Op-Ed: Two steps forward, one step back for Northwestern basketball

It’s the same churning feeling that comes the night before a big midterm. The tension of telling your parents you scratched their car. The nagging worry that this time, you will be caught for missing curfew.

The season opener stomach knot is known all too well, by players and fans alike.

Fears of another bad year - or worse, a disappointing season striking at just the wrong time for an up-and-coming program - run rampant.

A little sloppy play. A pass without a fake. 12 points off mistakes – not earned, just given. Another 13 handed over on defensive board complacency. Suddenly, a team that has since gone 6-14 over the next two and a half months chips away at what was once a comfortable…