In less than a week, Northwestern took on three teams that all won at least 20 games and made the NCAA Tournament last season. After a gut-wrenching loss to Butler last Wednesday, the Wildcats entered the Legends Classic tournament as the only team to have not appeared in March Madness last year. And yet, the team was 20.6 seconds away from claiming some hardware.
After dismantling Texas, Northwestern hung around against Notre Dame, eventually taking the lead on a Bryant McIntosh floater with 39.3 seconds to go. After a Fighting Irish miss, all the Wildcats had to do to seal a victory was hold on to the ball and make some free throws.