Northwestern
remember that. You remember the friendships, the locker room. It’s been a wonderful time just being able to play with my best friends every single day.”
The Wildcats will take a 21-10 record — including a school-record 12 conference wins — into Friday’s quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament at the United Center, in which they’re seeded second.
But when Audige, Beran and Buie came to Northwestern, the team wasn’t winning much at all.
In their first season together in 2019-20, Beran and Buie were active players as freshmen while Audige, a transfer from William & Mary, had to sit out. The Wildcats went 8-23 (3-17 Big Ten). They continued to languish near the bottom of the Big Ten the next two seasons.
“I’ve been playing with Chase and Rob since the moment I got here,” Buie said. “My relationship with those two has grown super tight being in the same class. When you come in with someone, it’s kind of easy to be attached to them because they’re the same class, doing the same thing you’re doing. I think that helped and then off-the-court stuff that we do together.”
Northwestern went 9-15 (6-13 Big Ten) in 2020-21 and followed that up with a 15-16 record (7-13 Big Ten) last season. After the 2021-22 season, center Ryan Young transferred to Duke and forward Pete Nance left for North Carolina. The departures of such key contributors left coach Chris Collins’ program in need of a turnaround season.
Off the court is where the three team captains found their rhythm not only as teammates but as friends. Beran and Buie became roommates, and Audige and the rest of the team would regularly hang out at their apartment. Even after
Buie moved out, Beran kept the place they shared and it remains the group’s hangout spot.
“It’s definitely been a process,” Audige said. “When we first got here it was very different. It was a very new team.
“We’ve grown so much. We’ve seen everything in terms of basketball. I feel like we all just kind of molded together and matured. Look at how skinny Robbie was and now he’s got a full beard. We send pictures to each other sometimes like, ‘Wow, bro, you changed.’ It’s everything: maturity, play style, all three of us.”
With a friendship forged through the ups and downs and losing seasons, the trio recalled times the Wildcats felt they’d been written off as “this small Big Ten team.” Last summer they decided to come in with a renewed outlook.
“Our mindset coming into our senior year is to be built all around toughness and figuring out ways to win close games so we can be the team that we know we’re capable of being,” Buie said.
While internally the obstacles were seen as motivation, friends and family questioned the trio’s loyalty to a program that wasn’t winning. Beran remembers people trying to persuade him to leave the Wildcats.
“I had people back home, I’m not going to call them out, but they’d ask, ‘Why don’t you want to go in the (transfer) portal?’ ” he said. “I had full belief in our team. I didn’t want to go to another program and just jump on. It really wouldn’t mean anything. I want to go to the dance with this team.
“When we’re on the road, it’s us versus 18,000. When we’re in the huddle, we say, ‘We all we got but we all we need.’ ”
This season, their commitment to friendship and the team has paid off. In addition to setting a school record for conference victories, the Wildcats’ 21 total wins are second in program history behind Collins’ 201617 team that went 24-12 and made the school’s lone NCAA Tournament appearance.
Buie attributes the team’s success to the three seniors’ growth as friends and leaders.
“When they came into our program we had to rebuild it,” Collins said. “They were maligned for losing close games and not getting over the hump, and now as seniors it makes me proud and it makes me smile to see their loyalty, them staying with the program, staying committed to process — and now they’re reaping the rewards.”
Buie has emerged this season as one of the Big Ten’s best players, leading the Wildcats in scoring (17.2 points per game) and assists (4.5) and hitting a conference-best 87.6% of his free throws. Audige is second on the team in scoring (14.1 ppg) and second in the conference in steals (2.4). Beran contributes 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
Buie and Audige were honored Tuesday as All-Big Ten selections, and Audige was named co-Defensive Player of the Year.
In February, the Wildcats went on a five-game winning streak that included defeating then-No. 1 Purdue, then three nights later beating then-No. 14 Indiana.
“It kind of feels like the movies a little bit, just based on where we came from,” Audige said. “It felt amazing. I cried after the (Purdue) game. I really don’t want to admit that, but it was an emotional feeling because of being Northwestern and how people look at us.
“We’re kind of like the David-and- Goliath-type story, and we beat them. It’s been a blessing and there’s so much more basketball to be played. We try to stay focused and get the job done.”
Northwestern lost that senior night game to Penn State 68-65 in overtime. But led by Buie in the second half, the Wildcats beat Rutgers 65-53 in the regular-season finale Sunday to secure a double bye in the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 2 seed, their highest seed by four spots.
They’ll play the winner of Thursday’s Penn State-Illinois game at 5:30 p.m. Friday for a chance to advance to the semifinals. And next week will bring the program’s second trip to the NCAA Tournament, in which Northwestern currently is projected as a No. 6 or No. 7 seed.
“It’s been a pretty special year,” Buie said, “but it’s not over yet.”