Boo Buie, Talor Battle and a March moment to remember
Buie and Northwestern were no match for defending champion UConn. But the program's "GOAT" left a mark beyond Sunday, a run that left his big brother in tears.
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — First came Chris Collins, because he is the head coach and he in many ways owes much of his Northwestern program’s recent success to the man he had just subbed out. Collins and Boo Buie embraced for 18 seconds as the final minute-plus of this Wildcats season unfolded on the floor before them, after Buie capped his college career with two made free throws.
Then came ops director Chris Lauten, followed by assistants Brian James and Chris Lowery.
Finally it was time for Big Brother, and no matter how many standing ovations Northwestern assistant Talor Battle had received during his own college playing days, no matter how many times he had seen Buie bring ‘Cats fans to their feet, nothing quite prepared him for saying goodbye to his younger brother on a college basketball court for the final time.
Battle wrapped his arms around Buie tightly, took a seat, then grabbed the bottom of his black NU coaching shirt and wiped tears from his face. Colleague Bryant McIntosh, having just finished his turn with Buie, sat next to Battle and put his arm on his shoulder for comfort.
All the while, “THANK-YOU-BOO!” chants rained down from the purple faithful throughout Barclays Center, as top-seeded UConn put the finishing touches on a 75-58 win over the ninth-seeded ‘Cats.
“It was just a special moment,” Battle told The Inside Zone. “Not that I took it for granted, but every day for the last three years I got to be with him, and that was the realization that that was really the last time I would get to coach him. So it’s just a lot of raw emotion.
“I’m just so proud of him, man, and what he’s meant as a brother and as a coach and what he’s meant to this program has just been unbelievable. You can’t replace a guy like him, the way he turned this place into something cool, so just a great, special moment I got to share with him.”