether he scores 13 and seven or not, just his presence on our team, his look, his fight, he's been a rock for me these four years. I'm just sorry we couldn't win this game because he left it out on the floor. He's giving away a lot of size out there. But he's battling. He's fighting."
"His toughness, his desire to win a game and do all the gritty work that not everybody appreciates — I thought he played great tonight," said McIntosh.
••••••••••
It was a dirty-work play, a non-spectacular, but fittingly enough that Lumpkin layup charged the 'Cats, who closed to five when McIntosh offered under-handed and spun home a layup under Swanigan. He too was special this day, going for 25 and six assists in a game-high 37 minutes, and now it was the turn of Pardon, who dropped a jumper to pull the 'Cats to within three at 4:35.
That trio—McIntosh (six), Pardon (five) and Lumpkin (four)—it accounted for all the 'Cat points in this one's final six minutes, and now just 30.7 seconds remained and their deficit was still three. In their huddle, just as they had on Wednesday night late in their game with Michigan, their coaches drew up a play, and 15 seconds later the ball was swung to Taphorn, the senior who was just inserted into this affair after sitting for over four minutes.
On Wednesday, against the Wolverines, he had inbounded a long strike to Pardon, who put in the layup that gave the 'Cats their win. But here, with a chance to author another spectacular in his final Welsh-Ryan appearance, his right-wing three was short and rebounded by the Boilers' Dakota Mathias. "One thing you can take from that is how hard it is to come off the bench and knock down a shot, especially when you're cold," McIntosh later explained.
"That put him in a tough position, but he's a great shooter and we believe in him. It's tough on him right now. I know he's upset, especially after making one of the greatest plays in Northwestern history in the last game. I'm sure the highs and lows are rough on him right now. But we believe in him."
••••••••••
The 'Cats finally fell by four, which left them to face the Rutgers-Ohio State winner Thursday night as the sixth-seed in the Big Ten tourney. But they were still very much undaunted. "It's a fun stretch coming up," said McIntosh. "It's a new start. It's almost a new season. You start zero-zero with a great opportunity."
"We're confident," said Collins. "We're disappointed. We came here today to win, not just to play close. But I do think we're confident. We all feel we're playing well again. I think the level of our play right now is in a good spot. I feel we're in a good place going into the post-season."
Then there was Lumpkin, who was sill in uniform when he appeared at a press conference some 40 minutes after game's end. "We all came to this school to play in games that mattered in March," he finally said. "Against Michigan, a game we had to get, we drew a line, we said we'd rather die than lose that game. Tonight was no different. We knew this was a game that mattered, that was huge for us going forward, and every game going forward is going to be like that. Every game from now on is win-or-go-home.
"It's awesome to play in games that matter. We all came here for this. The reason why I came to this school is to be part of history, to be part of something bigger than myself, to be on the first team that goes to the NCAA tournament."
••••••
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Players Mentioned
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