EVANSTON — The Northwestern Wildcats have been here before.
No, not on the cusp of their first NCAA tournament bid. Maybe not quite so front-and-center in the national college basketball conversation.
At 16-4, the Wildcats have been in this relative scenario as recently as last season, when they were 16-6 on Jan. 25. The 2015-16 squad would go 5-5 in their remaining games before being ousted by Michigan State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. They didn’t make the tournament.
That’s why, with 11 games left, Northwestern refuses to get ahead of itself, despite the NCAA tournament chatter that has ramped up of late and was aided by a big 74-72 win over Ohio State on Sunday.