After Craig Moore rebounded a 3-pointer and heaved the ball down the court to seal a victory, he and Jason Okrzesik embraced to celebrate a 62-60 win at Michigan on Feb. 26.
Freshman Ivan Peljusic jumped up and down and hugged teammates after the first Big Ten win of Northwestern's season and the end of the Wildcats' 20-game conference losing streak.
The hard work the team had put in since early October finally paid off on the court. It was a euphoric feeling.
Two days earlier, the women's team celebrated its first conference victory, a 70-58 win over Penn State, with relieved smiles and a team huddle in its last home game of the year.
The happiness from the first conference victory was short-lived, as both teams struggled in their next two games. The brief moment of celebration gave way to the realization that each team has only one Big Ten win.
"Of course I thought we'd have more than one win," men's coach Bill Carmody said. "It's been a struggle. I knew it would be a tough year, but I certainly thought we'd be doing better than we have."
Even though Carmody's team will win fewer than 10 games for the first time since 2000, the women's team has not fared much better.
NU snapped a 16-game losing streak by beating Penn State on Feb. 24. But the Cats have lost 18 of their past 20 games heading into today's Big Ten tournament.
"I've never had to deal with so many losses before in my life," Big Ten All-Freshman Team center Amy Jaeschke said.
"You have to take it one day at a time and kind of push through it. There's still small accomplishments that you have during the year that other people don't see that are there. You have to build off those sorts of things."
The basketball program is far from where it was a decade ago when the men's team reached the 1999 NIT and the women's team had consecutive postseason appearances, including the 1997 NCAA Tournament.
It has been a struggle for both teams to reclaim their past success.
2008 Woodie Awards
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