NUHoops.com

Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Ed McCants, a transfer from Northwestern, scored 39 points in upsets over Alabama and Boston College.

McCants, the Horizon League Player of the Year, left Northwestern in 2001, and played a year of junior college ball before landing at UWM.

The Sun-Times detailed McCants' history in Evanston before leaving. 

"It was a series of unfortunate events at Northwestern, on and off the court,'' McCants said Friday.

Bill Carmody replaced O'Neill and played McCants 14 minutes a game as a freshman, enough time for him to average 4.1 points a game in an offense that McCants didn't feel suited him.

Then, in October of his sophomore year, McCants was involved in an alcohol-related altercation at an Evanston home, pleaded guilty to a battery charge and was dismissed from the team. He finished out the semester, then transferred to Paris Junior College in Texas.

"I just had to move on, to a place that would complement my style of basketball and find a coach that was going to understand me as a person and accept things that happened in the past,'' McCants said.

Stories and hearsay abound on the incident that led to McCants leaving Northwestern, but he did plead guilty to battery in a campus altercation with a neighbor.

McCants was quoted in the New York Times as saying he didn't want to contest the charges.

He was dismissed from the Northwestern team in 2001 after a fight in Evanston, Ill., with a man who had complained about a group making noise outside his house.

"It was kind of divine intervention," McCants said. "I wasn't meant to be there."

When asked to elaborate, McCants said: "It was a fighting incident and I didn't punch the guy at all. He got to press charges first because I was knocked unconscious. I didn't feel like appealing the decision, and I just moved on."

There is no doubt that McCants could have had a good career at NU. There is little doubt that the Cats would have made the NCAA tournament in Jitim Young's senior year.