Considering Northwestern won just 1 of 19 games against Big Ten opponents and went 8-22 overall, it's hard to imagine the Wildcats met their expectations this year.

And, yet, eighth-year coach Bill Carmody knew well in advance what to expect. Months before the season began, he predicted, "it's going to be rough." While Northwestern's record was about as rough as it gets, one needs to look deeper to see the Wildcats weren't that far away from posting a handful more wins.

Northwestern's final game -- a 3-point loss to Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament -- did a nice job of summing up the Wildcats' strengths and weaknesses. The Wildcats built a 13-point halftime lead but wasted little time letting the Gophers get back into the game as they went into a characteristic second-half drought while allowing the Gophers to take good shots and hit the offensive boards when they missed.

"This game was typical of a lot of our games this year," Carmody told reporters afterward. "In the last eight to 10 games, we had leads and couldn't end up with a win for different reasons."

Some of those reasons? Northwestern's zone defenses didn't bother opponents nearly as much as they did in years past. In Big Ten play, the Wildcats allowed their foes to shoot 51.1 percent from the field and 40.2 percent from 3-point range. Oh, and they also got outrebounded by 12.2 rebounds per game.

Those issues will need to be rectified during the offseason, or else Northwestern's anticipated surge in offensive firepower will largely be nullified.

The Wildcats join Purdue and Indiana as the only Big Ten teams who can return three double-figure scorers -- and the Hoosiers will probably lose Eric Gordon and D.J. White to the NBA Draft.

Junior-to-be Kevin Coble (15.9 points per game), senior guard Craig Moore (13.5) and sophomore point guard Michael Thompson (11.6 points per, 4.3 assists per) give the Wildcats a head-start toward respectability next season.

If incoming freshmen John Shurna and Nick Fruendt bring their anticipated boost, Carmody could move off the firing line sooner as opposed to later.

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