Two-thousand and forty six days.
That’s how long it took Sanjay Lumpkin to go from committing to Northwestern to co-captaining it into history. That’s how long it took Sanjay Lumpkin to turn from a clean-shaved, wide-eyed 175-pound freshman under the wing of Drew Crawford to a bearded, 220-pound, history-making fifth-year senior team leader. That’s over five-and-a-half years. It wasn’t easy, but it was absolutely worth it. Because on his 2046th day, Sanjay Lumpkin finally achieved what he came here to do over a half decade ago: He’s at the NCAA tournament.
“This is what we all signed up for; we all believed, we all wanted to make history and be a part of that first team, and it’s been a really special year,” he said Sunday night immediately after the Selection Show.