It’s hard to make a good trilogy.
Sure, three-part epics like the Lord of the Rings and Ali versus Frazier can be critically acclaimed blockbusters, but for every successful set, there’s a disastrous project lurking around the corner. Sometimes the third leg just can’t live up to expectations, like The Godfather Part III. Sometimes an entire trilogy just falls apart, like the Star Wars prequels.
Northwestern vs. Ohio State in women’s basketball, c. 2016-2017, has been a damn good trilogy. It started when a struggling Northwestern team stunned the fifth-ranked Buckeyes 86-82 in Evanston last January, continued through a crazy 76-73 win for Ohio State in Columbus later that month, and ended with a wild encounter that saw No.