Three years later, what they remember most is the color purple.
Jogging out of the tunnel in Salt Lake City and onto the floor where Michael Jordan iced his final NBA title, guard Bryant McIntosh and coach Chris Collins noticed a flood of purple in the seats.
“One of the coolest things,” McIntosh said.
“I got chills,” Collins recalled.
Kind of like what they feel when they think about Northwestern’s NCAA Tournament run, which peaked March 16, 2017, with a wild 68-66 first-round win over Vanderbilt.
There were three major dates that season, not including the dread NU fans felt when they learned Scottie Lindsey would be sidelined because of mono.
March 1: The players dogpile on the Welsh-Ryan Arena floor after beating Michigan thanks to Nate Taphorn’s baseball pass to Dererk Pardon. The Wildcats had lost five of seven heading into the game and were in danger of spilling all their pixie dust.
March 12: Selection Sunday. At 5:32 p.m., CBS host Greg Gumbel finally ended the suspense: “The No. 8 seed, out of the West. There they are … the Northwestern Wildcats … 78 years in the making.”
March 16: Northwestern advances to the round of 32.
“Selection Sunday is the pinnacle,” McIntosh said. “The Michigan win is second and Vandy third, which sounds crazy.”
Especially because of the game he had: McIntosh scored 25 points, hitting 10 of 16 shots, and had four rebounds, three assists and two steals. He made both of his free throws, coming with less than 15 seconds to play.
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Northwestern frittered away a 15-point second-half lead, with Matthew Fisher-Davis and the Bulls’ Luke Kornet doing damage from 3-point range.
Vandy’s Riley LaChance hit a layup to put the Commodores and first-year coach Bryce Drew ahead 66-65 with 17 seconds left.
But then Fisher-Davis had a brain cramp. He intentionally fouled McIntosh, thinking he was following Drew’s orders.
“I heard Bryce Drew say, ‘You take him!’ ” McIntosh recalled. “He was trying to get Riley LaChance off me because I had just scored on him. I think (Fisher-Davis) just misheard him. I can’t imagine how he feels, as well as he played.”
The CBS broadcasters picked up on the gaffe immediately.
After Selection Sunday, NU alumnus and late-night host Seth Meyers tweeted: “That’s the least Northwestern thing ever.”
But for a fan base that thought it was cursed because of transfers (Rex Walters), devastating injuries (John Shurna) and a retirement out of the blue (Kevin Coble), the Fisher-Davis moment topped it.
With 14.6 seconds to play, McIntosh strolled to the line.
“I felt really confident,” he said. “The situation was so big, I couldn’t help but notice everyone staring. I said to myself: This is what you do. You cannot miss these.”
Both McIntosh and Collins were quick to praise Pardon, who entered the game 31-for-60 from the line.
“They were hack-a-Shaq’ing Pardon in the last couple of minutes,” Collins said. “But Dererk is one of those guys who would rise to the occasion when you needed him the most. (Assistant coach) Brian James did daily free-throw games with our bigs, but free-throw shooting is like putting (in golf): The more you talk about it, the more they get wigged out.”
Pardon went 6-for-6 in the final four-plus minutes.
Northwestern got a stop after McIntosh’s free throws. Fisher-Davis got off a three-quarter-court fling in the final second that clanked off the backboard.
The Wildcats had survived and advanced to play Gonzaga, the No. 1 seed in the West.
In the locker room Collins warned his players to be ready because the team they were about to face was one of the best programs in the country.
“So are we!” screamed an NU hoops superfan who made the trip from Evanston.
And then football coach Pat Fitzgerald stepped into the middle of the locker room for an impromptu mosh pit.