Welsh-Ryan Ramblings: A Northwestern Basketball Blog

Wildcats Back at Home to Host Purdue

2012-01-26T21:31:00.001-06:00

I went back and forth trying to decide on a headline for this entry. In the end I decided the simplest headline was the best. I’d considered headlines related to this game being kind of a “last stand” or “line in the sand” for the Northwestern basketball program’s 2012 NCAA Tournament hopes and potentially Bill Carmody’s job, but I’d rather step back from that talk for awhile and just watch the next three games Northwestern plays. On February 5, 2012 somewhere around 4PM Central Time we can get back into those questions, but I’m going to let these next three games play out without any big picture discussion. I’m just going to watch basketball. After watching that basketball I feel as though I’ll be able to give an accurate assessment of where this season is going.

Purdue and Northwestern are somewhat similar teams. However, NU’s health status has made NU play with a short hand these past few weeks. Nearly a full week off may help NU in that area. It is important NU have Alex Marcotullio able to go because I could see the 1-3-1 zone being useful at times vs Purdue and Marcotullio is the best Wildcat defender at the top of that zone. Purdue’s got some good shooters in Ryne Smith and DJ Byrd who both make over 40% of their threes and Robbie Hummel who makes 35%, but all three have had slumps at times and Hummel has really struggled of late. Now that probably means he’ll make something like 8-10 vs NU, but it seems like the ‘Cats might be catching Purdue at the right time. Also, Purdue is only 2-3 away from home and while the Illinois loss may haunt NU and Coach Carmody, the ‘Cats have been really good at home other than that game and the loss to powerhouse Baylor during this year (and really going back the last 2-3 years).

I think one of the major keys to the game is how NU handles Purdue’s pressure defense. The Boilermakers known for good defense with guards Kelsey Barlow and Jackson doing a great job other team’s perimeter players. However, NU should actually be able to out-athlete Smith, Byrd, and Hummel. If NU will get anything from its center position is always a question mark, but if it does, Purdue hasn’t lit the world on five with Travis Carroll or Sadi Marcius at the five spot. Maybe Davide Curletti can have another good game or maybe Luka Mirkovic can finally get his head removed from his ass, though, that seems like an operation which would be major surgery at this point.

At times I’ve written on here that I had no idea what to expect from a game. This is one of those. Northwestern and Purdue are both more than capable of winning this and many other games, however, both have failed to win games they should have and haven’t really played well of late. I’d like to think in such a game being at home and getting a crowd behind you helps. I predict: Northwestern, 68 Purdue, 65

It’s Still the Defense, Stupid.

2012-01-22T17:00:00.001-06:00

There is a lot of blame to go around on this one, but as much as NU was just awful on offense to start this game the real facts are that this game was lost on defense. Minnesota was able to get whatever shots they wanted driving to the basket or passing the ball without much pressure from Northwestern and the result was a lot of Gopher points.

Northwestern still lacks the intensity needed on defense to be truly competitive in the Big Ten long term and they still don’t respond well when things go wrong. The most obvious example of this is Drew Crawford. Crawford has the ability to be a good player, but he tends to sulk around when things go bad and forces shots because he wants to score. Then on defense since he’s so upset he didn’t make a basket his athletic ability is negated as he’s too busy worrying about himself to actually guard anybody. I’d say Crawford and Luka Mirkovic are great examples of how lacking in mental toughness Northwestern’s basketball program is, but I don’t want anybody to think they’re the only examples. They just are the ones who show it the most with their body language as it changes 180 degrees based on if they’re playing well or not.

The other major issue is that it seems that for the most part NU is at a point where the only people who really want to shot the ball are Crawford, Shurna, and Marcotullio (who doesn’t even start). This makes defending NU very easy. At some point the rest of NU’s players need to be given the okay to take a shot. After all, as frustrated as Crawford’s out of control drives make me, I understand that he has not choice when three of his teammates pass up wide open looks.

The only good news about this loss is it’ll probably put a stop to any NCAA Tournament talk for Northwestern and it’s about time. This team is about as from being an NCAA Tournament team as five kids playing pick-up at the park. Actually, if those kids play defense and rebound they’re probably closer.

I expect Northwestern will win their next two games which are both at home brining their record to 4-5 in the Big Ten, but the fact is that along with not playing defense; not winning on the road also finishes NU off as far as NCAA Tournament hopes. I’m not going to get into what this means for the program’s coaching situation at this point, but obviously some people will say this game is evidence Bill Carmody needs to be let go. That’s all well and good, but the fact is we’ve seen this game probably at least 25 times before during Carmody’s tenure. Therefore, I find it hard to say this single game is reason enough to let him go. It certainly doesn’t help, though.

Wildcats Still Trying to Prove They Can Win on the Road

2012-01-20T14:52:00.000-06:00

It’s another road test for Northwestern on Sunday and this one might prove an even bigger task to the depth-challenged Wildcats than their last contest in Madison. Minnesota enters the game with an identical 2-4 Big Ten mark as NU, but the Gophers have won two games in a row and feature a team which goes at least nine deep. For an NU team that is playing with basically seven healthy players that could be a major issue.

The Wildcats would probably be advised to slow this game down and play at a pace which forces Minnesota to guard them for the entire shot clock. If that happens, it would be prefect if the Gophers would overextend their defense and allow NU backdoor cuts with the shot clock running down.

The other advantage NU would have in slowing the game down is it might force them to work all the way through their offense instead of forcing shots as I thought they did vs Wisconsin.
Minnesota has to want to speed NU up and use their superior depth as an advantage. I’ve been really impressed with how Minnesota has fought through injuries and an extended losing streak at the start of conference play to reach the point they are at now. I don’t actually see either NU or Minnesota as an NCAA Tournament team right now, but the winner of this game is probably one at the moment the contest ends. They might not be one at the end of the season, but at least for the winner they enter the realistic discussion.

Look for Minnesota to try and use the athletic front line of Ralph Sampson III(8.2ppg) and Rodney Williams (10.6ppg) not only to score in the post but also to crash the glass. I really think one of the reasons teams shoot so well vs NU is because shooters aren’t worried about missing because they know their teammates have a great chance at an offensive rebound versus NU’s rebound-phobic front line. With that in mind, look for Julian Welch (10.4ppg) to potentially have a career game because he impresses me as the Gophers top shooter. I also wouldn’t sleep on guard Joe Coleman who is coming off a career game.

At this point Northwestern really needs to show me something to prove they are anything more than what they were at the end of last year—a middle of the pack NIT team. One of the ways to show this is to pick up a road win over a team that is at least as good as they are if not better. This really hasn’t been done by NU since the current seniors were freshmen, but it’s not impossible. The trouble to me is that NU just doesn’t seem to have the depth to deal with Minnesota’s constant pressure defense. At 100% NU would have probably beat Michigan at Michigan and maybe even Wisconsin at Wisconsin, but NU wasn’t then and isn’t now anywhere near 100%. I predict: Minnesota, 70 Northwestern, 58

It’s the Defense, Stupid.

2012-01-18T22:11:00.003-06:00

*I've put all the key points of this post in bold so you don't have to read the whole thing if you don't want. Actually, just skip to the last line that’s all you need to read.

Until Northwestern learns to actually play consistent hard man-to-man defense they will never make the NCAA Tournament. Sadly, it doesn’t look like they’ll learn that lesson this year. This game was lost because Northwestern couldn’t stop Wisconsin. The game started with the Badgers making uncontested threes and the game was won when the Badgers made 7-of-8 shots, including several threes, at the start of the second half.

I can’t tell you how upset I am at the fact Northwestern can’t play defense. As many good things as we’ve seen from Northwestern in the last 4 years, the lack of the ability to play defense is a major problem. You can’t only focus on offense which is what it seems that not only Northwestern’s team does, but the media as well. If I have to hear one more time about how great a scoring duo John Shurna and Drew Crawford are while NU is getting craved up for easy basket after easy basket I’m going to vomit. The only thing worse is hearing about how this might be the year for NU to make the Big Dance. Guess what? IT"S NOT!!!!!!!!!!

Admittedly, there were some good things that happened in this game early such as seeing NU attack the basket and seeing a seemingly gaining confidence Dave Sobolewski who showed some nice assertiveness. I still think NU needs some special plays for John Shurna, say run him off some screens, when teams start focus on him, because I can’t stand the way Drew Crawford forces shots. Those shots are fine when 3 seconds are left on the shot clock, but not when 23 second are left and Crawford seems clueless to that fact.

Some other random thoughts on the game include that Luka Mirkovic was terrible and at this point NU is better with a small lineup than with him on the floor. Other people, Luka included if he’s going to play, need to start to look to score because teams are guarding Shurna and Crawford and if NU won’t run any special plays than they just won’t score. I don’t want to hear about how tough it is to win in Wisconsin because this Wisconsin team is not all that great other than Jordan Taylor and he played one of his best games of the year today.

Overall, I’m really just sick and tired of the inconsistency of Northwestern. They can’t handle success so they don’t really have that much. Looking ahead, the truth is thanks to the blown games vs Illinois and Michigan this is right now a team which is a lot closer to a bottom half NIT-seed than an NCAA Tournament bid. It’s sad, but it’s true and I’ll say that until NU wins a road Big Ten game then anybody who talks about this team as an NCAA Tournament team ought to have their head examined. The only place Northwestern is an NCAA Tournament team is Fantasy Island.

Can the ‘Cats Keep Wildcat Nation Smiling with a Win at Wisconsin?

2012-01-16T18:41:00.001-06:00

As the Northwestern students rushed onto the court Saturday afternoon and Gus Johnson in his typical enthusiastic manner said, “Chicago’s…Big…Ten…Team!” (BTW, I’d have Johnson’s call on that in every NU promo from now until the Sun burns out). Wildcat Nation had to break out into a collective grin. The two losses the Wildcats suffered to Illinois and Michigan had left me (and I assume most of you) just sad. Not even upset. Just so sad. On Thursday after the Michigan loss I had people ask if I felt sick and I really think it was because I was just so depressed after seeing the Wildcats fail in what seemed like a defining game for this season that I simply didn’t look well. I know I’m way too invested in what happens with the ‘Cats and sincerely wish I had something else in my life with which to replace them as a priority, but I don’t and so I’m hoping that my depression from the Michigan loss can be totally replaced after a win Wednesday in Madison. Sure, the Michigan State win was great, but the losses to Illinois and Michigan right now are still haunting defeats. However, that can change. NU has a great chance to beat Wisconsin at the Kohl Center for the first time ever this week. In addition, Minnesota is an inconsistent team that I could see the Wildcats being able to play with when they travel up to the Twin Cities on Sunday.

For now though let’s keep focused on what’s going on in Madison. This is a talented Wisconsin team, but they’re underachieving right now. Especially on offense. Rumors are even circulating that star guard Jordan Taylor is playing hurt and that’s the reason for his only shooting 39% overall and only 31% from three point range. Whatever the case, Taylor has looked far more mortal this season than in the last two and his struggles have turned into team struggles as the Badgers have failed to score. When the Badgers have scored they’ve done so by supporting Taylor’s 13.8ppg with Jared Breggren (10.9ppg) inside and two recruits who chose Wisconsin over Northwestern Josh Gasser (48.9% 3PT) and Ben Brust (40.2% 3PT) from the outside. Gasser’s probably been the most consistent of the guards as Brust has had some big games such as seven threes versus UNLV and had some days where he seriously struggled. Honestly, though, I think NU can out shoot Wisconsin if it comes down to that. My bigger concern is on the offensive glass. Davide Curletti played the game his life on Saturday getting NU some second chance points and helping contain Michigan State’s front court from getting easy putbacks. However, I question the reality of getting the same game out of Curletti again. I think NU will need something good out of Luka Mirkovic and Davide as they battle the rebounding of Breggren, Ryan Evans, and the aptly named Mike Bruesewitz who pull down five-plus boards. Also, don’t discount Gasser as a rebounder. He’s very active around the glass. I have to say that although Josh Gasser obviously isn’t the dominate player that Andrew Luck is that as much as the Wildcats might lament losing out on Luck to Stanford in football, losing Gasser was just as bad for basketball. Based on who the ‘Cats had on the team these last two years and Gasser’s shooting and active play I truly think he might have been the missing piece to NU making the tournament. Of course, he’s a Badger there is nothing that can be done about it. I can tell you, though, I’m going to be really really pissed if he’s the difference in this game.

Looking at the game, NU used the 1-3-1 all game vs MSU, but Wisconsin is a different type of team. They’re a little better at taking care of the ball and have the potential to shoot better. However, if the Badgers continue to slump shooting then perhaps the 1-3-1 could be the key to a win. One thing we know for sure is that taking care of the ball will be key as this should be a low scoring game. I know Northwestern can win this game. However, with Bill Carmody’s 0-12 record in Madison and the way NU get hammered by Wisconsin last year I can’t really honestly predict an NU victory. Plus, Wisconsin is by far the most physical team in the Big Ten and NU seems to basically have six players right now with Alex Marcotullio likely out, JerShon Cobb at something like 70%, and Nick Fruendt as the primary sub at guard and Luka Mirkovic as the primary sub in the front court. That’s tough. I think this is a close game and I think NU can win, but they’ll need a lot of breaks which might not happen in Mad Town. I Predict: Wisconsin, 55 Northwestern, 50

Rebound. Yes!

2012-01-14T16:53:00.002-06:00

They finally did it. The Wildcats rebounded both in basketball terms and mentally to get their second quality win of the year. It’s easy to look at today’s game and then look back and really be frustrated by the losses NU suffered to Illinois and Michigan, but you can’t do that. You need to focus on today’s success and use that as a potential jumping off point for a sustained run of success.

The Wildcats still ran into some old problems such as their continued struggles at the free throw line and they seem to have issues at times recognizing that they are being doubled teamed and as a result miss getting the ball to open shooters. However, some of the other major issues the Wildcats have had such as turnover trouble and rebounding were taken care of today. The ‘Cats turned the ball over just seven times compared to MSU’s 14 and while Michigan State did outrebound NU by 12, the Spartans didn’t have many three or four shot possessions which just cut the heart out of NU’s effort to sustain momentum. I truly believe if NU plays as well on the glass as they did today and shoots free throws as well as they can that Northwestern will have a chance in virtually any game they play.

Part of Northwestern’s success on the glass today came as a result of finally getting production from the center spot. Davide Curletti ended the day with a team high six rebounds but it wasn’t just the number. It was that twice he turned offensive rebounds into points. It was that his hustle keep the ball alive and seemed to inspire NU’s other guys to hit the glass.

Thanks to Curletti getting 17 points and finally giving NU a center who was willing to take and make an outside shot, the game seemed to open up for NU’s other players to drive the lane. Dave Sobolewski found his way to the hoop several time as did John Shurna, Drew Crawford, and Reggie Hearn. While Shurna and Crawford were, as one would expect, the big scorers in the game, you can’t discount the performance from the other guys on NU’s team. Especially when you consider that Shurna, Crawford, Curletti, Hearn, and Sobolewski basically played the entire second half thanks to Luka Mirkovic’s ineffectiveness and JerShon Cobb and Alex Marcotullio’s injuries. Those issues also caused Nick Fruendt to get off the bench for seven minutes today and while he really didn’t go anything on offense or get a rebound, he wasn’t abused by superior athletes as so many people have feared he would end up being if he played.

I mentioned NU still struggled from the free throw line, but John Shurna did make 10-of-11 which was huge because he wasn’t hitting a ton from the field. This once again brings up the question why he wasn’t allowed to shoot the technical against Michigan, but I’ll try my best not to dwell on that fact. The guy who did shoot that technical was Drew Crawford and he had a nice day today as well (though only made 1-of-2 free throws) making some nice drives to the basket, mid-range shots, and hitting three threes. Dave Sobolewski took care of the ball with seven assists and only one turnover.

I’m not sure NU can go a real long winning streak without getting healthier, but it was good to see that even without Marcotullio to sub for him in the second half that Reggie Hearn kept making plays. He pulled down some key rebounds and made a couple nice baskets around the hoop which were in key in NU’s ability to hold the lead.

Overall this was a great and much needed win for the mental state of not only this team but the NU fans as well.

If the 'Cats can win at Wisconsin next week then I'll be willing to get back to talking tournament.

Oh yeah, and if the Big Ten is willing to let us wear those black jerseys at home I say we wear them every game until we lose. They've got to be okay on the road becasue they're a dark color and I guess based on the fact we wore them, that we're allowed to wear them at home too.

Wildcats Looking to Rebound (in many ways) versus Michigan State

2012-01-13T16:05:00.000-06:00

Rebound. In basketball it’s what you get when a missed shot occurs. In life it’s what you do when something goes wrong. Northwestern’s men’s basketball team and Wildcat Nation as a whole need to do both Saturday afternoon. The last two losses the team has suffered have been by a total of three points and in both cases the ‘Cats failed to pull in the critical rebound which would have perhaps allowed them to win that game. As a result, the team and its fans find themselves extremely frustrated, but plenty of basketball is left to play.

Interestingly enough the Wildcats opponent, Michigan State, excels at rebounding in both on both the basketball court and in the mental aspect of life. The Spartans are monsters on the glass pulling in more than 10 more rebounds a game than their opponents. Mentally, the Spartans rebounded to win 15 games in a row after losing their first two contests of the season. As a result of the winning streak the Spartans record stands at 15-2 and their national ranking stands at #6. If Northwestern were to win this game it would be a significant victory in the quest to see NU rebound from defeat and they won’t be able to do so without rebounding in the game.
MSU’s top player Draymond Green gets 9.8 rebounds per game and seems to always find the ball in the key situations. He’s also a multi-talented scorer who can beat you both around the hoop and from outside. In addition, the Spartans also feature the super-athletic Adreian Payne and the greatly improved Derrick Nix down in the post. That’s not to mention MSU’s athletic guards such as freshman Branden Dawson and transfer Brandon Wood. Both players have shown the ability to step up in key situations. Along with those two players in the back court is MSU’s point guard Keith Appling. The 6-1 Appling is a good shooter and scorer, though, he is still learning to play point guard.

For Northwestern to beat this team will be a tough task. It’ll be even tougher if NU continues to play 4-on-5 while on offense which is what happens when NU’s center refuse to even consider shooting the ball. With MSU’s size the ‘Cats will most likely have to use Luka Mirkovic a lot in this game. If he still handles the ball like it’s a ticking time bomb that he desperately wants out of his hands it’ll be a long afternoon. Somehow, someway Luka needs to hit a couple shots. If that happens the entire NU offense will come alive. When that happens I think the ‘Cats actually become a team which could beat MSU, but I don’t see that happening at this point. I predict: Michigan State, 74 Northwestern, 66

Also of note, NU is once again with JerShon Cobb who has reinjured his hip. With Cobb out NU’s rotation is severely limited. Not a good thing vs a deep and athletic team like Michigan State. I’d also guess based on the end of Wednesday’s game that Alex Marcotullio isn’t 100% either so NU really is suffering health wise.

Well, that’s all folks.

2012-01-11T19:50:00.005-06:00

Northwestern isn’t going to the NCAA Tournament, Bill Carmody very likely will not be retained as head coach because of his failure to qualify for that event (he should be fired just for sending the erratic Drew Crawford to the line to shoot tonight’s key technical instead of John Shurna, though, I kind of liked the small lineup). Honestly, Carmody makes odd choices at times, but he's been an okay coach. It's just probably time for someone else to get a shot. What upsets me the most is the next 14 games are going to be an agonizing death march. Good thing we’re wearing the funeral ready black uniforms on Saturday.

Northwestern hasn't played badly the last two games, but they haven't played well enough. Excuses exist such as the new rims vs Illinois and an obvious missed foul call on Drew Crawford's final drive in regulation, but excuses aren’t what good teams live by.

I don’t actually think God gives a crap about who wins athletic events and nobody is going to convince me he does no matter how many games Tim Tebow wins. Real suffering exists in the world and if God exists he better be focusing on trying to fix that and not making the Broncos get to the Super Bowl. That said, Northwestern must have really pissed some deity off.

The end.

Though sadly I have nothing better to do with me life so I'll still be writing here. Just don't expect happy things.

Northwestern Looks to Pickup Key Victory in Ann Arbor

2012-01-10T16:33:00.000-06:00

Northwestern plays both of the Big Ten’s Michigan schools this week. The Wildcats travel to the University of Michigan on Wednesday night and host Michigan State on Saturday. With both teams ranked it is clear NU will be facing two tough tests, but essentially winning either game would be enough to place NU back into realistic discussion for the NCAA Tournament. Generally speaking road games are tougher, but it is possible that Northwestern matches up better with Michigan’s perimeter oriented style of play than Michigan State’s inside bruisers.

When one starts to talk about Michigan they have to begin with Tim Hardaway Jr. the talented sophomore forward. Hardaway scores 15.9ppg and has shown the ability to be explosive. In many ways he is similar to NU’s Drew Crawford. However, Hardaway is weaker three point shooter who makes less than 30% of his three point shots. Where Hardaway seems to have be able to outshine Crawford is he is a little bigger which helps him finish and he seems less impacted when things don’t go right. I’ve seen Hardaway hit big shots on nights when he’s struggled from the floor, but Crawford seems to need things to right early in order to have a big game.

Michigan’s next top scorer is freshman guard Trey Burke. Burke scores 13.8ppg and makes 36.2% of his threes. He’s also a very talented ball handler with about a 2-to-1 assist to turnover ratio. In addition, like Hardaway, he’s got an explosiveness to him when he takes the ball to the hoop. I’ve been really impressed with Burke to this point as I thought Michigan would struggle in the backcourt without Darius Morris. I’m hopeful NU’s unique 1-3-1 zone and extended pressure will cause trouble for the freshman, but his quickness may counter some of NU’s tricks.

Once you get past Hardaway and Burke, Michigan actually looks a lot like Northwestern, but the difference is while NU is an okay shooting team, Michigan is a great shooting team. Evan Smotrycz, Zack Novack, and Stu Douglass are all excellent shooters who could cause NU trouble. The good new is that none of three are going to get open on their own. As a result, if NU plays pressure defense they can probably force Burke and Hardaway to beat them. That might happen, but I’d rather give up twos than threes. Especially early on the road.

For Northwestern to win they need to play that great defense, rebound, but most importantly make shots. NU’s shooting was what cost them the Illinois game. I still think the new rims at Welsh-Ryan impacted that result, but I don’t want to worry too much about events which I don’t have control over. Still, it was a tough loss that really didn’t need to happen. If NU ends up one game short of the tournament, I’m not going to let that result go. For now, though, I’ll focus on the Michigan game. The problem is I don’t think NU can win it. I predict: Michigan, 77 Northwestern, 65

Wildcat Centers Need to Take and Make Shots

2012-01-07T21:42:00.000-06:00

Okay, I’m not ready to write off this season yet, but I think a change needs to be made if Northwestern wants to seriously compete for that elusive NCAA berth (which after the loss to Illinois looks once again like it’s slipping away). In that contest against Illinois the Illini defense forced the Wildcats to shoot outside jump shots which weren’t falling because they kept 7-1 Myers Leonard in the paint instead of brining him out on the perimeter to guard NU centers Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti when they had the ball 15 feet or farther from the basket. The reason Illinois was able to do this was because after one miss from each player it seemed they both decided (or were told) not to shoot anymore. The fact is that the best Princeton Offense teams had centers who could hit jump shots because it opened up more of the offense. Right now Northwestern doesn’t have that and as a result the backdoor cuts and drives to the hoop aren’t there.

In the past Luka and Davide have hit such shots. Davide has even made a few this season, however, Luka has really struggled shooting. Overall, though, neither has shot well recently. Given that, I can somewhat understand the reluctance to have them shoot, but I think they’re almost hurting the team more by not shooting than they would be missing. The shots Illinois was allowing Luka to take and that he was passing were wide open 15-foot shots. Instead, he’d give up the ball and NU would settle for a poor three point shot that would rim out of the new exceedingly unkind Welsh-Ryan rims. If Luka had taken and even made 33% of the shots Illinois allowed him NU probably would have won the game. Instead, he passed and the result was an Illini triumph.

If Luka and Davide aren’t going to take such shots my proposal is that NU switch to the small lineup they used briefly vs Illinois. Playing John Shurna at center might create issues on defense at times, but probably not against every Big Ten team as there are some undersized teams in the league. Plus, I’m not saying Shurna play 40 minutes at center. I’m saying get him 8-10 minutes there to help open up driving lanes and backdoor cuts. Plus, moving him to center might get him some more easy shots because it’ll create mismatches with larger defenders. Bottom line, NU needs a center that can shoot and the 6-9 Shurna is an undersized, but reasonable option for a team that needs a spark.

Let me shift gears slightly here. I was pretty upset at the loss to Illinois. I’m pretty upset after every loss now that we have expectations for Northwestern hoops. I think you could all probably tell that from reading my unedited frustration on Wednesday night. However, I can’t give up on this team (even if I may want to at times). They’re my team. I’m a Northwestern fan. I have been since I was 10 years old. I don’t cheer for an NFL team or an NBA team or really care that much about the White Sox or Cubs. It’s my dream to see Northwestern in the NCAA Tournament and to paraphrase a line from this song by musician Will Hoge, I’m going to keep on believing in that dream no matter how many times it breaks my heart.

Cold Shooting Second Half Dooms Wildcats

2012-01-04T20:21:00.002-06:00

First of all let’s start and the end. Drew Crawford was simply far too soft when taking the last shot. Tossing up a fadeaway lob isn’t going to work when a 7-1 shot blocker is in the middle of the court.

The game really was lost though when NU went through a 3-for-20 shooting stretch in the second half. Illinois played somewhat better defense than they did in the first half, but really I thought Northwestern just missed a lot of shots they were capable of making. At times a few of the shots might have been somewhat forced from Crawford or Shurna, but they were trying to make plays at a time when NU needed baskets. In hindsight maybe they shouldn’t have forced as many shots, but you can’t know it’s going end up a one point game when you’re trailing by five or seven in the middle of the contest.

On the positive side Northwestern played really good defense all night. They had a few lapses on ball pressure, but overall I was impressed. I actually might say it was one of the best defensive games I’ve seen from a Bill Carmody team at Northwestern. It’s a shame it all went for nothing tonight, but let’s not forget that NU can’t shoot as badly as they did this evening all year. If the defense stays intense the ‘Cats will pull a couple upsets this season.

Another negative was the end of the first half. Not so much the fact that Illinois closed on a 5-0 run, though, that seemed to get them some momentum. But the real issue I have is that NU on its last possession just looked lost yet Bill Carmody didn’t call his timeout that doesn’t carry over. NU had all five TOs left, they were going to lose one going to half two anyway, they were lost on offense, but Carmody simply let John Shurna turn the ball over. Again, Carmody couldn’t have known it would be a one point game, but why not use the timeout? You lose it anyway.

That doesn’t seem like much, but I’m not sure what else to say. Oh year, free throw shooting was awful and that’s another area where one point might have been made up, but alas was not. A solid first half, a terrible second half, some poor decisions at really bad times in both and the result is a tough loss. Obviously, you have these games at times and you can overcome them if you hand someone else a tough loss along the way. The problem is that Northwestern hasn’t really shown the ability to hand those tough losses out over their history, but they sure can sustain them.

I guess one thought which should also be mentioned, though, I hate the idea it can be used as an excuse is that new rims went into Welsh-Ryan yesterday that many reported were unkind to shooters. I do think we saw a lot of shots go in and rim out today and it looked like Bill Carmody had something say on that matter a few times and even after the game when talking with AD Jim Phillips (okay, I don't what Carmody was saying, but he seemed upset). This can't be an excuse, but doesn't it seem odd to anyone else to make such a change in the middle of the year? I'd love to hear thoughts on this.

I’m hoping we’ll see NU come back in a big way a week from tonight at Michigan. If not NU still has 14 games in the Big Ten after that so all isn’t totally lost. Still, you can’t help but feel like it is after tonight and I can’t help but think the frustration level for NU fans after a loss to Michigan will be sky high. That’s understandable because at a certain point the years upon years of tough losses result take a toll. I thought it was a good NU crowd tonight even with the Illini fans inside Welsh-Ryan. I expect a very green Welsh-Ryan when Michigan State arrives on Jan. 14 and I can’t blame people. At some point we all just need to say enough is enough. Personally, I’m getting very close to saying that myself.

Game vs Illinois Might Answer Some Questions For NU

2012-01-03T17:11:00.002-06:00

I have no idea what to make of this Northwestern team and based on the various comments I’ve read from fans and the media neither does anyone else. Right now Northwestern is 11-3 through 14 games. They’ve played 10 teams they were almost certainly better than and won those 10 games. They’ve played two teams (Ohio State and Baylor) who they were almost certainly worse than and lost those games. And they’ve played two teams (Creighton and Seton Hall) who they were probably about even with and split those two games. Being able to consistently beat teams they are better than is a good step in the right direction for NU and losing to teams that are better is no shame, but the key to making the NCAA Tournament is going to be posting a better than .500 record against teams who NU matches up with evenly. The best way to that better than .500 mark is to win the contests at Welsh-Ryan and steal a couple on the road. In the end that would probably give NU 9 or 10 Big Ten wins and the result would be the NCAA Tournament.

The above paragraph becomes important because Illinois is one of those teams that NU is pretty even with. Sure, Illinois might have more flat out talent, but when the teams hit the court (especially in Evanston) the combination of a home court advantage and a more fine-tuned offensive system should even it out for NU. That means as Glenn said in the comment to the picture below, this really is a must-win game for NU!

The 12-3 Illini enter this contest coming off a road loss to Purdue and holding just a 3-3 record away from home. In other words, the Illini have been strong at Assembly Hall, but average away. NU holds that strong 46-3 record versus unranked opponents at home since 2008.
This is a pressure game for Illinois as well with them losing to Purdue and barely beating Minnesota at home. Their once promising could slip away if they drop this contest to the ‘Cats. It’s also a big game for Bruce Weber who despite his 205-89 career record is taking a lot of heat from Illinois fans for the team’s lack of postseason success and inability to compete for the league title in recent years. If Illinois is going to compete for anything this year they need to focus on getting 7-1 center Myers Leonard the ball. Leonard puts up 13.4ppg and 8.3rpg, but he shoots 61% from the floor. If he got the ball more he could average 20ppg with ease. The problem is it seems at times Illinois isn’t sure what type of team they are. Are they inside team with Leonard scoring in the post and Brandon Paul (12.3ppg) driving the lane or are they a jump shooting team with D.J. Richardson (40.6% 3PT) and Paul taking outside jump shots? What they should probably be is an inside-outside team that gets Leonard going early and then kicks to ball outside for open looks because aside from Richardson nobody on the Illini has much success shooting from the arc. The numbers look like this for the rest of Illinois’s projected starters:
Paul…28.4%
Leonard…25%
Sam Maniscalco…30.4%
Tyler Griffey…28.6%

To me that means NU should start in the 1-3-1 until Illinois proves they’re going to have an above average shooting game. The ‘Cats need to pressure the ball in that 1-3-1 and clog driving lanes, but a solid 1-3-1 that forces outside shots from people not named D.J. Richardson could be a recipe for success.

On offense I think we can probably assume Luka Mirkovic isn’t going to have a ton of success scoring on the block versus Leonard. That’s fine. Move Luka to the high post and let him distribute the ball to Shurna and Crawford who can attack the basket matched up on Griffey and Richardson respectively. If that works Illinois will have to sag into the lane and then the Wildcats can look again to Dave Sobolewski and Alex Marcotullio to boost the scoring from behind the arc.

Finally, I’ll say that the last key to this game for NU is intensity. That’s why Alex Marcotullio has to be a big factor. Without referees Big Ten basketball would basically be a street fight (it almost is anyway) and Alex is the only NU player who when you look at him has a facial expression that looks as if he just stepped off the set of Rocky V. If Alex can get the rest of the ‘Cats to have the same intensity on defense and the glass that he has I expect to see a Northwestern win. I predict: Northwestern, 70 Illinois, 65

It's not a basketball memory, but let's look at the photo below and think positive as the Wildcats get ready for a huge game vs the Illini

2012-01-02T21:09:00.003-06:00

Wildcats Pickup First Win Over Penn State in Five Years

2012-01-01T22:15:00.000-06:00

A solid second half which saw Northwestern shoot 71.4% and outscore Penn State by 15 was enough for NU to beat Penn State 68-56 for their first Big Ten win of the season. The win was the Wildcats first over Penn State in their last seven tries and moved the Wildcats record in their last 46-3 in their last 49 games against unranked opponents. The game didn’t start great as Penn State led 26-23 at the half and NU got outrebounded by 11 in the first half and looked sluggish. Thankfully, the ‘Cats rebounded in the second half thanks to some hot shooting and a stronger defensive effort keyed by Alex Marcotullio’s effort off the bench.

Aside from Marcotullio who I will talk about more a little later, I think Drew Crawford stood out above the rest of the Wildcats tonight. Drew played very strong defense on Tim Frazier helping hold the Penn State star to 16 points and forcing 4 turnovers. In addition, Crawford led the Wildcats in scoring 21 points and being assertive towards the hoop, but within the offense. The result was him taking just two threes, but making both and converting going towards the hoop on several occasions early in the second half. When Drew plays within the offense and plays with confidence he can be a special player.

I was also once again impressed with Dave Sobolewski. He played hard and early on seemed to be the only Wildcat who was focused on the game. For the day Sobolewski scored a career high 20 points and I was pleased he did so in a variety of ways. Yes, he was notable as a three point shooter, but he also found several routes towards the hoop to drive and score. Adding that skill to his game will make Sobo a better threat throughout the Big Ten season.

John Shurna was the third Wildcat in double figures with 17 points. It was a solid game. However, it was clear Penn State was very focused on stopping him. As a result, I’m starting to think Coach Carmody needs to go into his files and find some of his set plays which are geared towards getting one guy a shot. The Princeton Offense is great, but it is truly an offense which is set to get an open shot for whoever is open. At times you need to get your best player a shot and those special plays can make that happen when the defense is overly focused on him.

As promised earlier I want to talk about Alex Marcotullio. I thought it was notable that Northwestern played harder when Marcotullio was on the floor. His hustle on defense and his effort to fight for rebounding despite his small size seemed to motivate Luka Mirkovic and some of the bigger Wildcats to fight on the boards as well. I’m leaning towards starting Marcotullio if I’m Bill Carmody, but we’ll have to wait and see.

The major areas of concern for Northwestern continue to be free throw shooting and rebounding. Luka Mirkovic did grab 11 rebounds for NU, but Penn State still outrebounded the Wildcats by nine. Free throw shooting was simply bad with the center position going 2-for-9. I know Luka and Davide can play better and I hope we see that at the free throw line and all over on offense on Wednesday.

Wildcats Host Penn State on New Year’s Day

2011-12-31T16:41:00.000-06:00

Wildcat Nation might still be depressed that Coach Fitz’s football couldn’t get the monkey off their back and win a bowl game, but the basketball ‘Cats are focused on a monkey of their own. Northwestern has lost for consecutive games to Penn State by an average margin of 17 points. Many of Penn State’s players and coaches haven’t been a part of those games, but most of Northwestern’s have and they know those losses have been disappointing and critical to harming NU’s postseason dreams over the past three years. The last Northwestern win over Penn State was in 2007 in Evanston.

Coach Patrick Chambers brings in a Penn State team with an 8-6 record. The Lions are led by point guard Tim Frazier who took over the do everything role that used to belong to Talor Battle. Frazier leads the team with 17.4ppg, 5.6rpg, and 6.9apg. This will be another tough matchup for freshman guard Dave Sobolewski who faced off versus Ohio State’s Aaron Craft in NU’s first Big Ten game of the year. It’s tough to ask Sobolewski to battle these guys, but that’s the Big Ten. You don’t get any off nights as Wisconsin found out in going down to Ohio State.

The fact is that while the Frazier v. Sobolewski matchup might not be an advantage for Northwestern, I think the rest of the floor offers positives for NU. One of the key notes is that NU has size over Penn State at nearly every spot. Penn State’s biggest starter is 6-8 Billy Oliver. Off the bench they’ll bring in Sasa Borovnjak who is 6-9, but the fact is that Luka Mirkovic will have a significant size advantage over anybody Penn State plays. That means Luka needs to get involved in the game early. Luka’s inconsistency has been frustrating for NU fans over the years, but we all know that a strong game from Luka equals a Wildcat victory and this game presents the Wildcat center with the chance to have a big game.

Another Wildcat who has to be expected to have a big game is John Shurna. At 6-9 Shurna is also bigger than any Penn State starter. Sure, Penn State might play zone as opposed to let a 6-5 guy try to guard Shurna, but that means Shurna should have the advantage in getting off open shots and getting off shots with a size advantage. Personally, I called out Drew Crawford and JerShon Cobb for what I thought was selfish play in the Ohio State game, but it seems to me that Coach Bill Carmody had more issues with Shurna based on what he said in the post game after Ohio State. Penn State isn’t one of the stronger teams NU will play this year, but it is probably important that Shurna respond to the adversity of the last game and show up focused from wire to wire on Sunday evening.

As for the rest of Wildcats Drew Crawford should have an advantage in terms of athletic skill which he didn’t have versus Ohio State, but I’d still like to see him take shots within the offense instead of freelancing. Reggie Hearn has been very quite since his big game versus Central Connecticut. I’d like to see either Hearn or Alex Marcotullio start to hit some three point shots and give the Wildcats another realistic scoring threat from behind the arc that teams need to respect. Will that happen on Sunday? It’s hard to say as the consistency hasn’t been there for those two guys yet this year. However, I do think NU will do enough to win this game. I predict: Northwestern, 77 Penn State, 70

Wildcats need to get more Physical and Less Selfish to Win in Big Ten

2011-12-29T12:40:00.001-06:00

Northwestern lost to Ohio State and that’s fine. But what wasn’t fine was some of the play Northwestern put forward in that loss. The Big Ten is a physical league and to let a team just push you around is never a good idea. Sure, Ohio State is stronger than Northwestern, but the number of times Northwestern players just stood flat footed and thought they’d get a rebound just because they were on the weak side was pathetic. If Northwestern doesn’t get more aggressive going to the glass I don’t expect a lot of success for the Wildcats over the course of this season. Luka Mirkovic might not be a great athlete, but he’s 6-11 and that will make him the biggest player on the court more often than not. Even last night he was actually taller than the players Ohio State started on the front line. Yet, Luka doesn’t get aggressive enough to let his height work for him. He needs to play like he’s 6-11 and not 6-1. The rest of the Wildcats are equally as guilty of just going through the motions and not capitalizing on the skills they have when it comes to rebounding and defense.

Perhaps even worse than the rebounding issue was the selfish play some of NU’s players demonstrated last year. The Princeton Offense is a team concept which should allow players to get open shots by passing the ball well until the best shot opens up. However, last night a number of Wildcat players tried to go off on one on one moves and it simply didn’t work. The must guilty was Drew Crawford. Crawford has for 2.5 years looked to me like the type of player whose success if very much determined on what happens early in a game. If he hits his first couple shots he can be great, but if he does not he tends to start to force shots because he thinks he should score. Last night he seemed like he felt the need to score points and starting taking some of the dumbest shots I’ve ever seen from a Northwestern player.

Along the same lines, JerShon Cobb is starting to remind me of the guy you desperately want to avoid having on your team in a pickup game. It seems like as soon as Cobb gets into the game he’s going to try and make some type of move to score. Sadly, it seems like more often than not that shot ends up as a brick. That’s not a surprise when you consider he’s only shot over 50% in one game this season. Until he starts making shots more regularly Cobb needs to be more willing to be part of the offense and just try to make one on one moves.

I could go on with other examples of NU’s selfish play last night. For example, John Shurna needs to shoot, I think we all know that, but he too put up some really questionable shots last night. Anyhow, I think I’m done talking about this for now. Wildcat Nation should focus on Saturday’s bowl game at this point and worry about basketball after that. If the ‘Cats win in Texas at least one long and unfortunate streak will be put to rest this week.

Ohio State Out Shoots and Out Efforts Northwestern

2011-12-28T18:13:00.002-06:00

Let’s all remember before we panic that Ohio State is a very good team. They are a legitimate contender for the national title. That said Northwestern’s effort in this game was poor. It starts on defense were Ohio State was able to get clean open looks and go on a big run in the first half. Northwestern tried a 2-3 zone at the start of the game which was ineffective. They went then to the 1-3-1 which was also ineffective. In both cases Ohio State was able to pass and cut with ease and inevitably would find a player with their feet set waiting anxiously to shoot a wide open three. Making matters worse for Northwestern in the rare case that the Ohio State player missed that shot it seemed that a Buckeye player was there for an offensive rebound.

Ohio State’s shooting aside, perhaps the bigger issue was that Northwestern just seemed to get out efforted. Now maybe that was the a case of being out athleted, but I still think the effort could have been better. A number of times in the case of those offensive rebounds the NU player didn’t even jump and the Buckeye player pulled in the rebound over them. Also, while you have to give credit to Ohio State for making their three point shots and creating the three point shots they made in the game. However, more often than not the Wildcat defender seemed to be late getting out on the shooter and late getting his hands up and getting off the ground. Basically, it looked like the Ohio State defender always had enough space to shoot comfortably. That wasn’t the case when Northwestern shot.

The other place where the game seemed to turn for Northwestern was shot selection and offensive patience. Last year NU challenged Ohio State because they played with patience and burned time off the clock. This year Drew Crawford decided he was Kobe Bryant but instead looked more like William Cullen Bryant. Crawford’s missed wild shots lead to several secondary breaks for the Buckeyes which resulted in threes and simply sped up the game which was big no-no. Then once the Wildcats were down the rest of the Wildcats started to try and mount a comeback by forcing equally quick and ill advised shots. I am shocked that Bill Carmody allowed Crawford and the Wildcats to what they did. It almost looked like the ‘Cats just decided to see what would happen if they tried to play Ohio State straight up. The answer, not surprisingly, was nothing good.

I’ll conclude simply with the fact that while I’ve never been a believer in the concept of the must win game outside of tournament play the fact is that Northwestern must win the next two games at home against Penn State and Illinois if they want to continue to have hope of playing in the postseason. To do so they’ll need to put together a better effort than what we saw today. Also, making more shots and playing something that looks like defense would help a lot too.

Wildcats Open Big Ten at Two Time Defending Champion Ohio State

2011-12-27T14:50:00.000-06:00

This is a very tough game for Northwestern to have to open the Big Ten season with this year. However, it does also present a significant opportunity. If Northwestern were to win the game, and I know that’s a big if, they would basically have to play just average the rest of the season to ensure an NCAA Tournament bid. Obviously, pulling off an upset of the #2 team in the nation which features multiple preseason All-Big Ten and All-American picks isn’t the easy way into the NCAA Tournament, but its worth noting the possibility.

Ohio State’s roster is so full of talent that it is almost ridiculous to expect anybody in the Big Ten to beat them. Preseason National Player of the Year Jared Sullinger headlines the OSU front court which also features athletic forward Deshaun Thomas who has stepped up his game this season especially in the contests which Sullinger sat out with an injured back. The Ohio State backcourt features two players listed amongst the top-25 nationally in the preseason in guards Aaron Kraft and William Buford. Kraft is the defensive stopper who while not a great shooter (30% from three) does tend to impact the game on defense in getting steals and handling the ball very well with a nearly 3-to-1 assist to turnover ratio. Buford is more of scoring threat at 15.8 ppg and making 37% of his threes. He’s also a nice athlete that can get to the hoop when he needs to do so. These two will present a major challenge for NU’s backcourt of Dave Sobolewski and Reggie Hearn. If he’s closer to 100% look for more action from JerShon Cobb to at least try and even out the athletic skill battle.

NU’s front court seemingly is the their strong point with Drew Crawford and John Shurna, but when you stack it up against Sullinger and Thomas it looks more average. Obviously, neither Shurna nor Crawford will battle Sullinger one on one. That’ll be the job of Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti who I actually think played Sullinger about as well as they could have last year, but the result was still 20 points and 18 rebounds for Sullinger when the teams met in the Big Ten Tournament. Those 20 points were mostly on free throws, though as Sullinger only made two field goals. Nevertheless, if NU can’t keep Sulinger and Thomas at least somewhat off the glass they can’t win unless they shoot a ridiculous percentage from three point range. To do that Shurna needs to have a big game and he also has to do a good job containing the athletic Thomas and not committing fouls.

Last year Northwestern used mostly a switching man to man defense versus Ohio State. However, I think last year’s Buckeyes were better shooters. I could see NU be successful with the 1-3-1 zone this year. It’ll clog the paint and may slow the game down. NU has to slow this game way down compared to the Creighton game which at times was a little too fast. I suspect NU will do this and that’ll help them for about 30 minutes before Ohio State pulls away. I predict: Ohio State, 63 Northwestern, 50

Close Counts in Horseshoes, Hand Grenades, but Not Basketball

2011-12-22T21:46:00.001-06:00

This wasn’t an awful game, but the fact is that playing the way they’d played tonight Northwestern is NOT an NCAA Tournament team. They’re a good team, they’re a 20-win team, but they aren’t an NCAA Tournament team. To be an NCAA Tournament team you need to beat other NCAA Tournament competition from leagues that aren’t one bid leagues. Thus far Northwestern hasn’t done so. Right now I think Northwestern will be back in the NIT to once again. To get beyond that point a couple things need to happen. The most obvious is Northwestern cannot be so dependent on Drew Crawford and John Shurna. If Crawford hadn’t had the game of his life tonight scoring 34 points (the most ever by a Creighton opponent) this would have been the Baylor game all over again. Shurna scored 18 points, but the fact is Creighton did an outstanding job defending him in NU’s offense. A good number of Shurna’s points came from scoring on out of bounds plays.

I think the key player for NU is JerShon Cobb. The natural talent is there for him to score points because while he’s not a great shooter he has the ability to get to the hoop and he’s a good enough free throw shooter to make shots if he gets fouled. The problem is that he doesn’t seem fully healthy from his injured hip and concussion and he still needs to find a way to get somewhat more consistent with his outside shooting in order to create a few more driving lanes. Reggie Hearn has been something of an option as an outside shooter, but I’m afraid his struggles tonight against Creighton might be a portent of the struggles he’ll have against the top-6 teams in the Big Ten.

The major overall issue for Northwestern is defense. The 1-3-1 was okay tonight, but he eventually Creighton started hitting shots against it. The man-to-man was flat out bad as the Blue Jays guards were able to enter the ball into the post and get Doug McDermott any shot he wanted from about a foot away from the basket. I’m very worried about how successful Northwestern will be against teams like Ohio State with Jared Sullinger or Illinois with Myers Leonard if they can’t deny those guys the ball in the post. Perhaps the saving grace is that Creighton is a better shooting team than Illinois or Ohio State, but I can’t be one hundred certain of that because teams have a history of going crazy versus NU from three.

Rebounding is also obviously and issue as NU got outrebounded by 10 tonight. Now, I don’t expect NU to outrebound everybody or really anybody, but I think NU needs to prevent teams for getting second chance shots. I lost count of the number of times that Creighton got a second or third look and cashed in often times for three.

It’s a little frustrating to be at this point right now because I know I started to buy into a lot of the tournament hype. The problem I think is that Northwestern isn’t getting any better. I actually think they played better defense at the start of the year in the Charleston Classic than they have in the last three games. Maybe that is simply because those teams were worse than the teams NU has played the last three games, but I have trouble believing Tulsa is worse than Eastern Illinois. Bottom line, work has to be done for NU to make the Big Dance. The good news is that the Big Ten is strong enough plenty of chances for quality wins exist, the bad news is the Big Ten is strong enough that if things don’t get better Northwestern will once again finish with 7 or 8 league wins and be right back where they ended last year. The NIT is better than nothing, but it’s tremendously frustrating to have the NCAA Tournament within sight, but constantly trip and fall before reaching the finish line.

Northwestern @ Creighton: My Prediction

2011-12-21T14:36:00.000-06:00

I don’t know why this game gets an entirely separate post for a prediction, but it does. I suppose one could say it is due to the importance of this game, but I don’t want to start putting too much emphasis on any one contest as we saw the possible disappointment of that with the Baylor game. Still, this is an important game. A win tomorrow night will put Northwestern in a great position for a successful NCAA Tournament run. However, such a win will be tough to get. Not only does Creighton field a pretty good team, but they’ll have a Big Ten-like home court advantage with 17,000 people expected at the CenturyLink Center. The fact is that Northwestern didn’t excel on the road last season in Big Ten play has me a bit nervous. Still, if Northwestern is going to make the tournament they need to play well on the road in the Big Ten so why not establish that ability vs Creighton?

Looking at Creighton, they’re a fast paced, score a ton of points, play average defense type of team. That’s fairly similar to Northwestern, though, I’d say Northwestern can be better on defense just based on the unpredictability of using the 1-3-1 zone. Also, while we can’t say Luka Mirkovic is a superstar, he does give Northwestern the biggest player on the court. That counts for something on defense and on the glass if Luka brings an attitude of aggression to the court.

The numbers say Creighton is a better offensive team than Northwestern and Creighton forward Doug McDermott is playing out of his mind. He’s the nation’s second leading scorer and makes 57% of his threes! Basically, he’s John Shurna last year before Shurna’s ankle injury. I know Northwestern is going to present more of a challenge for McDermott than the Jays’ previous opponents, but I’m still worried about him and his offensively talented teammates.

I expect a fast paced up and down style game. I’m a little worried NU won’t have as much of an advantage as they might in some non-conference games because this is the second year in a row NU has played Creighton and it is the third year in a row Greg McDermott has coached against NU having guided an Iowa State team NU beat two years ago. Without a doubt this game will be high scoring. The team that shoots better will probably win it and though I totally hope I’m wrong, Creighton does average more made threes than NU and I think Creighton has the advantage playing in Omaha. I predict: Creighton, 87 Northwestern, 82*

*I predicted NU to beat Baylor so clearly I can be wrong.

Wildcats NCAA Tournament Hopes Can Get Serious with Wins in Next Eight Days

2011-12-20T10:15:00.000-06:00

I know various projections have Northwestern in the NCAA Tournament right now, but at this point I don’t see Northwestern as an NCAA Tournament team. So far Northwestern has lost to the only sure BCS-conference NCAA Tournament team they faced in Baylor and that loss wasn’t even close. Yes, the ‘Cats have nice wins over some mid-major tournament teams and a win over possible bubble team Seton Hall, but that’s not enough yet for me to put them in the Big Dance. There was a time when I would have been more optimistic, but perhaps I’ve been beaten down by getting my hopes up so much over the past few years only to see them crushed. Sometimes I honestly wonder if Northwestern has a basketball program just to make their fans’ lives miserable. Of course, that misery would turn to total joy if Northwestern were ever to make the NCAA Tournament because so many long suffering fans and former players would feel as if everything they hoped and worked for over many years finally paid off. So while NU isn’t an NCAA team as of this moment, we have to wonder if they can be one as of March. March might be several months away, but I actually think we’ll get a clue as to NU’s fate on Selection Sunday in the next eight days.

Northwestern will be on the road at ranked opponents Creighton and Ohio State before the New Year starts. While many will say NU has no chance to beat Ohio State and a limited to shot at Creighton, I think wins in both games are possible, though, winning one of two is more realistic. Even just getting one of the two wins, as long as the loss doesn’t look like the Baylor game, will make me shift my view about NU’s tourney chances. The reason is that to make the NCAA Tournament a team can’t just beat everyone they are supposed to beat. They need wins which boost their resume. Perhaps making Creighton even more important, it often helps if one of those resume boosting wins comes outside of conference play. Therefore, let’s look at what NU needs to do to beat the Blue Jays.

Creighton is led in scoring and rebounding by Doug McDermott. The Jays are 9-1 and McDermott has been their leading scorer in 9 of the 10 games and the leading rebounder in 8 of the 10 games. But don’t start to believe Creighton is a one man team. They squad also features point guard Antoine Young who is a double figure scorer and an excellent ball handler. He’s not a great shooter like McDermott who makes 57% of his three point shot is, but Young’s quickness could give NU’s guards some trouble.

Creighton also has a center in Gregory Echenique who scores almost double figures and who has collected 1/3 of his rebounds on the offensive end of the floor. Considering that the ‘Cats struggled at times to secure the glass against smaller teams this season this has to be a concern. NU needs to see Luka Mirkovic put together his second strong game in a row and really play with attitude and focus.
Stopping McDermott and Young is perhaps an even tougher task with Creighton as a team making 43% of their threes and having almost a 2-to-1 assist to turnover ratio. The 1-3-1 zone seems a little risky to employ. The only thing that might make it worth considering is that Northwestern might be a stronger team than any of the squads Creighton posted those numbers against. Still, I’d like to see NU play man defense. I think the ‘Cats can handle the Blue Jays if they play with focus and intensity. They just can’t be lackadaisical. Also, I’d like to see Reggie Hearn guard Young as I think his 6-4 size and bulk will be tough for the 6-0 Young. I’d also like to see Drew Crawford and JerShon Cobb rotate on McDermott as they are NU’s most athletic players and the best way to stop him is probably not to let him catch the ball in an area where he can make plays. Some might suggest John Shurna take that defensive assignment, but I don’t want Shurna so exhausted from chasing McDermott through screens that he doesn’t have the legs to hit shots. Realistically, this should be a high scoring game and NU needs at least 25 points for Shurna to win that type of game. If John has no legs to get into this shot we could see a Central Connecticut State type performance and nobody wants that. However, if Shurna knocks down 6-7 threes NU has a got a great chance. As a team, I’d say Northwestern needs to make at least 12 threes to win this contest. That’s possible as Creighton’s three point defense has been just average, but NU needs to make it look just bad. NU’s centers need to hit some shots and a healthy Alex Marcotullio would help a lot too (though I don’t want to assume he’ll play). Also, NU cannot just expect to hit threes and win. The threes are a key factor, but the basket must be attacked as well. With that in mind, I’m really hoping we’ll see JerShon Cobb step up and have a big game. He’s got the talent and he seems to be getting more into the flow these last few games. This would be a big game for him to up his game and make some big plays. Obviously, Drew Crawford is also a factor whenever NU wants to attack the hoop, when he does so he must make his free throws. It’ll take a great effort, but NU can beat Creighton. They can beat Ohio State too, but that’ll take an even greater effort, but beating Creighton could be a great springboard. I’ll have an official prediction up in the next day or so. I want to believe NU can win this, but I know it’ll be a tough task.

Wildcats Finish 3 Games in 4 Days Stretch at 3-0

2011-12-18T19:16:00.000-06:00

Okay, everyone can relax now. John Shurna still knows how to make three pointers. After an abysmal performance against Central Connecticut State, Shurna rebounded just over 24 hours later today to score 32 points total and make 9-of-12 threes. The performance left him one made three short of the Big Ten record for made threes in a game and officially tied for the NU record (NU did have Kenneth “Dion” Lee hit 10 threes in a game but NU voided Lee’s record when he was involved with a gambling scandal). Perhaps the most impressive thing about Shurna’s day was he clearly came into the game still confident even after his poor game yesterday. Shurna took shots early and although he missed his first, once he caught fire he seemed unstoppable. I feel like the only reason he didn’t hit a 10th three was that he didn’t get another shot. He also dished out 5 assists and found a number of teammates for open looks which helped the Wildcats make 54.2% of their shots.

Really, it seems like NU has a number of players who can step up and make big shots. Yesterday’s hero Reggie Hearn only attempted one shot (and missed) but Shurna got scoring support from Luka Mirkovic, Drew Crawford, and Dave Sobolewski who all scored in double figures.

Mirkovic is a player who we all agree can be frustrating, but he’s also critically important to Northwestern’s success. Today, Luka played one of his best games scoring 18 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and dishing out 7 assists. Yes, the competition from Eastern Illinois wasn’t spectacular, but Luka has the potential to play at a high level. He just somehow needs to find consistency. Can he do that in next 20-some games of his career when he hasn’t in three-plus years? I don’t know, but I’m holding out hope he can. You never really know what is going to cause someone to change their outlook and approach and I think we all agree Luka’s biggest issues are in his head. Yes, he’s not Jared Sullinger, but he’s still a Big Ten center. Somewhere along the way between now and the final game of his career in purple maybe he’ll realize that.

Drew Crawford is another player who NU needs to get consistent and unlike Mirkovic it seems Crawford has made it to a point in his career where he can be a consistent threat to score the basketball and help run offense even if his three point shot isn’t falling. Today despite making just one three, he scored 14 points and provide 6 assists against 0 turnovers. He also stuffed the stat sheet with 3 steals, 3 blocks, and 7 rebounds.

Another NU player who consistently plays well is guard Dave Sobolewski. Taking over for Juice Thompson is not an easy task, but so far Sobolewski has been up to the task. Today he scored 12 points and tabulated 3 assists while only turning the ball over once.

The biggest issues I leave this game with are related to defense and free throw shooting. With all the shooters Northwestern has they should be a good free throw shooting team. Therefore, I’m hoping they’ll step up that aspect of their game very soon. The bigger concern has to be defense. Northwestern has success with using the 1-3-1, but they can’t become overly reliant on that defense. Early in the year NU’s man-to-man was somewhat better, but it seemed to slack at bit recently. Against Baylor it was talent issue and perhaps the last couple days it was simply exhaustion. Nonetheless, the way NU plays man-to-man needs to be better quickly because the ‘Cats have two tough road games in the next 10 days, but those tough games also make for great opportunities. As I wrote a couple days ago, change may be a process and not an event, but at some point in that process one needs to take advantage of the chances the events along that process present.

Reggie Hearn’s Big Game Helps Northwestern Escape from Central Connecticut

2011-12-17T15:37:00.001-06:00

Central Connecticut gave Northwestern a great challenge and while some fans will be frustrated Northwestern didn’t beat this mid-major opponent by more points, Central Connecticut State has some very good players. Kyle Vinales scored 27 for the Blue Devils and Kyle Horton scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as the Devils tried to upset the Wildcats. I really believe that while Central Connecticut State and Stony Brook aren’t big name mid-major teams these are decent wins for Northwestern because both have a shot to make the NCAA Tournament. Getting wins over NCAA teams, even mid/low-major NCAA teams, isn’t a bad thing. Does Northwestern have to play better if they want to make the NCAA Tournament? For sure, but at least winning games builds a winning attitude.

Probably the biggest concern for Northwestern is that John Shurna has struggled with his shot in two of the last three games NU has played. Shurna scored 12 points and grabbed 8 rebounds which looks on the face of it like an okay game, but the fact was he struggled on offense. He made only 3-of-14 shots and only hit one three pointer. I will say that I thought he played hard on defense and while Central Connecticut State did have some players put up decent numbers, I think Northwestern defended them better than some of their previous opponents. The bottom line, though, is that for Northwestern to really be a strong team John Shurna needs to score and needs to be effective from three point range. Whatever he has to do to get himself focused it is critical he do so soon.

A major positive for Northwestern today was the play of Reggie Hearn. Hearn scored a career high 17 points, made all four of his three point attempts, and just overall was fantastic as far as his effort on the court. Plus, he took a nice pass from Luka Mirkovic and made an and-1 layup which sealed the game for NU. At the start of the season nobody probably envisioned Reggie Hearn as the go to clutch player for Northwestern, but he excelled in that role today.

Drew Crawford also made a clutch shot late and made several other tough shots in the lane during the game. Crawford didn’t shoot great from three point range today, but I liked the fact he didn’t seem to let that get him down and made an effort to make things happen by driving the ball at the basket. He’s developed a nice assortment of shots and I think he’ll be a key player in Big Ten play because he’s better than most of NU’s guys at getting his own shot.

Another Wildcat player who can get his own shot is JerShon Cobb. Still recovering from injury, Cobb played 16 minutes and scored 9 points. He made two nice pull-up jump shots and hit a three. The biggest key to Cobb becoming a great player is that he develops a consistent three point shot. If that happens, he might become NU’s best player.

Northwestern plays tomorrow against Eastern Illinois who enters the game at 6-3. The Panthers just lost to fellow instate rival Western Illinois to snap a three game win streak. EIU has some talent including Jeremy Granger who scored 18 in the loss to WIU. NU needs to refocus quickly and hopefully give a full 40 minute effort tomorrow.

Northwestern Starts Busy Stretch With Easy “W”

2011-12-15T21:12:00.000-06:00

This game was pretty much what we expected. Texas Southern struggled on offense and NU used a balanced attack which put four players into double figures to cruise to an 81-51 win. I think NU fans had to be impressed with the athletic skill shown by NU tonight as Drew Crawford had two dunks (one off an ally-op pass from John Shurna), Shurna put down a dunk, and Reggie Hearn slammed one home as well. Those dunks came off of fast breaks which NU created due to getting some steals using their athletic skill. Overall, it was a good day for the ‘Cats and while I won’t say this erases the Baylor loss, at least that’s not the last thing that happened for NU.

One of the guys who certainly needed to rebound from the Baylor game was Luka Mirkovic. Luka’s play tonight still won’t get him listed amongst college basketball’s elite centers, but he was far more solid than he was versus Baylor. Was Baylor much better than Texas Southern? For sure. But getting good play from Luka is so key for NU that I’m thankful whenever he plays well. Tonight, I was thankful to see Luka demonstrate skill as a passer with five assists, though, I wish he’d have scored a bit more.

NU’s leading scorer was John Shurna who certainly stepped up his game in the second half as did JerShon Cobb. Shurna’s 20 points and 5-of-7 made threes were a nice bounce back from the Baylor disaster. Cobb finished with 10 points and looked really rusty early on in the first game back from a concussion. In the second half, though, he seemed to relax and let the game come to him a bit more. As a result, he ended up hitting some open shots and looking more comfortable on the floor. He’s a big player for NU especially while Alex Marcotullio battles a foot injury. At some point I’d like to see Marcotullio and Cobb both healthy at the same time for NU, but it seems as though that hasn’t happened at all in the last year and a half.

I think when people talk about this game and look at the stats they’ll wonder how NU could hit 13 threes in this game and not even make five versus Baylor. Obviously part of the answer is who the ‘Cats were playing, but it’s still good to see NU once again show the three point touch. I really liked seeing Dave Sobolewski hit the high-point of his young career with five made three pointers. Sobolewski was 5-of-8 shooting for the night with all the attempts from three point range.

NU’s other double figure scorer was Drew Crawford with 17 points. Perhaps even more impressive than his points, Drew had 5 assists and 0 turnovers and recorded two steals.

NU only gets one day off now before playing a decent Central Connecticut State team. I’m excited to see NU play that game because it should provide an increased competition level from tonight and will give us a little more insight into what this NU team really has. Of course, we might have to wait until the tough road tests in late December against Creighton and Ohio State to really know.

Northwestern is Back in Action Versus Texas Southern

2011-12-14T18:01:00.000-06:00

I fully intended to post more thoughts between the end of the Baylor game and now, but I just never found the time. I was, as we all were, upset with the way the ‘Cats played versus Baylor, but I haven’t given up hope for the NCAA Tournament just yet. Still, I do think NU needs to improve from where they are now if they want to make the Big Dance. Especially as the rest of Big Ten looks strong with the possible exception of Penn State and Iowa.

1-6 Texas Southern shouldn’t present much of a challenge to NU and that’s probably a good thing after the loss to Baylor. The Tigers are a team that lost 62-46 to Denver in their last game so they clearly are not an offensive powerhouse. In fact, they’re pretty much the antithesis of that. They rank second to last in the NCAA in points per-game as a team with only 50.9 on average. Omar Strong is their leading scorer with 13 points per which does mean he averages more points per-game than anyone on the roster of the Stony Brook team NU almost lost to earlier this season, but I’m not worried about the Wildcats in this contest.

NU will be without guard Tre Demps who elected to have his season ending surgery and redshirt this year. He’ll most likely join fellow freshman Mike Turner as a guy who will watch all this season and then have the opportunity to step into a larger role next season. I think this is the right move as Demps was never 100% and guards Reggie Hearn and Dave Sobolewski have handled things just fine as NU’s starting backcourt. The concussion injury to JerShon Cobb has been an issue for NU, but he should return to action in the future much closer to 100% than Demps would ever have been this year. Hopefully, we’ll see Cobb on the court if not tomorrow at least at some point over this weekend stretch of three games in four days.

It really is important for NU to get off on the right foot in this game and get their confidence back. The effort against Baylor was so poor that even those who have been so beaten down by watching Northwestern basketball over the years had to leave Welsh-Ryan feeling like they’d been somehow wronged by the cosmos. Personally, I think my mistake was I confused my understanding of the concept of change. I’ve waited for years to be able to see NU get a big upset win and then say, “That’s it! That’s the win that’ll change what Northwestern basketball is.” It’s a nice dream and I’d convinced myself the Baylor game would see that dream given form. The problem is that in fact change isn’t an event it is actually a process. What we all need to believe as NU fans is that the process of change for Northwestern basketball is ongoing. It’s hard to believe when watching a game like NU played versus Baylor that such an event could in anyway be part of that process, but in fact it can be. In the end that process has to take Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament sometime in the future (preferably before my death). Will that happen this season? Honestly, I have no idea and beating on Texas Southern isn’t in anyway going to answer that question. Nonetheless, winning big ought to feel pretty good. I predict: Northwestern, 88 Texas Southern, 47

NU Embarrassed in High-Profile Loss to Baylor

2011-12-04T16:46:00.001-06:00

I don’t know what to say. I really thought the wheel had turned enough that this Northwestern team would be able to handle the pressure of a big game and compete and win. They couldn’t. This team in fact really looked worse than last year’s squad in big games. Dave Sobolewski was outmatched by Baylor’s quick guards and Luka Mirkovic was as clueless as he’s ever been and that’s really saying something. Luka’s had some nice games, but when he plays his last game for NU in March I seriously doubt NU will have a major drop off at center next year no matter who plays it.

I’d also say that this game pretty much shows John Shurna isn’t an NBA player, though, I’m not sure anyone ever thought he was. Shurna will probably still get drafted in round two and play in the preseason, but if he wants to make money in basketball long term it’ll be overseas against players who play a game that isn’t as based on athletic skill and that feature more finesse.

I was also really disappointed in Drew Crawford and his lack of assertiveness, but I think some of that was simply proving the concept that while Drew Crawford is “Northwestern-athletic” he’s not really athletic.

The worst part, though, was every player on the court for NU looked intimidated by Baylor. That’s awful and something that needs to change if Northwestern ever wants to be anything. Other teams will be better, but at some point NU needs to be mentally ready to play a big game. Aside from seeing Juice Thompson do that last year, I can’t think of another NU player who clearly showed mental toughness.

At least the crowd was good, though, too bad they didn’t see anything from Northwestern which will make them want to come back.

NU now takes time off for finals and that’s maybe not a bad thing. They still have a shot at a big win when they play at Creighton, but that’ll be a tough game as well.

FOOTBALL NEWS: NU to play Texas A&M in Houston

2011-12-04T16:28:00.001-06:00

At least something good came from Northwestern today.

Wildcats Welcome #7 Baylor for Non-Conference Showdown

2011-12-03T16:35:00.000-06:00

Northwestern has passed every major non-conference test thus far this year to move to 7-0. Tomorrow, they’ll face what is likely going to be the toughest game between them and an unbeaten non-conference season when 6-0 and top-10 ranked Baylor comes to Welsh-Ryan Arena. The big advantage for Northwestern is that this game is at home and it is Baylor’s first road game of the season. Northwestern is also the best team Baylor has faced and while the same can be said of Bears for NU, Northwestern has probably faced a more challenging slate of games to this point in the season.

When talking about Baylor you have to start with Perry Jones III who is likely top-5 NBA draft pick. He’ll be playing just his second game of the season on Sunday after being suspended early in the year, but he scored 27 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in his first game back so it doesn’t seem he has any rust. Jones is 6-11 and along with 6-10 Anthony Jones and 6-9 Quincy Miller gives the Bears some major size in the front court. It’s hard to envision who on NU’s team would play Jones III in man-to-man based on size I’d guess it would be Luka Mirkovic, but I wasn’t thrilled with Luka’s defense on 6-9 Herb Pope of Seton Hall who is the best front court scorer the ‘Cats have played to this point so I’m not really sure what to think. I know John Shurna played 6-11 Daniel Miller of Georgia Tech well, but he’s a different of player from Jones III. I wouldn’t be surprised to see NU in more zone on Sunday whether that be the 1-3-1 or even a 2-3.

The problem with a zone is Baylor has a number of players who can knock down threes and many of those players have size. 6-10 Anthony Jones is really more of wing player and he shoots 44% from three. 6-9 Quincy Miller makes 50% of his threes. Guards Pierre Jackson at 56% and Brady Heslip at 42% are also excellent three point shooters. To be honest, as much as it seems like a potential mismatch, I hope NU at least tries man-to-man because I’d almost be happier to see Baylor making twos early than just pouring in three pointers to start they game which might happen against a zone. Still, at some point in the game NU is going to go to the 1-3-1 and when they do, the must be active and hustle out on shooters because they probably can get turnovers out of the 1-3-1, but those won’t be enough if the Bears are canning threes at will.

Baylor like Northwestern has scored a lot of points this year and the Bears average right around 80. Miller leads the way amongst the guys who have played every game with 15.2, but six Baylor players average more than nine points a game. 6-7 senior Quincy Acy hasn’t gotten the same amount of message board and media hype as Perry Jones III leading up to this game, but I’m also worried about his size and ability to hit the glass at 235 pounds and his average of eight rebounds a game.

For Northwestern to win this game they need to take advantage of a Baylor defense which hasn’t been great in terms of allowing the three point shot. Hopefully, the Wildcats will continue their hot streak from Friday night. I also think NU needs to slow this game down in a way similar to what they did versus Ohio State least season. I just can’t see NU winning a shootout against Baylor since the Bears have athletes at virtually every position. Hopefully, a slow pace, changing defenses, and a solid home crowd will be enough to make Baylor uncomfortable as they face a team unlike any they’ve seen so far this year. The key player if NU does slow the game down is Dave Sobolewski because it’ll be up to him to trigger the offense when the shot clock gets to 15 and make something happen if called sets aren’t available. That’s a lot of reasonability on a young player, but I think he can handle it. I really think this Northwestern team is better prepared to handle this type of game than any previous incarnation of the Wildcats. I predict: Northwestern, 55 Baylor, 54

Wildcats Follow Ideal Script vs Mississippi Valley State

2011-12-02T21:56:00.000-06:00

This game couldn’t have gone better for Northwestern. Not only did the Wildcats post an easy victory, they managed to rest all the key players with former walk-on Reggie Hearn being the only starter to play more than 20 minutes and they still scored 92 points thanks to some production from the bench. Perhaps the only depressing result to this game is that John Shurna only scored 9 points which will lower his scoring average, but he hit three of four three pointers on the way to helping the ‘Cats make a total of 20 three point field goals.

Four of those 20 three point field goals came from Nick Fruendt who saw his first extended action of the year. Fruendt has the ability to make shots and actually led NU with 21 points tonight. Obviously the feeling in the Wildcat coaching staff is that his defense isn’t up to par for most games, but his ability to hit shots makes me wonder if he can still find a role before the end of the year.

Freshman point guard Tre Demps also saw a lot of action tonight and scored eight points. He also dished out four assists and when combined with Dave Sobolewski the Wildcats two freshman guards combined for 8 assists and 1 turnover. NU did a great job with handling the ball tonight. The starters combined with 14 assists and only four turnovers. Overall, I know that this wasn’t a great opponent, but I thought NU’s effort was solid.

The guy who always puts in great effort, Reggie Hearn, led NU with seven rebounds and continued to show a nice shooting touch with three of five three pointers. He finished with 15 points and played his usual solid defense.

I also think it’s important to note that Luka Mirkovic played his second consecutive solid game. He went 5-of-5 from the field dished out three assists. Hopefully his confidence is high going into Sunday. Another guy who should have good confidence going into Sunday is Drew Crawford. Crawford looked great shooting ball today making 4-of-5 three pointers and scoring 14 points. He also grabbed 5 rebounds and had two steals.

Bottom line, this game was the game it was supposed to be. Now, Northwestern gets ready to play #7 Baylor on Sunday. The Wildcats will go into that game unbeaten and with a chance to make a huge statement to both the Big Ten and the entire college basketball world.

Wildcats Look to Avoid Trap Versus Mississippi Valley State

2011-12-01T22:08:00.001-06:00

Based on every objective measure (and probably most subjective ones) 6-0 Northwestern is much better than 1-6 Mississippi Valley State and will most likely win this game easily. However, I can’t help but be a little worried. I remember a 47-45 loss to Mississippi Valley State in 2003 that was one of the games that cost Northwestern an NIT bid that season and I know that every person involved with Northwestern basketball (whether they admit it or not) has Sunday’s massively important game versus Baylor in the back of their minds. Therefore, this is a trap game and one that Northwestern needs to stay focused in on or a disaster could occur.

As noted above, Mississippi Valley State isn’t great record wise, but they have played some good teams. They’ve faced Notre Dame, DePaul, North Carolina, and South Carolina already this season. While only the South Carolina game was really close (a 61-57 S.C. win) only the North Carolina game saw Mississippi Valley State get totally blown off the court. What does that mean? To me it means that Northwestern has to be ready for some of the better players in the Mississippi Valley State lineup and has to maintain their defensive intensity in this contest.

Defense to me is the key. Mississippi Valley State hasn’t played much of it this season as they allow on average more than 82 points per game and let their opponents make 40% of their three point shots. That’s really bad defense and with NU’s multiple talents on offense the Wildcats should be excited to play this game because it could be one where everybody gets into the scorebook.

On offense, Mississippi Valley State is average. They scored 90 points in their lone win (but that was an OT game) and for the year score about 65 points per game. Their best player is Terrence Joyner who averages about 11 points per game and joins Brent Arrington as solid three point shooters. Still, if Northwestern maintains the defensive intensity they have in their previous games then it is realistic to believe that the ‘Cats should win this game fairly easily.

Given the magnitude of Sunday’s contest, it would be ideal if NU got some rest for the frontline players and gave Nick Fruendt and Tre Demps a little action off the bench. Will that happen? I’m exactly sure. I’m hoping so, but I also know that Bill Carmody knows this game is one which he needs to put extra emphasis on to make sure his players don’t lose focus and start to look too far forward. With Mississippi Valley State’s defensive issues, I don’t think that’ll be a problem. I predict: Northwestern, 88 Mississippi Valley State, 63

Wildcats Pass Georgia Tech’s Challenge to move to 6-0

2011-11-29T20:50:00.000-06:00

John Shurna started hot to get Northwestern an early lead and played an all around excellent game both on offense and defense to lead Northwestern to a 76-60 win over Georgia Tech. The win was Northwestern’s fourth straight in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge meaning that Shurna’s class went 4-0 in the event.

Shurna scored 25 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. I also thought he did a great job on defense as he grabbed three steals which helped result in some of NU’s 17 fast break points. On defense Shurna played both 6-11 center Daniel Miller and athletic forward Glen Rice, Jr. at various times in NU’s man-to-man. I thought it was impressive how Shurna handled the various skills of both players well and kept them contained. I think it is also huge that Shurna showed up so well on defense as it shows the emphasis that NU must be placing on defense this season. It would be real easy for a scorer like Shurna to take an easy on the other end of the court, but he doesn’t and the result is nothing but positive for the ‘Cats.

Another area where I thought NU looked good in this game was bench production. Tonight, Alex Marcotullio was the leader off the bench as JerShon Cobb was held out after not passing a post-concussion test after suffering a head injury in the game against Stony Brook. Marcotullio had 7 points, 2 steals, and 3 rebounds. He also showed his usual good understanding off the offensive system and it seems the team really plays well when he comes on the court. Along with Marcotullio his fellow Michigan-native Davide Curletti also stepped up off the bench. He became the first NU center this season to hit a three which is huge in NU’s offense and he got four rebounds as well. After the issues Curletti and fellow center Luka Mirkovic had versus Stony Brook it was nice to see them both do well tonight. Mirkovic ended the day with 13 points and three rebounds. If NU gets 18 points total from their centers (as they also did versus Seton Hall) they will win. Can they win with less? Yeah, but it’s so much tougher. The center position is really critical to NU’s success.

Also critical to NU’s success is continued strong play of guard Dave Sobolewksi. I know the Rivals boards have had some debate about Sobolewski, but some of that seemed spurred by animosity amongst posters as much as any debate on Sobolewski’s skill level. After all, I think he’s more than proven he can play. Not only did he post a 6-to-1 assist to turnover night, but he made some moves to the hoop tonight that I didn’t see Juice Thompson make until he was a more experienced player. The area where Dave still might need to get more consistent is three point shooting, but he’s got that skill in his tool kit as evidenced by his early shots against Stony Brook and his big three versus LSU.

Before closing, I also want to draw attention to Drew Crawford’s 14 points and 3 steals and Reggie Hearn’s 5 rebounds. I’m certain both players would admit they could play better with Crawford having some turnover issues and Hearn missing a couple threes that I expect him to knock down, but they both contributed to the win. Also, my compliments to guard Omar Jimenez a Georgia-native who scored the first two points of his career tonight. That was pretty cool. Now, NU is ready to face Mississippi Valley State on Friday before a huge game vs Baylor Sunday.

Wildcats Travel to Georgia Tech for ACC/Big Ten Challenge

2011-11-28T21:48:00.001-06:00

Last year when Northwestern met Georgia Tech in Evanston the game wasn’t all that much of a challenge for NU, but this year the ‘Cats are on the road in Atlanta and new Tech head coach Brian Gregory (an NU assistant under Kevin O’Neil) has the Yellow Jackets playing some pretty good basketball. Tech sits at 4-2 on the season and is 3-0 in home games (though this is actually the first game at Philips Arena for Tech in seven years) with all three wins coming in blowout fashion. This will be Northwestern’s first true road game of the year, but the ‘Cats are 3-0 away from Welsh-Ryan with three wins in the Charleston Classic. Whether or not the Philips Arena setting makes this more of a neutral court game remains to be seen, but despite the fact that NU’s JerShon Cobb should have a large contingent of family and friends in the stands, the crowd should be pretty partisan in favor of Tech.

The Jackets feature a three guard lineup around 6-11 center Daniel Miller who averages 9.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. He’s also a good shot blocker and an overall decent athlete. He’s potentially a difficult matchup for NU’s Luka Mirkovic, however, Mirkovic’s best game of the season was against Seton Hall’s Herb Pope who is probably the best player NU has faced this season. However, Luka has massively underachieved in most of the other games the ‘Cats have played this year so it is hard to know what to expect. I’d say that a good game from Luka and his backup Davide Curletti will probably propel the ‘Cats to victory, but NU could win without their tag-team centers doing a lot of damage—it’ll just be a lot harder.

While Miller is a good player, Tech’s biggest star is Glen Rice, Jr. Rice was suspended at the start of the season and didn’t start when he came back, but he still has scored double figures in three consecutive games. He’s shot pretty much lights out with 66.7% overall and 42.9% from three being his season marks. If NU goes to the man-to-man look for Cobb, Drew Crawford, and Reggie Hearn to get a rotating assignment on Rice in order to slow him down and potentially tire him out. It’ll also help NU’s case if Rice has to play defense on either Crawford or John Shurna when the ‘Cats are on offense.

It would really help NU in this game if Shurna shows up from start to finish. Looking at Tech’s roster I’m not sure who their best bet to play Shurna man-to-man would be. You know whoever does it will work hard because Coach Gregory learned from Tom Izzo how to teach defense (a maybe a little from KO as well), but I can’t tell if Rice or 6-8 Kammeon Holsey (he averages 12.3 and 5.2) would be the best bet to defend Shurna. Rice is more athletic, but smaller and Holsey might be the type of player that Shurna can beat from the perimeter.

Brian Gregory is a good coach (he actually was rumored to be some NU administrators preferred choice for head coach when Kevin O’Neil left and Bill Carmody got the job). However, he’s new to his team hasn’t had a ton of time to prepare them for the Princeton Offense and 1-3-1 zone. Yes, some of the players saw it last year, but Tech has several new starters as well. In addition, I think a lot of what Tech does mirrors what Michigan State does and while NU hasn’t had great success versus the Spartans, at least they are familiar with the concepts of how to approach such a team. Combined with Tech not really having a home arena and hopefully NU getting a big game from JerShon Cobb as he comes back home, I like Northwestern to win this one. I predict: Northwestern, 71 Georgia Tech, 61

Pooley's Big 10/ACC Challenge Predictions

2011-11-28T16:42:00.002-06:00

So pumped for this.

Michigan @ Virginia: Michigan. KenPom has Virginia as a Top 10 defense, but Michigan got some really valuable experience in their Maui games against Duke and Memphis and plays an unusual style. I think they win a close game in the high 50's/low 60's.

Northwestern @ Georgia Tech: Northwestern. The fact that it’s on the road scares me, but Georgia Tech is playing in a new building while theirs is being renovated, so it’ll be pretty new to them too. Also, we won the Charleston Classic and they went 1-2 in it, so there’s that.

Illinois @ Maryland: Maryland. Illinois could still be very good this year, but I see them struggling as an inexperienced team in their first true road game.

Miami @ Purdue: Purdue. They seem to have gotten it together a bit after some scares in their first few games (High Point?).

Clemson @ Iowa: Clemson. What happened to Iowa? Basabe was supposed to blossom into a star this year, but he’s playing less than 20 minutes a game and averaging 7.2 and 4.5. As a team they’re shooting pretty well but have been struggling defensively but got blown out by Creighton on a neutral court and by Campbell at home.

Duke @ Ohio St.: Duke. I hope I’m wrong on this, but I’ve watched a lot of Duke games and they’re sneaky good. Curry, Dawkins, Kelly, and Rivers combined with the Plumlees will be tough for Ohio St. to handle. Ohio St.’s favored but my hunch is that Duke is one step ahead of them, even in Columbus.

Indiana @ NC State.: Indiana. Only slightly though. Indiana has looked good in their wins but still hasn’t done anything that impressive yet, as a very down Butler at home is their best win. NC State, on the other hand, beat Texas and played close with Vanderbilt. Still, Indiana is humming so far and I haven’t seen any glaring weaknesses from them yet, so I’m going to give them the nod.

Penn St. @ Boston College: Penn St. Penn St. is not as bad this year as they could have been, having lost most of their players and their coach, while Boston College is just as bad as everyone expected them to be.

Florida St. @ Michigan St.: Michigan St. Florida St. should be extra motivated, trying to avoid losing 3 in a row, but Michigan St. wins this at home. Get ready for an ugly, low-scoring game.

Virginia Tech @ Minnesota: Virginia Tech. I’ll be shocked if Minnesota is able to pull this one out four days after losing Trevor Mbakwe for the season/forever. Virginia Tech is a pretty good team, and Minnesota was struggling even with Mbakwe.

Wake Forest @ Nebraska.: Nebraska. They’re the better team and playing at home.

Wisconsin @ North Carolina: North Carolina. If UNC hadn’t lost to UNLV, I would have picked Wisconsin to win this, but I’m not going to bet on UNC losing twice in a row, especially since they’re at home. Wisconsin is scary so far this year, though.

Result: 7-5 B1G, we win another Challenge.

'Cats Fall to DePaul

2011-11-27T15:57:00.002-06:00

We're catching up with the women's team who lost to No. 20 DePaul this afternoon, 88-72. The game was very close throughout, however, and the final score is misleadingly lopsided. Northwestern was down by only 4 with 3 and a half minutes left, but was unable to stop DePaul from scoring. There were other problems -- NU turned the ball over 19 times and didn't shoot well themselves, but NU was in a position to win it at the end and couldn't get the stops when they mattered most. Coach McKeown sounded extremely frustrated with the team's defense in the post-game interview and I imagine that'll be the focus of upcoming practices. It should be noted that DePaul has been a high-scoring team in general this season, scoring over 80 in every game this season, so it's not that NU struggled defensively against DePaul more than other teams.

Dannielle Diamant had a big first half and finished with 19, playing most of the second half with 4 fouls. Brittany Orban had 7 offensive rebounds and 16 points and Morgan Jones had 17 points, including hitting some clutch free-throws near the end of the second half to keep NU within reach. Kendall Hackney had an off-night but should bounce back. One big bright spot today was NU's excellent free-throw shooting, going 22-24 from the line (NU has struggled with free-throw shooting at times this season). All in all, NU played tough and was close but just couldn't get over the hump to pull it out.

The team is now 4-1 on the season, having beaten No. 23 LSU and Illinois St. last week and will face NC State on Wednesday in Evanston.

Northwestern Survives Stony Brook’s Upset Bid

2011-11-25T14:27:00.000-06:00

This game was much closer than I expected, but that’s not bad. Northwestern is clearly learning how to play and win close games which is critical. I’m convinced that the Big Ten is the most even conference in college basketball and that means any number of the 18 conference games that the ‘Cats will play might come down to the final possession. Therefore, I’m pleased that we’ve see a number of Wildcats step up in the clutch so far this year. Today, it was JerShon Cobb knocking down the clutch three pointer when Stony Brook triple teamed John Shurna in an effort to not let the NU star beat them. Cobb played 25 minutes toady in part because Alex Marcotullio didn’t see any time (though Marco twice went to the scorer’s table and then came back to the bench). That’s big for Cobb to see that much time since he’s still recovering from his injury.

Stony Brook did a pretty good job with hard-nosed man-to-man defense (and so did NU) the Stony Brook defense helped make it tough for John Shurna and Drew Crawford to get doing early for NU. That meant that early on Reggie Hearn and Dave Sobolewksi had to step up for the ‘Cats. Hearn hit two early threes and Sobolewski made a total of three three-pointers and scored a career high 16 points. Sobolewski, who has taken a lot of strange criticism from some fans, did turn the ball over three times today, but dished out four assists and played very good defense against some athletic guards.

As the game went into the second half it seemed Shurna and Crawford tried to step up more. I still think Shurna needs to look to score more often, but he did enough to help the ‘Cats to victory with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting. His three point shot seemed off, but I have no doubt it’ll be on the money in future games. Crawford scored 12 points and had 7 rebounds. He also absolutely posterized a Stony Brook defender with one of the most athletics dunks I’ve seen from an NU player.

Overall, this game seemed to be a game NU played without great focus at times, but the defense was good and some new players stepped up. The biggest issue is still inconsistent play from the center position. Today the centers did combine for 6 rebounds and 5 assists, but they didn’t score at all. They cannot get shut out in Big Ten games.

Northwestern Ready to Host Stony Brook in Post-Thanksgiving Game

2011-11-24T13:31:00.000-06:00

If you’re looking to take a break from post-Thanksgiving shopping tomorrow you might want to stop by Welsh-Ryan Arena at noon to see Northwestern take on Stony Brook. Now, you first reaction might be to assume that this game wouldn’t be all that entertaining, but the fact is Stony Brook is a respectable team that could give Northwestern a challenge. Of course, Northwestern should win the game, but the Sea Wolves played close with Indiana for a half and are projected as an NCAA Tournament team. Therefore, a win over Stony Brook would give NU wins over three potential NCAA teams in their first five games. Hopefully, that fact makes the ‘Cats focus as this could be a trap game with the ACC/Big Ten Challenge against Georgia Tech coming up on Tuesday.

Stony Brook is one of the most balanced offensive teams I’ve ever seen. They manage to score more than 70 points per game, but don’t have a single player who averages double figures. Instead, they have seven players, including Chicago’s Al Rapier, who average more than 6.5 points per game. Looking at those numbers it becomes hard to decide who to focus the defense on. Hopefully, NU can play man-to-man and work on that defense.

Stony Brook has some good shooters in Anthony Jackson, Bryan Dougher, and Ron Bracey. I’d think that given that fact the 1-3-1 won’t be a defense NU plays much in this contest. The only possible reason to consider the 1-3-1 might be because Stony Brook isn’t the greatest ball-handling team ever. Guard/Forward Tommy Brenton has a 16-to-6 assist to turnover ratio, but most of the rest of the Sea Wolves are turnover prone.

I’m hopeful that this game will present Northwestern the chance to use some of the bench a bit more. If Nick Fruendt and Tre Demps are going to play any sort of a role for this team they need to get some action on the court before the Big Ten starts. This could be a chance to do so. Also, given that Tuesday will be another road trip and the ‘Cats still aren’t 100% healthy I’d like to see if some of the ‘Cats who aren’t feeling their best don’t have to play 30+ minutes. That might limit the scoring a bit, but I’ve still got a fairly easy Wildcat win. I predict: Northwestern, 77 Stony Brook, 54

Northwestern Overcomes 15-0 Seton Hall Run to Hold on For Charleston Classic Title

2011-11-20T22:07:00.001-06:00

Early in the second half of the Charleston Classic Title Game between Northwestern and Seton Hall it seemed Northwestern was in control. However, a 15-0 Seton Hall run put the Pirates up and forced Northwestern to have to play from behind. With great leadership from John Shurna and Drew Crawford Northwestern responded to that adversity and eventually regained the lead and held on at the end thanks to clutch free throw shooting from Shurna, Davide Curletti, and Alex Marcotullio to post an 80-73 win. This is Northwestern’s second in-season tournament title in the last three seasons joining the 2009 win of the Chicago Invitational Challenge against Iowa State.

What really makes this a good win besides beating another team (like Tulsa) which could compete for an at-large NCAA-bid is the fact that NU got production from several key supporting players to get the win. Most notably and most importantly Luka Mirkovic scored 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting and contributed 2 assists. He struggled somewhat on defense, but he made enough of an impact that he stopped NU from having to just be the John Shurna and Drew Crawford show. Developing that third scoring option will help NU when Big Ten play starts. If Mirkovic can hit some three pointers he’ll become a serious scoring threat as that shot will be open for the center in Northwestern’s offense on most nights. Credit also has to go to Luka’s tag-team partner at center Davide Curletti who also did a nice job in tonight’s game. Not only did he make some key free throws, but he contributed 3 assists and had a huge block of SHU star Herb Pope late in the game.

Also contributing off the bench was Alex Marcotullio. Marcotullio clearly has an excellent understanding of the Princeton Offense and made some extremely tough passes to setup teammates for easy backdoor layups. He also did a nice job at the top of the 1-3-1 which while it didn’t cause turnovers did somewhat slowdown SHU’s offense, though, Herb Pope never was completely stopped. Another member of the supporting cast who deserves note is guard Dave Sobolewski. Although the freshman guard had some trouble defending Seton Hall’s Jordan Theodore, he once again played heavy minutes and kept possession of the ball. In 31 minutes Sobolewski had 2 assists and 0 turnovers.

In the end, though, you have to once again say that NU’s leaders were John Shurna and Drew Crawford. They’ve both developed their game over the summer and the evidence of that is clear as each has shown the ability not only to hit threes, but also to score at the hoop. Crawford led the way with 27 points and was tournament MVP. He made 4-of-8 threes (including one he banked in with the shot clock running out) and also grabbed six rebounds. Shurna scored 19 points and most importantly made all his free throws which were often occurring when NU desperately needed points. He also had 7 rebounds and 4 blocks.

With both Crawford and Shurna showing the ability to score heavy point totals NU is getting tougher to defend and if Luka Mirkovic starts hitting his threes the ‘Cats will become nearly unstoppable. Now at 4-0 NU will play a home game on Friday against Stony Brook in Evanston, and then they go back on the road to play Georgia Tech who was also in the Charleston Classic. Clearly the early season is presenting Northwestern with chances to get solid wins over BCS-conference or tournament-level teams and so far they’ve taken advantage. Hopefully that will continue as boosting the tournament resume early in the year is something which bubble teams have to do.

Wildcats Get Another Chance to Add to Resume Early vs Seton Hall

2011-11-19T19:21:00.000-06:00

It’ll be Northwestern versus Seton Hall for the Charleston Classic Title on Sunday night, but what’s potentially more important for both squads is the fact this is a game between two teams which might be on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament in March. Like Northwestern this Seton Hall team is trying to move up from the lower-tier of their conference into a position where they could potentially crack the NCAA Tournament. Last year Seton Hall picked up four wins over NCAA Tournament teams, but like NU their overall performance was not enough to make the Big Dance. This year’s version of Seton Hall is improved and they’ve started the year 3-0 just like Northwestern. So far the Seton Hall schedule looks like this:

St. Francis (NY)…W 75-71 in overtime
VCU………W 69-54
St. Joseph’s…..W 78-70

While Seton Hall doesn’t have any blowout wins like Northwestern has with the 60-36 victory over UTPA, one can certainly classify the Seton Hall performance thus far as very solid. The player who has led Seton Hall to those solid wins is 6-8 forward Herb Pope. Pope was once one of the nation’s top recruits but is now more famous for an odyssey of a career which includes getting shot at a party, being arrested for driving under the influence, and punching a Texas Tech player below the belt twice in an NIT game. All those negatives aside, though, Pope can still play basketball as well anyone. Like NU’s John Shurna he declared for the NBA draft but can back to school. It’s paying off as he’s started the season posting dominating stats which include averages of 19.3ppg and 12.3rpg. Some will point to a Pope-Shurna matchup at Power Forward, but they are very different players. Pope’s an inside scorer who wants to make post moves to score or get fouled (he’s an excellent free throw shooter) whereas Shurna has the outside shot and the ability to attack the hoop going at a defender. If Seton Hall tries to have Pope guard Shurna look for Shurna to take the ball at Pope in an effort to get him to commit fouls. If NU plays man-to-man I’d rather see Drew Crawford on Pope than Shurna, but really as I’ll mention below, this game is more of a 1-3-1 from the start type of matchup.

Pope’s not the only Seton Hall player who qualifies as more of a scorer than shooter. The leading Seton Hall scorer is guard Jordan Theodore who scores 21ppg. However, he’s made just one three pointer in three games. The only real serious shooter threat from Seton Hall is 6-6 forward Fuquan Edwin (50% 3PT). Combined with the fact that aside from Pope Seton Hall hasn’t shown great ability to hit the glass and the fact Theodore averages four turnovers a game it might be a good idea for NU to use the 1-3-1 zone even more often than they have in the first two games of the Charleston Classic. In fact, the numbers would make you believe that you couldn’t blame Bill Carmody if he wanted to start in the zone. If he does start man-to-man look for Reggie Hearn to get Theodore and Alex Marcotullio to potentially play some point guard as Theodore will be a tough guard for Dave Sobolewski.

Personally, I’m expecting to see NU play 1-3-1 for most of the game and it’ll be a test to see how well the extra day between games has been used by Seton Hall Head Coach Kevin Willard to prep has team for NU’s unique offense and defense. This game should be close, but I’m optimistic that NU will get some production from Luka Mirkovic, who will be the biggest player on the court, and that will push the ‘Cats over the top. I predict: Northwestern, 67 Seton Hall, 65

'Cats Win Again In Charleston; Beat Tulsa

2011-11-18T16:38:00.004-06:00

Whew. That game was close from start to finish. Neither team led by more than 6 at any point, but Northwestern once again pulled it out at the end. These two close wins have got to be huge confidence builders for the 'Cats, who have been poised down the stretch (even though they missed a few free throws today) and made plays on both offense and defense to seal the deal.

The hero today was Drew Crawford, who was everywhere, making 5-8 from 3, driving and kicking, and making short jumpers. He still takes some bad shots, but I don't actually mind because he needs to be a big part of this team's offense. Carmody himself said he wants Drew to play "loosey-goosey", which I think Drew did tonight. He also grabbed a few rebounds and played some pretty good D. Shurna had an off shooting night and had a quiet (for him) 15, but made a huge and-1 with a minute and a half to go to put NU up by 5.

We were badly outrebounded, 36-20. Shurna led us with 6, but Mirk and Curletti only combined for two. The centers have been getting a lot of flak from the fans lately. These past two games these bigs from LSU and Tulsa have been bigger and stronger and have outplayed them. However, I actually think both Mirkovic and Curletti (especially Curletti) played better today than yesterday and had some success with slowing down Tulsa's big men. The damage could have been a lot worse. Anyway, I believe in those two and think they'll both have strong games this year, especially against some of the less dominant centers in the B1G.

We won this game because we were able to force 15 turnovers (9 steals) while we only turned it over 6 times, which made up somewhat for the bad rebounding and enabled us to take 9 more shots from the field than Tulsa. The ability to force turnovers that we've shown through three games is something that makes me hopeful, though the trend may be tough to continue in the Big Ten given how disciplined Big Ten teams tend to be with the ball.

A few notes on other players: Marco only played 10 minutes -- I wonder if he's still somewhat injured or if Carmody simply went with other players. Jershon was crafty in his 16 minutes today, picking up 2 assists and 3 steals and getting to the foul line. Sobolewski once again was solid, with 9 points, 3 assists and 0 turnovers.

Northwestern will be playing the winner of tonight's Seton Hall/St. Joseph's game on Sunday in the Charleston Classic Championship game. Great win and go 'Cats!

NU Faces Tulsa in Charleston Semifinal Today

2011-11-18T11:38:00.007-06:00

At 2:30 Northwestern plays Tulsa in the second game of the Charleston Classic. Tulsa is a tougher team than LSU, who NU won a close comeback win against yesterday, but I still think Tulsa could be a favorable matchup for NU and we should pull out the win if we bring the kind of effort we brought in the second half yesterday.

The first thing you notice about Tulsa is that they're big at every position and very athletic. They play a bunch of 6'4", solidly built guards and have three huge forwards/centers who play a lot of minutes in Steven Idlet, Kodi Maduka and DJ Magley (speaking of Magley, how does a 6-9, 270 guy run around a basketball court for 20 minutes a game? Your guess is as good as mine.) So they're big. What are their other strengths? Well, as their size would suggest, they're strong in the paint, as Maduka and Idlet are their leading scorers. They've got a guy, Scottie Haralson, who has made 38% of 21 3-point attempts in three games this year. And their man defense, with their size and length, looked pretty good yesterday against Western Kentucky.

So what does Northwestern need to do to beat this team? One thing that might be on NU's side is that Tulsa doesn't seem to have a player like LSU's Anthony Hickey, those fast guards that NU always seems unable to guard. Yesterday we addressed the Hickey problem by switching to the 1-3-1, but if LSU had known how to beat that we would have been in trouble. My guess is that Tulsa might actually be a slightly easier matchup for us in man-to-man. For that to happen, though, NU will need better efforts from Mirkovic and Curletti than we saw yesterday. We'll probably play some 1-3-1, especially because outside shooting isn't really Tulsa's game, but we're not going to be able to do that the whole time, and those two will need to play tougher defense and rebound. They didn't do either of those things well yesterday.

We're going to have to run the offense and avoid getting bogged down around the perimeter like we were so much of the first half yesterday. I loved watching John Shurna take over and play so assertively when that happened yesterday, taking it to double- teams to take a shot, draw a foul or pass to an open shooter. He took on the number 1 player role yesterday, and while he's not going to score 37 every game, the fact that other teams have to pay so much attention to him will open things up for other players to drive or take open threes. I think we'll see that today, and we'll need to see it if we're going to win this game.

Our depth at guard is also really fun to watch this year and should help us out. For once, our guards can afford to play a little more aggressively on defense, and they seem to have a little more energy for every possession. Look for active hands on defense from these guys today.

Tulsa is a talented team that scares me a bit, but I think NU can utilize the 1-3-1 in spurts to force turnovers and long-range shots and will make enough shots themselves to pull out a close game. NU 72, Tulsa 65

Wildcats Use 1-3-1 Defense to Comeback on LSU

2011-11-17T19:11:00.001-06:00

I’m not a basketball genius at all, but early in the first half of Thursday afternoon’s game between Northwestern and LSU I repeatedly stated that Northwestern needed to go into the 1-3-1. I was well aware on the new emphasis that Coach Bill Carmody was placing on man-to-man but the fact was that LSU’s athletes were just killing the Wildcats in man-to-man. Now, to be honest I think NU’s players didn’t work very hard in man-to-man and could have done a much better job, but the fact was Carmody wasn’t getting them to work any harder at that moment and the game seemed to be slipping away. Thankfully, in the second half the Wildcats went to the 1-3-1 and forced LSU to turn the ball over and settle for the threes and the result was a victory for the Wildcats 88-82. It’s a good start to the Charleston Classic where the ‘Cats will next face a Tulsa team that could win Conference USA this year and will no doubt provide a good challenge to the guys from Evanston, IL.

My other observation in the first half was that John Shurna wasn’t getting the ball enough. Shurna has the ability to just eat people alive on the court if he gets the ball because little guys can’t stop him from getting shots because of his height and big guys can’t stop his ability to go to the hoop because of his quickness. Yet, in the first half John seemed too content to just go through the motions as he did vs UPTA. Thankfully in the second half he woke up. Personally, if I were coaching Shurna I’d tell him, “John we’re probably going to play somewhere around 35 games this year. That means you’ve got 35 times you need to go out there and just be a killer whether it’s Central Connecticut or Ohio State doesn’t matter. You’re gonna be the best scorer out there so go out there and look to score.” When he did look to score in the second half Shurna lit up LSU. He finished the game with a career-high 37 points and added 7 rebound and 4 assists. I’d also say that while making 4-of-9 threes as John did is statistically very good, I think he can actually shoot a higher percentage. Basically, as good Shurna was today he can better and that’s something which has to make NU fans grin from ear to ear.

Aside from thinking just how great Shurna can be, I’m also thrilled with how Dave Sobolewski and JerShon Cobb played down the stretch of the game. Without Juice Thompson I didn’t know who would hit big shots for NU. Sure, Shurna will get some, but at times it’ll hard to get him the ball when a defense is totally focused on him. That means NU needs clutch guards. When LSU cut into the lead late, first it was JerShon Cobb drilling a pull up jumper and then it was Sobo knocking down the ice-cold three pointer as Shurna drew the defense inside the arc. Those were big time shots and types of shots which makes me believe NU has guys they can count on in the backcourt. Overall, Sobolewski had a Juice-like line with a very solid 10 points and 6 assists against only two turnovers. Cobb took some madding Jordan-like fade-away shots in the first half, but he can make those and showed that down the stretch. He scored 8 points total. The major flaw in his game is that he’s probably NU’s worst three pointer shooter of the regulars and eventually he’ll need to hit threes or else people will play off him and take away his mid-range shot.

I don’t know if Reggie Hearn has a fan club, but he should. If he doesn’t I’m willing to start it. The guy is all over the court with hustle and he has enough of an offensive game that he’s worth having on the court. Hearn finished with 6 points, 2 rebounds, an assist and a steal, but numbers don’t tell the impact he had. When Alex Marcotullio went to the bench in foul trouble Hearn along with Drew Crawford and Cobb played the top of the 1-3-1 zone and made LSU make the mistakes which got Northwestern back in the game. This also is probably a good time to mention Crawford who helped lead the comeback on offense and finished with 17 points and 8 rebounds. He, like Shurna, just needs to go out there and just play with attitude all the time. He’s got all the skills to be a big time player, but sometimes he seems to get lost in the shuffle. That can’t happen if this time wants to be big time. The best players need to look to be assertive all the time.

The other thing that needs to happen if Northwestern wants to be any good is the center position needs to step up. A Princeton Offense team will never be truly good without a good center and today NU’s tag-team duo of Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti were pretty much awful. One might say they both managed their worst game ever at the same time. In total they scored 4 points and grabbed 3 rebounds to go along with 2 turnovers on 1-of-5 shooting. The fact NU won with the centers playing so bad is fantastic and pretty remarkable. When 6-11 Tulsa center Kodi Maduka fresh off a 16-point 7-block performance in a win over Western Kentucky shows up tomorrow with his running mate 6-11 Steven Idlet who was C-USA player of the week last week Luka and Davide better be a lot better than they were today, especially on defense. Overall, tomorrow’s game will be the toughest in this tournament for Northwestern I’m very sure (and today wasn’t easy). Tulsa is big and athletic and they’ll avoid some of LSU’s dumb mistakes. I’d look for more 1-3-1 and hope that NU’s 56.7% second half shooting percentage holds for the entire game.

Wildcats and Tigers Battle for Early Season Momentum In Charleston

2011-11-16T21:14:00.000-06:00

Northwestern has some more significant non-conference games this year than in years past. As a result, building some early momentum could be key for the Wildcats. They’ll get a chance to start to do that in the three games in four days Charleston Classic which tips off Thursday. In the first game for NU the ‘Cats will battle LSU. LSU comes into the contest with a 1-1 record desperately seeking some positive momentum of their own after losing to Costal Carolina in their last contest. LSU coach Trent Johnson, who knows NU from his days at Stanford, specifically called out his team’s inability to rebound as Costal Carolina outrebounded the Tigers by 19. With NU’s own rebounding issues versus UTPA one starts to wonder if anybody plans on grabbing the ball when it goes off the rim in this game. Theoretically, 7-0 260-pound LSU center Justin Hamilton should be the main man on the glass as he pulled down 7 boards to go along with 9 points versus Costal Carolina. He should give Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti a more Big Ten-like challenge than the players from UTPA did. Also in the LSU front court is forward Strom Warren who played a nice game against Costal Carolina with 14 points and 9 rebounds of his own. NU needs to be able to keep both Hamilton and Warren from getting easy inside looks.

LSU also didn’t shoot very well against Costal Carolina, but NU needs to make sure they’re ready to defend a number of talented LSU scorers. Guard Ralston Turner led LSU with 15 points vs Costal and made two three pointers as well. Several other LSU outside shooting threats, including highly-touted freshman Johnny O’Bryant, had poor games but came fill the scorebook. NU needs to play with the same level of defensive intensity they brought at the end of last season and that Reggie Hearn showed in the opener on Sunday.

That brings up the question of whether Hearn will start and just what NU’s lineup will be come Thursday afternoon. JerShon Cobb is reportedly ready to play, but he may or may not get that start. I think Cobb’s an important player for Northwestern, but if he’s not 100 percent I don’t know that he has to start with options such as Hearn and freshmen Dave Sobolewski and Tre Demps available to Coach Bill Carmody.

Obviously, the two freshmen were somewhat underwhelming in their first official action, but they were good in the exhibition. Also, look for Alex Marcotullio and Drew Crawford to get back into the starting lineup and see significant action if the game is close. I’d really like to see Crawford assert himself on offense and have Marcotulllio take the led as he did last season in getting NU’s entire team to play hard on defense.

I’ll also pay close attention to John Shurna who more or less looked like he was just going through the motions against UTPA. Now, Shurna’s going to face tougher challenges on both offense and defense, but he’s still going to be the best player on the court. He, like Crawford, needs to get assertive and demand the ball because when he does the ball usually goes through the hoop.

Overall, I actually like NU’s matchup with LSU and think it gives the ‘Cats a good shot to start this tournament well. I see a close game, but I think Shurna will help edge the Tigers. I predict: Northwestern, 71 LSU, 65

'Cats Get Another Win vs.W. Kentucky

2011-11-16T14:05:00.003-06:00

Quick post today. Another win for the 'Cats last night as they beat Western Kentucky, 71-57, and have now moved to 2-0 on the season. Kendall Hackney once again led the team with 17 points. Dannielle Diamant had a big game with 15 points and 9 rebounds in 28 minutes, Brittany Orban notched 11 and 8, and Karly Roser had a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists.

McKeown lengthened the bench slightly in this game, but he's still relying mainly on the starting 5 with Tailor Jones first off the bench. Alex Cohen got 11 minutes off the bench, but seems to still be adjusting to the college game, while Morgan Jones is still struggling to make shots. Overall, though, We've got a solid six players and a few more who could be almost there. The next test is Illinois St. tomorrow night. Good win, go 'Cats!

Wildcats Notch Easier Win Over UTPA

2011-11-13T20:16:00.001-06:00

For the first time in three seasons the game between Northwestern and Texas-Pan America didn’t come down the final few minutes as NU posted a 60-36 victory. Combined with Northwestern beating Robert Morris by 30 more points than they did a year ago I hope that means this Northwestern team is better than last year’s Northwestern team. I’m not sure if that’s the case yet, but I did see some good things along with some areas that need work.

To start though I have to say that one of the strangest things was to watch this game without Juice Thompson playing point guard for Northwestern. When you consider Thompson played virtually every meaningful minute of basketball for the past four years it makes sense that not saying Juice running the show was rather odd. Other guys have been four year starters, but none were on the court from day one as much as Juice.

Without Juice Northwestern gave the point guard reins over to a combination of players. Freshman Dave Sobolewski got the majority of the time and did a nice job. He handled the team well and usually got NU into the offense without a lot of trouble. He also posted a 3 assist and 0 turnover line which was great to see from a freshman. I was also glad to see him finally hit a three pointer late in the game because it should at least give him some confidence. However, he didn’t have Juice’s ability to take the ball with the shot clock running down and make something happen. To be honest, I’m not sure who on NU’s squad has that ability. The best candidate is JerShon Cobb, but his health remains a question mark at this point.

One player who very few questions remain about is John Shurna. Shurna played enough to make a mark on the game, but Coach Bill Carmody did a nice job of getting him out of the game with the lead and letting some other guys play. Shurna scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds. He also notched two steals. NU’s three point shooting wasn’t great in this contest, but Shurna who might be NU’s best shooter didn’t really seem to look to shoot the three all the much. I expect to see him look for shots more when the ‘Cats travel to the Charleston Classic.

NU also got a decent game from Luka Mirkovic (though I’d like to see him shoot better from the line and from three) who asserted himself early as the tallest player on the floor. He posted 12 points and five rebounds for the day. Granted the competition gets a lot tougher, but those numbers from Luka would be solid and probably help NU to a number of victories. Especially if NU gets anything out of Luka’s tag-team partner at center Davide Curletti. Tonight, though, Curletti really struggled and was basically a non-factor.

Two players that were factors were Reggie Hearn and Drew Crawford. Crawford came off the bench to post 11 points and grab six rebounds. He also almost brought the house down with an attempted tomahawk slam. If he could have finished that play it probably would have been the best dunk in NU history. Hearn was all over the place with 7 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and a block. I was really impressed with the quick release he showed when shooting from three point range. A case could be made that Hearn’s effort on defense and all around game dictates keeping him in the starting lineup. It might not be a bad idea either as Alex Marcotullio has shown nice ability to bring energy off the bench. I’d look potentially for a Sobolewksi, Crawford, Hearn, Shurna, Mirkovic lineup in the future.

The biggest issue NU had was that they did get out rebounded 35-32, but some of those were long rebounds that just happened to bounce the Broncs way. Basically the same NU team (minus Juice who wasn’t a rebounder) NU competed on the boards with Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament last year so the potential exists. The other issue NU faces is neither NU nor UTPA shot well. Some of UTPA’s issues were NU”s nice man-to-man defense, but NU better hit more shots if they want to compete in their upcoming games. I’d especially look at Sobolewski and Demps who want 1-of-9 combined from three. Juice on percentage would have made about four of those and they have to do the same. I’d also like to see Marcotullio and Crawford get going from the outside, but ankle issues impact the ability to get lift on a shot so let’s just hope they’re in the process of healing.

Overall, NU won and that’s good, but we’ll get a better sense of where this team is over the next week of games.

Injury Update

2011-11-13T09:30:00.000-06:00

Hopefully we won’t be posting many of these injury updates during the year as the healthier Northwestern is as a team they better chance they’ll have to compete for that NCAA bid. As it stands, the latest news is Alex Marcotullio and Drew Crawford got the okay to play, but JerShon Cobb still out. The odds are Alex and Drew still probably won’t start, but at least they’re good to go and will get some on court time before the Charleston Classic. Cobb is still suffering from his lingering hip injury. Hopefully he gets over that as he is an athletic player who needs to be 100% to bring his total game.

Women Beat Central Michigan 69-60

2011-11-12T15:48:00.004-06:00

The women's basketball team knocked off Central Michigan, 69-60, in their season opener yesterday. Kendall Hackney led the team in points and rebounds with 18 and 8 while Brittany Orban had 16 and 6. Hackney put up a really nice stat line: besides the 18 and 8, she shot 4-7 from behind the arc and had an assist, a steal, and a block. Five players had 6 or more rebounds in this game. Rebounding was the biggest difference maker, as we outrebounded them 39-28, including getting 23 offensive rebounds to their 8. Those are eye-popping numbers that tell me NU could once again be tough to keep up with on the glass this season.

Freshman Morgan Jones played well in her first (real) collegiate game, scoring twelve points and grabbing 6 rebounds. She was inefficient, but her shot selection should improve quickly as she gets used to the college game and not being the team's number one scorer. Freshman Karly Roser also had a good game. She's been a big surprise with her huge contributions in the preseason and now in the team's first game. She ended up with 10 points, 8 assists, and 4 rebounds and has taken over the role of starting point guard.

The team mostly played 6 players -- Orban, Hackney, M. Jones, Roser, and Diamant starting with Tailor Jones coming off the bench for 23 minutes. Alex Cohen and Meghan McKeown each played 6 minutes. I don't know if the short bench was a the coach's decision or if there are injury issues, but I'd like to see more players play significant minutes in the future. We've got a lot of size on the bench that we could use come Big Ten play.

The team did a lot of things well in this game, but there are a couple of weaknesses I hope they can sort out as the season goes on. First, they shot a low percentage from the field, only 37.7%. Getting offensive rebounds, as this team does, reduces the need to shoot well, but it obviously doesn't eliminate it. We can hope that the poor shooting was a fluke -- we'll see as the season goes on. Second, the team turned the ball over 20 times (Roser unfortunately accounted for 7 of those). Turnovers were a big problem for this team last year and I hope that doesn't repeat itself again this season.

All in all, the 'Cats played a good game and got the first W of the season! Congrats to them -- we'll see more from them on Tuesday when they play Western Kentucky. Go 'Cats!

‘Cats Ready to Tip-Off Regular Season Versus Texas-Pan America

2011-11-12T15:17:00.000-06:00

Northwestern officially opens the 2011-12 season on Sunday versus Texas-Pan America. The game is on the Big Ten Network at 6PM CT and seats remain inside Welsh-Ryan Arena for those who are thinking about attending. Of note is the fact that Northwestern could potentially play their first four games of the season on national TV. The first two will be on for sure with ESPNU telecasting Thursday’s showdown with LSU at 2PM CT. This is a huge step for a program which at times has been pretty much an afterthought (if a thought at all) when it comes to the media. Obviously, some of this media attention is the result of the national attention which has been on the ‘Cats the last three years as they’ve come close to making their first NCAA Tournament. When you consider the role this year’s seniors have played in turning program into a competitive force in the Big Ten you can’t help but hope they’ll be the group to breakthrough in March.

As far as this game goes, UTPA was a 6-win team last year and dropped a 91-72 game to DePaul on Friday night. Some people aren’t happy with NU playing UTPA because they refer to the game as an RPI killer, it’s true UTPA isn’t going to be a top-100 squad in March, but NU does get a great advantage from playing UTPA. The advantage? It’s a team NU plays every year. Why is that important? Because UTPA won’t be as clueless as to what NU’s Princeton Offense entails and NU will actually have to work to get good shots. That’s important because I think some of the success NU has had in non-conference, including the 10-1 and #25 national ranking start of two years ago, has been because they’ve played teams that weren’t used to seeing the Princeton Offense. Well, the Big Ten has all seen the Princeton Offense so playing other teams that have also at least makes NU not get so many cheap baskets because defenders are essentially running into each other trying to defend backdoor cuts.

For NU, it looks like JerShon Cobb and Alex Marcotullio might not see the court as they’re still hurt. Drew Crawford isn’t listed as a starter, but was reported to be closer to 100% than the other two. Even if all three sit, NU should score points, though, UTPA’s knowledge of NU’s system has kept this game close the last two years. UTPA guard Brandon Provost scored 16 points and grabbed 8 rebounds against DePaul on Friday. He didn’t miss a three in the game as well. He’ll be an interesting matchup for NU’s freshman guards Dave Sobolewski and Tre Demps who will be in their first official college basketball game. With Marcotullio (who many expected to be a team leader) out, those two will need to step up. Another UTPA guard Jared Maree is also a capable outside shooter who the ‘Cats can’t lose sight of. Reggie Hearn played good defense against Robert Morris in NU’s exhibition win and may be a key factor in helping stop opponents’ top shooters this year. Hearn may be a former walk-on, but he’s a big guard with good length and decent athletic skill. Plus, he seems to have the level of “want to” which all great defenders have.

UTPA’s starting front court of Earl Jefferson and Josh Cleveland posted a total of 14 points and 6 rebounds versus DePaul. In addition, 6-7 sub Ruben Cabrera scored 12 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. These players don’t have the size of Big Ten front court players, but they’ll play hard. They might not offer a great simulation for 7-0 260-pound LSU center Justin Hamilton who NU will face Thursday, but I don’t they’ll be pushovers either and I’ll be looking to see how Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti respond to the challenge.

Looking at the overall matchup, NU’s missing starters might limit the game’s scoring a bit as all three of those guys can put the ball in the basket. However, NU’s still got more fire power than UTPA. I predict: Northwestern, 92 UTPA, 70

Wildcats Learn Something about Depth in Exhibition Win

2011-11-07T21:19:00.000-06:00

My theme all off-season was on the importance of NU developing depth to compete in the rugged Big Ten. Tonight’s 99-47 exhibition win over Robert Morris probably doesn’t reveal a lot about Northwestern, but it does show the ‘Cats might have some quality depth on their bench which certainly didn’t exist the last several seasons.

Thanks to ankle injuries to Drew Crawford and Alex Marcotullio and JerShon Cobb still slowed from his hip-injury, NU went pretty young and inexperienced in the starting lineup. Tre Demps and Dave Sobolewksi got the call at the guards and Reggie Hearn saw his first serious action as a starter at small forward. All three looked very good. I know it was action against an NAIA school, but Robert Morris is a very good NAIA school. An NAIA school that was good enough to beat a solid NU team a few years back. I liked how all three hung in with the level of athleticism that RMU but on the court and seemed to play with control for the most part. Demps may have fired up a few ill-advised shots, but I think he’s a good enough player that some of those are going to go in from time to time. Plus, Demps, who I thought was more of the pure-scorer of the two freshmen guards, showed a nice three point shot making 3-of-4. He also dished out 3 assists to only 1 turnover. Sobolewski, who I thought was the more of the pure-shooter, didn’t disappoint as a shooter as he made both his three point shots and looked solid from the free-throw line sinking 7-of-9 charity strip shots. He also had 2 assists to 0 turnovers. Hearn got in on the action from three making 1-of-2 and in passing handing out 4 assists to 1 turnover. I also just felt like he showed great understanding of the offense. He seemed to find himself in position to make or pass to teammates for easy shots. I don’t know if we’ll see much Reggie Hearn in regular season games, but I think he’s clearly a valuable player to have on the team.

Nick Fruendt came off the bench in NU’s guard/small forward rotation and led the ‘Cats in scoring with 17 points. Fruendt is a good shooter and he showed it by going 4-for-4 from the field and 7-of-8 from the line. With that type of offensive ability you’d expect to see Fruendt finally become a consistent contributor, but I think it’ll be his defensive progress which we’ll have to keep an eye on to see if he can crack double-digit minutes when the Big Ten season starts.

The NU front court starters were mainstays John Shurna and Luka Mirkovic. Shurna looked solid in his 19 minutes and finished with 12 points. Luka only played 17 minutes, but he grabbed 5 rebounds, dished out 5 assists (a huge asset in a Princeton-style center) and hit a three. He’s a decent three point shooter and I think the center position needs to make at least 3 threes a game against NU’s tougher opponents for the ‘Cats to have the best chance to pull out W’s in those contests.

Off the bench in the front court I was really pleased with Davide Curletti who scored 16 points, notched 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. His only real failing was only hitting 3-of-6 free throws. I really like Davide’s shot and I think he shot make a much higher percentage. I’ve also got to give a big thumbs up to freshman Mike Turner who I think is a legit Big Ten athlete. He might need some work on his basketball skills, but I liked how he hit the glass (8 rebounds) and just his overall hustle approach. Will he play much this season? Maybe not. Still, he’s got a future that I see as pretty bright. Walk-on James Montgomery III seemed similar as well as he blocked 2 shots, scored 2 points, and had 2 assists. He looks quick as well and might take a Hearn like route to being a contributor someday.

Overall, every Wildcat who played looked as if they could play. Even with competition that wasn’t Big Ten caliber that’s saying something when compared with past NU teams. The ‘Cats start regular season play on Sunday. The big question is how healthy are Cobb, Marcotullio, and Crawford, but seeing the talent on the court with those guys out, I’m confident that ‘Cats have enough depth they’ll be able to compete in the Big Ten this season once their roster returns to full strength. As it stands, they should be able to compete with Texas-Pan American on Sunday as they are, but we’d like to see the full crew ready for LSU in a week and a half.

Tip Off Monday…What to Watch?

2011-11-06T20:31:00.001-06:00

Northwestern play an exhibition game on Monday night against Robert Morris University. It’s exciting as it is the first time this year’s team will play in front of the public, but I don’t expect this game will reveal too much about the team as a whole. The starting lineup listed on nusports.com lists freshmen Tre Demps and Dave Sobolewski as well as junior walk-on Reggie Hearn as starters. Part of the reason for this might be the fact that JerShon Cobb still isn’t 100% recovered from his off-season hip surgery, but a bigger factor is likely that Coach Carmody is using this game to see just what he has on his bench (even if those players start this contest). I suppose to an extent that’s exciting as well. After all, I really believe Northwestern has to have depth to win in the Big Ten. Therefore, I’ll certainly be curious to see how those three potential key reserves play tomorrow against a team that is #3 in the NAIA rankings.

Aside from checking out the potential bench players, I think it’ll also be interesting to watch how much Luka Mirkovic has improved. Reports have Luka losing about 15 pounds, improving his shooting, and developing more post moves. All those things would be huge because the best Princeton Offense teams that Princeton ever had were highlighted by having centers who played key roles on offense. If Luka steps up his offensive game that’ll be big for the ‘Cats.

I know most fans will pay close attention to who handles the ball for the ‘Cats. I agree that’s important. It seems to me that if Demps and Sobolewski are starting that Carmody wants to take a look at them as ball handlers for sure. Does that mean one of them will be the guy who takes over for Juice Thompson? Maybe, but I still think a 100% JerShon Cobb and Alex Marcotullio are both capable ball handlers as well.

Another key factor that will impact Northwestern’s success not just Monday, but overall is defense. NU might not use everything that they have in the playbook on Monday and that’s fine. Personally, I’d like to see the team work on playing man-to-man. Robert Morris will bring several athletic players into Welsh-Ryan Arena and having to defend them man-to-man will be good work for NU. If NU does play the 1-3-1 zone, it’ll be interesting to see who plays in what spot with Juice departed.

Overall, it’ll be fun for the ‘Cats to be back in action, but I’m much more excited to see official action start a week from today. This contest will be a great chance for some of the young players to show off their skill, but I don’t think all our questions will be answered till we see games that count. After all, the best Northwestern team I’ve seen was the 2008-09 team that was basically eight minutes of basketball (four vs Illinois and four at Ohio State) from being in the NCAA Tournament and they lost an exhibition contest to Robert Morris. Still, the season is on and we have to be happy about that.

Interview with Wildcat Forward Brittany Orban

2011-11-01T11:11:00.019-05:00

Brittany Orban is a 6-0 Senior forward for the ‘Cats who has made a name for herself through her elite rebounding (especially on the offensive end of the court, where she was 5th in the conference last year as a small forward), strong 3-point shooting, and overall toughness and hustle. She is one of two returning starters on a 2011-2012 ‘Cats team that will be very different from last year’s but that nevertheless looks like it can do some damage in the Big Ten. Brittany is a Mechanical Engineering major from North Canton, Ohio. She kindly agreed to take time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions for the readers of Welsh-Ryan Ramblings.

Q: First things first: the new court. It looks awesome, right? I can’t wait to see it in person.

A: It is deﬁnitely a fresh change and I love the new look! I have a feeling wildcat fans are going to like the new look of more purple on the court!

Q: Besides the new court, what are you looking forward to most this year, your senior year?

A: I look forward to playing with a new team and playing hard each and every day. It’s crazy how fast time ﬂies as I enter my senior year. I know I have to give all that I can as it will be my last chance to experience a lot of things as a collegiate athlete.

Q: I know that the team started doing full practices earlier this month. How have these early practices been going so far?

A: Practices have been going well so far. It deﬁnitely takes some adjusting to get used to the rigorous schedule but I feel our team has responded well. With the addition of some new players and returning redshirt players, we are learning each other’s tendencies and gaining comfort in playing alongside of one another.

Q: You guys lost three senior starters to graduation – point guard Beth Marshall, guard Meshia Reed and center Amy Jaeschke. The loss of these players will obviously change the look of the team quite a bit, particularly the departure of Jaeschke, who was the face of the team and the first NU player to be drafted into the WNBA. What are you doing as a team to adjust to these changes?

A: The three seniors in Beth, Meshia and Amy were deﬁnitely a huge impact on last year’s team. As it’s a new year, we know that different players will have to step up on any given night to ﬁll those gaps.

Q: There’s a lot of new faces on the team this year, and a lot of new players who seem like they can be huge contributors for the ‘Cats – McDonald’s All-American Morgan Jones (who is the sister of Junior guard Tailor Jones) comes to mind. What are you expecting from these new players, and what, if anything, will change to accommodate new playing styles and skill sets?

A: With the loss of the fore-mentioned seniors, we needed freshmen to come in and help make an impact on the team. The freshmen seem to be gaining conﬁdence each and everyday as they adjust to a faster-paced style collegiate game. I see that these freshmen will help make a large impact on the team as they continue to grow as players.

Q: Has anyone really surprised you in practice? Does anyone strike you as someone who will have a breakout season?

A: Everyone seems to have worked on their game this summer and I am happy with where we stand as a team at this point. I think on any given night a new player could have a breakout game which will make our team hard to scout.

Q: As I mentioned, you and Junior Kendall Hackney will be the only returning starters this year. Can you talk about how you approach being a leader of this team?

A: As a senior, I feel my position of leadership is one of experience. Having done this for the past three years, I can advise new and returning players on any questions they might have. I would like to think my leadership will come with the hard work mentality I try to bring each and everyday.

Q: What are your personal goals for the season? Are you hoping to improve on what you’ve done for three seasons here, or do you think you might be doing some things on the court you haven’t done as a ‘Cat?

A: My personal goal is to complete my last season at Northwestern with no regrets. I want to know that I put everything I had into helping with the success of the team. I always believe that the success one has is a direct result of the effort he/she puts in.

Q: What are the team’s goals for this season? What is Coach McKeown really emphasizing in practice and at meetings?

A: As we are still early in the season, our initial goal is to develop as a team and to gain comfort in playing alongside of one another and to gain great team chemistry. As we have been able to make some runs in the WNIT, I know our team is hungry for more and our ultimate goal is always to make it to the NCAA tournament.

You’ve definitely been an impressive player for the ‘Cats as well as an incredible representative for the team and the school these last few years. Thanks again for your time – good luck this season and go ‘Cats!

A quick thanks...

2011-11-01T07:35:00.001-05:00

I’m a little late in doing this, but I wanted to draw everyone’s attention to Pooley’s Big Ten rankings which she posted on October 21st. I’ve wanted to do something like that for a while, but simply haven’t ever really had the time, so I wanted to give credit to Pooley for brining a new feature to this blog. I also have to give her credit for some upcoming coverage of NU’s women’s basketball team. Again, that’s something that I’ve wanted to do for sometime now, but haven’t been able to find time for.

What Will Take for This to be THE Year??????

2011-10-30T20:28:00.001-05:00

Until Northwestern makes the NCAA Tournament fans will always come into the season wondering if this is going be the year the ‘Cats finally break into the NCAA Tournament field. Just two weeks from the opening tip of the season versus Texas-Pan American, I can’t help but wonder what it’ll take for this to be the year the ‘Cats make that breakthrough. They’ve been close each of the last three years. Three years ago a couple late season losses to Illinois and Ohio State doomed them, two years ago an inability to beat the bottom of the Big Ten doomed them, and last year a weak non-conference schedule combined with the inability to beat a “marquee” opponent ruined the ‘Cats shot at being named on Selection Sunday. On paper the teams of the last three years might be stronger than this year’s squad, but I find myself hoping that this version of the Wildcats led by a group of seniors who have seen the mistakes of the past three seasons will finally breakthrough. Let’s take a look at what they need to do.

1) Take advantage of non-conference opportunities. – Last year the Wildcats didn’t get many chances in the non-conference schedule to get big wins and they lost in one of their best chances when they played at St. John’s. This year NU gets a decent field at the Charleston Classic and huge home tilt vs Baylor. If NU can win the Charleston Classic and beat Baylor they’ll have several RPI boosting wins that were missing in previous years. Road contests at Georgia Tech and Creighton also potentially offer a greater challenge than games of the past two years.

2) Get consistent production for the center position. – Looking at history the best Princeton Offense teams have always had centers who stuffed the stat sheet consistently. Over the past three years Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti have had some big games in some of NU’s biggest wins (see Luka’s double-double in an upset of #6 Purdue) but they haven’t been consistent. If these two demonstrate a level of consistency I expect this could be THE year. They’ll get a good challenge early in 7-0 260-pound LSU center Justin Hamilton (an Iowa St. transfer) who will be eligible to play when NU takes on the Tigers.

3) Get production from unlikely sources. – When teams have breakout years they usually have a player nobody has expectations for who steps up. For NU that might be Nick Fruendt who is a senior that has shown flashes of ability, but who never consistently got into Bill Carmody’s rotation. Also, Carmody mentioned walk-on Reggie Hearn as somebody who might crack the rotation when interviewed at Big Ten media day.

4) Start fast in the conference season. – The last couple years NU hasn’t started great in conference play. Yes, the schedule has been tough, but that’s not an excuse that NCAA Tournament teams make. To make the Big Dance NU needs at least a .500 conference record and they won’t get it if they again start the Big Ten 0-4. The good news is that while the opener at Ohio State is going to be very tough, home games vs Penn State and Illinois offer NU the chance to get at least two Big Ten wins in the first week and a half of conference play.

5) Play defense – Northwestern has been inconsistent on defense over the past few seasons. They’ve had their moments, but haven’t really played that well. A strong defensive finish to last season gives me hope, so we’ll see how it goes in a couple weeks.

Some Thoughts on the Facilities News – NU Should Keep Its Promise to Fitz

2011-10-25T20:48:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Tribune recently reported that Northwestern’s facilities initiative is receiving some resistance from the NU Board of Trustees. I think it is important to note here that it really doesn’t seem like the Board is opposed to an NU facilities upgrade. However, it seems the issue is the location of some of these new facilities. Most notably it is the issue of where to put a new football practice facility. According to all reports (and it was mentioned again yesterday by Teddy G. in the Trib) Pat Fitzgerald was pretty much set to take the Michigan job until Northwestern promised him better resources which could make his teams at Northwestern competitive with traditional powers like, say, Michigan. I have to assume this was done because it was clear NU wasn’t going to match Michigan’s salary offer. Now, maybe Coach Fitz may just have used Michigan to leverage NU into boosting his salary and promising these resource upgrades (i.e. a new practice facility by the lake to help recruiting) but, that’s just smart and it does help his team. Now, though, it seems like NU isn’t totally meeting what they promised Fitz. This to me is wrong and it hurts other sports such as men’s and women’s basketball as well.

I know a 2-5 season has some people ticked off at Fitzgerald and upset at the state of NU athletics in general. Maybe, this is even true of some of the Board of Trustee members, I don’t know. But, isn’t a deal a deal? I suppose not if it isn’t in writing, but I’d bet Jim Phillips is sitting somewhere in a white shirt and purple tie right now upset at the way things are going in this area. After all, he had to be the primary individual in convincing Coach Fitz that if he stayed that decision would prove worthwhile. Now, he’s being made to look like a lair or maybe more precisely an exaggerator. Odds are NU gets some sort of new football facility in the near future, but if it isn’t on lake where it can “WOW” potential recruits is it really what Phillips promised Fitzgerald? I’d say no. Even worse for NU’s other sports, it might mean that some of the things which were planned to happen around the current football facility such as a new basketball area or a new basketball practice facility might get crossed out of the plan if the football facility has to occupy the same ground as the current setup.

The bottom line is I understand the lakefill land is extremely valuable property and some might not want to put a facility on it which is really only going to be used by 100 of NU’s 8,000 students and only about 50 employees at most when you factor in trainers, equipment staff, etc. But I’m still bothered by the fact that the Board of Trustees is preventing Jim Phillips from following through on the promise he made to his football coach and via extension the other coaches at Northwestern. If I’m Pat Fitzgerald I’m ticked off at this point and if I’d didn’t get the new facility I was promised in the place it was promised I wouldn’t be so willing to give Northwestern a hometown discount next time a major football power came kocking at my door. Now, you might say who is going to visit Pat with his team at 2-5, but let’s remember Gary Barnett got another job after a 3-9 season. The perception outside of Northwestern is generally that winning six or more games at Northwestern consistently makes you the reincarnation of Vince Lombardi. I don’t know if I agree, but when the ‘Cats rally to a 4-1 finish and win a bowl game this season some university president is going to think so. Therefore, I’d ask the Board of Trustees to step up and help Jim Phillips keep his promise or get ready for a potential embarrassment as the face of the NU program exits stage left because while NU talked a good game they didn’t truly commit to his program as promised.

Pooley's Preseason B1G Rankings

2011-10-21T13:51:00.002-05:00

Three weeks away. Getting pumped.

1. Ohio State – Another Big Ten title for the Buckeyes. They have everything on their side, but the downside to high expectations is that anything but a Big Ten championship and a Final Four run will be seen as a letdown.

2. Michigan State – I’m ranking Michigan State this high mostly out of respect for Draymond Green. I don’t think he (or Izzo, for that matter) will let last year’s disappointing season happen again this year. They’ve got good recruits, good returners, and I’m predicting they’ll bounce back.

3. Wisconsin -- I still remember that 38-33 loss to Penn State last year in the Big Ten Tournament. It took 35 minutes in that game for a player other than Taylor or Leuer to score. Of course they’ll be good, but I’m not confident enough in their ability to find points this year to rank them #2.

4. Michigan – John Belein is my favorite Big Ten coach other than Carmody. He’s a positive guy who supports his players, has a good system set up, and gets the best out of them. Even so, I have a feeling that the loss of Darius Morris will be felt pretty hard and the offense won’t flow as smoothly as it did a year ago, when absolutely everything ran through him. Even so, the team is due for a strong Big Ten season, if only because they’re on a roll and there aren’t a lot of teams that are both strong and experienced this year.

5. Northwestern – Sure, this is a homer pick, but that’s fine. This is the year we put it all together, avoid injury, and get a winning Big Ten record. Someone (Marcotullio?) steps up to replace Juice’s stats and leadership, and Shurna has a huge season and becomes our all-time leading scorer. Knock on wood.

6. Purdue –My biggest doubt about this team is the hole at the center position. They’ll probably be starting sophomore Travis Carroll, who Purdue fans don’t seem to have much confidence in. They also don’t have a lot of depth and have multiple players still recovering from injuries and surgeries, including Lewis Jackson and of course Robbie Hummell. They’ll play good D and have good nights, but I don’t see them being the team they have been the last few years.

7. Illinois -- 2011-2012 Illinois will be totally different than the Illini of the last few years, and that’s probably a good thing for them. They got rid of a lot of bad attitudes and distractions and Bruce Weber now has a huge pool of talented young players to choose from. Now they’ve got to put it all together. It won’t all happen this year but I think low-ish expectations will play into their hand and allow them to put together strong season for a team that lost so many minutes.

8. Indiana – Ah, this team. If the video of Hoosier Hysteria doesn’t make you dislike these people, well then I bet you haven’t yet seen the video of Derek Elston tripping Alex Marcotullio (or Crean’s subsequent defense of/unwillingness to discipline Elston.) Indiana has upgraded its talent over the last couple of seasons and will surely have a better year than last year’s bad 3-15. Cody Zeller does seem to be the real deal, and I think we’ll see some impressive Hulls-Zeller plays this year. Sheehey and Oladipo are improved, and they’ve got some other players who are pretty talented, but with this team I won’t believe it until I see it.

9. Minnesota -- Trevor Mbakwe should average a (high) double-double, but their success is contingent on how they deal with last year’s backcourt problems. It could go either way for Minnesota, but I’m skeptical for now.

10. Nebraska – They could surprise, but for now I don’t have much of a reason to pick them to do any better than 10th. Their strengths should be their frontcourt and their relative experience, but unfortunately for them they will have to adjust to 11 new teams. I guess the other teams have to adjust to them too, but well, I’m still predicting a low finish this year.

11. Iowa – Basabe will have a great year, but they don’t have enough talent or enough depth for me to see them jumping the teams ahead of them.

12. Penn State – This won’t be a fun year for Penn State – new coach, four new starters. Expectations are as low as they get though, so anything better than lots of blowouts should give the fans hope for the future. If Northwestern doesn’t finally beat Penn State this year (twice), I will eat Willie the Wildcat.

Go Cats!

Does Northwestern Have Depth?

2011-10-20T15:49:00.000-05:00

I know there are exceptions to any rule and some experts would disagree with me, but I believe the teams which compete consistently over the long-haul of the Big Ten season are the teams which have some depth on the bench. As I had this thought today, I started to wonder if Northwestern had much depth. Last year the ‘Cats displayed signs of having a good bench as they nearly upset Ohio State without John Shurna and got some solid Big Ten Tournament contributions from Nick Fruendt when JerShon Cobb was out of action. Does that apparent depth translate into 2011-12?

The good news is that NU seems to have five fairly clear starters. Shurna, Luka Mirkovic, Drew Crawford, Cobb, and Alex Marcotullio seem like the logical starting five. At some point Cobb or Marcotullio might end up getting flipped into the sixth man role to bring energy off the bench, but that’s a good sign because it would be an indicator that somebody on NU’s bench stepped up at the guard spot.

Guard is my biggest worry when it comes to depth for NU. After Alex and Drew the ‘Cats are basically looking at freshmen Tre Demps and David Sobolewski both of who suffered injuries within the last calendar year. Are they really going to be ready for the physical grind of college basketball? They better be or else Nick Fruendt is going to get a lot more minutes than he did last year. Could Fruendt handle that responsibility? It’s really hard to say. Based on his BTT play I’d like to say yes. He’d certainly have to be a player that teams needed to account for when the ‘Cats were on offense because he has a confident shot that I think he’ll make a high percentage of if he gets the chance to unload. The bigger issue would be defense and rebounding. Northwestern started a mini-defensive turnaround late last year by playing more man-to-man, but Fruendt’s reputation isn’t great on the defensive end. Could he handle play man or would the ‘Cats be forced back into the 1-3-1 zone if Fruendt were on the court more? In that scenario the good news is Fruendt does offer some size.

Northwestern has a somewhat deeper front court in the sense that both Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti have played a lot of minutes at the center position. Curletti also offers enough versatility that he could backup John Shurna at power forward, but I personally don’t really want Shurna on the bench unless it’s a 20-point game one way of another (Note: he should be on the bench if it’s a 20-point game one way or another as last year proved). Drew Crawford arguably doesn’t have a clear cut backup, but in the rotation Coach Carmody uses I think Marcotullio, Cobb, Fruendt, or one of the freshman could get some action. Northwestern’s small forward spot might as well be a third guard position so it wouldn’t really be a concern to see one of those players there. Once again, though, the freshman and Fruendt become critical. NU’s third freshman is Mike Turner. The local product is regarded as something of a project, but is said to have a high athletic upside. My thought here is that if he can rebound at all he should be in the rotation. If he can sub at one of the front court spots and pull down three or four rebounds in ten minutes of action he potentially becomes a key player.

So does Northwestern have depth? Well, maybe. They’ve got a collection of players on the bench with skill, but three are young and another is fairly untested. Bill Carmody has no fear of using a short bench, but I hope the young guys are good enough he doesn’t have to do so this season.

Who is Northwestern's Most Important Player?

2011-10-17T20:12:00.001-05:00

For the record this post is based entirely on my observations and not any statistical measurements. If someone wants to make a stats based post on the same topic I would very much encourage that.

Northwestern has two “name” players they’re John Shurna and Drew Crawford. Shurna has built up his reputation through three solid seasons and playing with USA Basketball over the summer. Crawford built his reputation on being one of the best athletes Northwestern basketball has every recruited and showing the ability to take over games. They both are critically important to any success Northwestern will have in basketball this season, but I don’t think either is NU’s most important player. I believe that is Alex Marcotullio.

The most obvious reason that Marcotullio is critical is because along with JerShon Cobb he probably has to at least start the season as one of the primary replacements for Juice Thompson. Yes, eventually one of NU’s two freshman point guards might take over that position, but I think all indications are that Marcotullio and Cobb will get the first crack at the starting lineup together in the backcourt. With as solid as Thompson was in running the offense and taking care of the ball that responsibility is critical.

The next reason I think Marcotullio is critical is because NU needs someone besides Shurna to go to for a late three point shot. As last year progressed, Alex became a more consistent shooter. In addition, he has proven over the course of his career that he isn’t afraid to take big shots hitting big shots even during his freshman year in wins over N.C. State and Notre Dame. That type of reliable shooter is critical because again that’s a role which Juice filled and needs to be replaced on this year’s team.

Northwestern also needs to rely on Marcotullio because he’s probably the team’s best defender in the 1-3-1 and in man-to-man. He might not be super-athletic, but he does have quick feet and some very active hands. In addition, he seems to be very instinctive about getting his hands on the ball. Northwestern hasn’t exactly struck fear into people’s hearts with their intense defense, but Alex did lead a mini-turnaround late last season.

Finally, I’d say Marcotullio might bring some needed intangibles to this year’s team. Juice was last year’s vocal leader. Looking at the current roster the only player who has stood out as being real vocal is Luka and I don’t see him taking a Juice-like leadership role. However, Marcotullio brings a toughness that might fit a vocal leader so I’ll be looking at the early timeouts this year to see if he is taking charge of the huddle.

Reasons for Optimism for Basketball Season

2011-10-16T17:17:00.001-05:00

After watching Northwestern attempt to play football the last few weeks I think all NU fans could use some positive thoughts. Now, to be honest I’m probably less optimistic about the upcoming men’s basketball season at Northwestern than I was the past two years, but even so I still think the ‘Cats post another 20-win season. The difference is that I’m less of a believer that this is THE YEAR for NU hoops without a clear starter at point guard. Nevertheless, several strong reasons do exist to believe the ‘Cats will be actually be better this year than last year.

1) The team is actually healthy. Everyone remembers that John Shurna played hurt most of last season, but many forget JerShon Cobb did as well. I think based on simply talent that Cobb is probably NU’s second best player (behind Shurna) which means that last year NU was playing with a serious handicap when both were hurt. With both healthy one can look at the world from a more optimistic point of view.

2) Freshman Impact. Bill Carmody hasn’t been afraid to use freshman over his time in Evanston and he’ll need production this year from Tre Demps and David Sobolewski. The good news is both should be able to help as either a starter at guard or off the bench. Both players are regarded as good scores who can hit an outside shot and both offer some size which could help in rebounding.

3) Defense. Yes, defense. Northwestern played much better defense at the end of last season when they started to trust the ability to play some man-to-man along with the 1-3-1. With Cobb and Shurna at 100% and Alex Marcotullio being one of the peskier defenders in the Big Ten, it’s actually reasonable to believe the ‘Cats should be able to win any game that they score more than 65 points in this year.

4) An experienced front court. Obviously, John Shurna has seen the court a ton over the past three years, but so have Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti. Drew Crawford has been a starter for two full seasons. That means everyone the ‘Cats put out at positions 3/4/5 will have at least two (if not three) years as a starter under their belt.

5) Shooting. Northwestern wins when they shoot well and they still have solid outside shooters in Shurna, Crawford, and Marcotullio. If Luka or Davide gets more involved from the top of the key and one of the freshman makes an impact as a scorer the ‘Cats should put up some big point totals.

Time to Post Again…Let’s Start with Some Personal Introspection on My Fandom

2011-10-12T19:13:00.000-05:00

I haven’t posted in a while, but a recent post on rivals asking about this site caught my attention. The exciting news there is rivals poster ACPooley will be authoring some articles and commentaries when the season starts. That’s great news for the site because it’ll give you as readers more content read. It also might be great content because after you read the next paragraphs you might not want to read my posts any longer, but we shall see.

Obviously, I haven’t posted for a while. That’s not because interesting stuff didn’t happen with NU basketball and NU sports in general, but obviously other sites existed to cover that information and aside from my daily job, I was also pretty busy with my own area of athletic responsibilities, which when I considered that brought some thoughts to mind I want to share.

Let’s be honest, one of the things I’ve done on this blog from time to time is criticize coaching decisions. Odds are I might still do that in the heat of the moment, but at the same time as I’ve watched Northwestern football’s last three games and seen coaching decisions I didn’t understand, I decided to evaluate my emotional investment in NU athletics. I’m a big fan. I’m I too big a fan? I’ve spent three basketball seasons writing about every game of the only major conference basketball team NOT to make the NCAA Tournament. That’s an odd choice for a hobby. Now, it’s great to be an NU because NU represents everything right and I kind of take pride in actively supporting a group that doesn’t have a lot of active support. I also enjoy sharing my thoughts with other big fans that are readers of this blog and make up that small, but active support group for NU hoops.

That said, in this introspection I realized that I’m fortunate that as a component of my job (a secondary component, but one nonetheless) I get to be involved in sporting events in which I have at least some measure of control. More credit goes to the players than to me for our 22-5 record last spring (had to get the record in there, though as it never hurts to boost the ego) but nonetheless I have to say I must have done something right. I also made one major mistake that prevented that record from being 23-4. That mistake kept me up at night. I still get pissed off when I think about it, but I think that’s okay because it makes it less likely I’ll make the same mistake again AND I made the decision so I have to learn to live with it. What’s the point of this ramble as it relates to NU? I guess to say that while I’m back and with ACPooley’s help I hope to provide great coverage of what we hope is a history making season for NU basketball in 2011-12, I hope that I’m at a bit where I’m not going to lose sleep over NU basketball because I’ve realized I have no control. That’s Bill Carmody’s job and good luck to him. Hopefully, I can contain my emotional investment from tipoff to the last whistle and not make it such a big part of my life. I think that’ll actually make for a better more reasoned blog that doesn’t include as much nonsense, though, that might mean less rambles. I don’t know if that means I have to change the site’s name.

It’s the same with Northwestern football. I’ve seen friends and family make the same mistake and I understand. To be honest, I can’t stand Iowa. I want to win this weekend badly, but unless you happen to be Pat Fitzgerald or Mike Hankwitz and you’re going to e-mail this blog for suggestions (BLITZ! And NEVER rush three men!) it really isn’t our problem what NU’s staff is doing right now. So let’s get pumped to support our teams, but let’s also at least try to remember that the expert coaches who know more than us are going to be spending a lot of time trying to find answers and we should make sure we show up at game time ready to support them and then trust them the rest of the time.

Some quick notes....

2011-06-21T22:11:00.001-05:00

Update: Word is that the Baylor deal is done and the Bears will be in Evanston on December 4th of this year. Baylor's got at least three future NBA players so this will be a reall good test for NU and good preview of where NU really is in terms of trying to play deep into March.

It seems that according to reports from the NU Coaches’ Caravan that Bill Carmody talked a little bit about what he wanted to do in terms of scheduling. Specifically it seems Carmody mentioned Temple and Baylor. Both of these would to me be good teams to play regularly. Some will say they’re somewhat “faceless” as some said about Stanford, but I think Temple and Baylor actually are probably more prominent to basketball fans, especially in the Midwest, than Stanford. Temple has a very strong history and Baylor has done, for all intents and purposes, what Northwestern wants to do. Take a once moribund program and turn it into something that might just contend for a championship. I also think trips to Philly or Waco, Texas would be a lot better for our players than trips to the west coast. Of course, we shouldn’t get too excited about this news as at one point last year NU thought they would schedule Duke and UCLA and got neither, but at we did get Arkansas-Pine Bluff, so I guess that was something. Nevertheless, this is a good time to point out that NU is trying to schedule good teams, but many good teams don’t want to play Northwestern. That’s why getting into tournaments, like the one NU is in at Charleston, are important because you might draw a team that otherwise wouldn’t play you depending on how the bracket works out.

NU still pursuing roster addition

2011-06-07T14:40:00.000-05:00

Word has come out that Northwestern is in the final three schools being considered by Vanderbilt grad Andre Walker who will have one season left to play at whatever school he enrolls in as a grad student. The Wildcats are up against some big names (Kansas and Xavier) for Walker’s services, but he’s an Illinois native (Homewood-Flossmoor H.S.) and obviously values academics enough to have gone to Vandy in the first place. You also have to consider that with only one year to play, Walker has to look at playing time and NU offers a good chance for him to get on the floor.

Walker’s a 6-7 forward who can shoot from three point range and seems to be a solid rebounder. He’d likely be able to start at the three spot for NU and give the ‘Cats two big forwards who can stretch the defense like they were supposed to have last year before Kevin Coble decided to end his career a year early.

It’s hard to say exactly what will make or break Walker’s grad school decision, but hopefully we’ll see him in purple and white this winter. I think he’d be a huge asset in getting NU to the NCAA Tournament.

NU Has an Assistant Coach, Chicago Has Big Ten Tournament (Part-Time)

2011-06-05T21:05:00.001-05:00

A couple of fun things have happened recently. First, Northwestern is going to name former Rutgers Head Coach Fred Hill as an assistant in the near future. Hill is probably most famous for getting into a shouting match with the University of Pittsburg baseball coach at a RU-Pitt baseball game (He ought to enjoy the Wrigley Field bleachers during his time at NU), but the fact is the guy has a good reputation as a recruiter and could reopen the East Coast to NU as a potential ground to bring in some talent. The odds are Hill won’t stay at NU long if he can find another D1 head coaching gig, but he’s a very good addition to the staff at this point.

In other news, the Big Ten Tournament is back in Chicago in 2013 and 2015. That’s good news for NU fans who want to attend and honestly I think it’s worthwhile for the Big Ten to vary the event’s location. On the other hand, the football title game is locked into Indy until 2015, but as much as I'd like to see that game in Chicago I think the logic is that the title should be played in a location where weather isn't a factor and the best team has the best chance to win.

NU adds Transfer

2011-05-22T14:52:00.000-05:00

Northwestern did finally get a new recruit this spring as 6-9 forward Nikola Cerina announced his intention to join NU’s program. Cerina is a transfer from TCU and will have to sit out next season, but he is a big body that will certainly help when Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti graduate as well as provide a good presence in practice this season. His addition is also a positive as it balances out the roster in terms of class. Cerina will join JerShon Cobb as a member of the class of 2014 of which Cobb previously was the only member.

Speaking of Cobb, word is he is recovering from some offseason surgery. I don’t think JerShon was ever totally healthy last season and still he had a very nice year. Hopefully, he’s back to 100% this fall when practice starts and can take on a leadership role.

Some News

2011-05-19T20:31:00.002-05:00

First off, congrats to Coach Hardy on his promotion to Associate Head Coach for the Wildcats. It gives him the inside track on the head job at NU if Bill Carmody retires in the near future, but it also boosts his resume in the hunt for other head coaching gigs he might want to pursue in the next couple years as well.

Also, some scheduling news has NU potentially playing in an early season tournament in South Carolina which would include Georgia Tech (also NU’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge opponent) as well as Final Four participate VCU. That would be a great way for NU to test themselves early and hopefully with a strong field would also lead to some national TV games early on in the season. After all, with NU’s lack of news in recruiting it is critical NU build some positive momentum in order to get some good players to play for NU. Otherwise, Hardy might be the future coach, but I’m not sure he’ll have much of a team.

John Shurna is Back for His Senior Year at NU

2011-05-08T16:37:00.003-05:00

No great suprise, but still good to hear that John Shura has decided to return to Northwestern for his senior year. His return gives NU a team with four of five starters and six of the top eight players back from a 20-win team in 2010-11.

More on NU Recruiting

2011-05-01T14:34:00.003-05:00

David Funk of Big Ten Powerhouse interviewed myself and follow NU bloggers Jay Sharman (Lake the Posts) and Rodger Sherman (Sippin' on Purple) for a feature on NU's basketball recruiting. Here's a link to his article: http://www.btpowerhouse.com/2011/4/30/2142961/northwestern-recruits-have-gone-up-a-notch-but-is-it-enough

John Cannon Picks Georgia over Northwestern

2011-04-30T15:53:00.001-05:00

Well, once again Northwestern loses out on a recruit. This time 6-10 center John Cannon picked UGA over NU. The lack of ability to close the deal with recruits hasn’t hurt NU yet, but that’s because of a very strong class which will be seniors next year. After next season, NU is in big trouble without an influx of talent showing up because next year’s sophomore and junior classes combined total three scholarship players. Rumor has it NU is still recruiting a JUCO big man for next year and I really hope they can close the deal with him because if not the positive steps Northwestern basketball hasn’t will fall backwards simply due to lack of players.

A Few Quick Thoughts/Updates

2011-04-21T13:31:00.001-05:00

First of all, congratulations to Mitch Henderson on being named head coach at Princeton. I’m sure it is very exciting for Mitch to get his first job as a head coach and even more exciting that he gets the job where he starred as a point guard. Of course, Mitch’s departure means that NU is in the market for a new assistant coach. The obvious on staff choice would be simply to promote Joe Kennedy from Director of Basketball Operations. However, I’m not sure that with him having only one year in that job if NU will decide to go that director for Joe. The argument is that he was really as an assistant coach for most of his playing career as we all remember him activity coaching from the sidelines, but it might benefit him to get a little more experience before being a paid assistant in the Big Ten. Of course, the popular choice would have to be Jitim Young who I consider Mr. Northwestern Basketball, but I’m not sure Jitim is ready to give up on playing just yet. Still, if I were Bill Carmody I would gauge Jitim’s interest. Another possibility is Nate Pomeday who currently works for Craig Robinson at Oregon State, but who, aside from playing at NU, has Midwestern roots. I’d look at him as a serious candidate.

As Coach Henderson leaves, his last effort for NU was the attempt to recruit center John Cannon. Cannon, a product of North Carolina, is in the final stages of deciding between NU and Georgia for college. He says that Henderson departure doesn’t make a difference, but I’m a little worried he scheduled a return trip to UGA for this weekend. If NU doesn’t sign Cannon this will be yet another spring where NU came close to adding a big man, but couldn’t close the deal.

John Shurna declared for the NBA draft, but didn’t hire an agent. Basically, this pretty much means that he is likely to come back to school, but wants to see what the NBA thinks of him. Purdue’s JaJuan Johnson did the same thing last spring. It does seem to be a good process to go through for college players because they get an honest outside critique of their game from experts. I suspect Shurna will be back in Evanston next fall, but hopefully he’ll learn something between now and then that makes it possible for him to play in the NBA in 2012-2013.

Good News, No News

2011-04-14T20:27:00.001-05:00

Well, some good recruiting news recently occurred as most of you are probably aware NU got verbals from Alex Olah and Milos Kostic both from the state of Indiana. Olah is a member of the class of 2012 and Kostic is a member of the class of 2013. Therefore, we will have to wait a bit to see both play, but the news is good in the sense that it shows NU making positive momentum forward with high school players. Ivan Vujic was the primary recruiter for both players which is also nice to see as it is good when all members of the staff clearly are involved with bringing in new talent. Mitch Henderson and Joe Kennedy were reportedly sighted giving class of 2011 recruiting target John Cannon a tour of NU last week, so hopefully Coach Henderson can pull of a recruiting get of his own to match the work done by his colleagues Vujic and Hardy. Unfortunately, we won’t know the results of Henderson’s work for a little while because Cannon plans to visit Georgia first. However, if NU can land the big man from North Carolina it will complete a pretty solid week of NU recruiting.

NU with a Local Pro

2011-04-13T21:05:00.002-05:00

Here's a short post from Amy Pooley who will be writing every once and a while for WRR in the future. Today, she talks about NU women's basketball star Amy Jaeschke who was picked by our local Chicago Sky in the WNBA draft...

The WNBA draft was just a couple days ago, and NU’s own #22 Amy Jaeschke (I’ve always said the 22 stands for double-double) was drafted by the Chicago Sky as the 27th overall pick and the third pick of the third round. This is an exciting day for Amy and for Northwestern, as she is the first Wildcat to be drafted into the WNBA and the first to be drafted by a pro basketball team in the United States since Evan Eschmeyer went to the Nets back in 2000. Amy averaged 21.4 points and 9.0 rebounds this season while tallying 104 blocks. She is the Big Ten’s 4th all-time leading shot blocker.

Amy grew up in Wilmette and attended New Trier High School, so playing for the Sky will give her the opportunity to stay near home and bring her local fan base with her. The Sky have to like having picked a potential backup to Sylvia Fowles who has such strong Chicago connections. Unfortunately, the WNBA draft isn’t the end of the road for playing on the team, as Amy and the Sky’s other draftees -- Gonzaga’s Courtney Vandersloot, Boston College’s Carolyn Swords, and Tennessee’s Angie Bjorklund – will compete for the opportunity to wear a Sky uniform after final cuts are made. Let’s hope that Amy makes some noise on the court the next couple of months – the Sky play their first game of the WNBA season on June 4th (the first home game is the Friday afterward), and it’d be awesome to see Amy get some minutes in a Sky uniform.

Congratulations to Amy! Northwestern’s incredibly lucky to count her as an alumna, and we wish her the best of luck as she begins her pro career. We will keep you updated on how Amy’s doing over the next few months.

Future of Program Starts with Recruiting

2011-04-10T16:50:00.000-05:00

It may be stating the obvious, but even coming off a successful season no Northwestern basketball fan should feel totally confident at future success. Why? Well, because simply stated Northwestern has never sustained basketball success over the long term because they’ve never been able to consistently recruit. That’s why even three NITs in a row is remarkable, but really NU’s attempt and sustained success (or semi-success) starts with next season. The Wildcats will have to replace Juice Thompson who was probably the most valuable player on those postseason teams and the year after will have to replace their entire front court depth chart from the past two seasons. That means that the success of this year’s freshman class and next year’s recruits (high school class of 2012) is critical. Right now, Northwestern has two quality guards signed in David Sobolewski and Tre Demps. Sobolewski is said to be more of a natural point guard whereas Demps is more of a combo guard. Both should help NU right away, though, I wouldn’t be shocked if JerShon Cobb and Alex Marcotullio start next year as NU’s backcourt simply based on experience. Northwestern also has 6-8 Mike Turner from Chicago U-High signed up to play at NU next year. Some rate Turner as a project, but his reported athletic skill does have me excited to watch him play defense. However, at just 6-8 and with a thin frame Turner likely isn’t the major cog in the front court wheel that NU desperately needs or will need in the near future. That’s why fans need to pay attention as we hit the spring signing period to see if NU can land any of their big man targets.

The name that is actually out there right now is 6-10 John Cannon from North Carolina who reportedly has another BCS offer from Georgia and a walk-on offer at North Carolina. That’s tough competition for NU, but it sure sounds like Cannon could be an impact player at NU right away while sitting on the bench at those other two schools. Hopefully, that’s something Bill Carmody tries to sell the young man on as I know that sitting on the bench is not something many former high school stars enjoy. Of course, if Cannon does go elsewhere that makes one wonder if NU will get a spring big man recruit. Rumors have also surfaced about foreign players and JUCO players, but no names have ever appeared. Perhaps NU is trying to keep their efforts under the radar, but the fact is I really think this spring’s recruiting class will say a lot about NU’s future and we as fans need to watch closely.

Some Thoughts on the Season as a Whole and Next Year as Well

2011-03-28T20:09:00.000-05:00

It’s been a little less than a week since Northwestern finished off their season with a 69-66 loss at Washington State. A few breaks and NU could have been the last Big Ten team standing in postseason play, but I guess it just wasn’t to be. The good news is that NU’s last five games of the year (despite just a 3-2 record) were some of the best basketball I’ve ever seen Northwestern play. The bad news is that one of the key cogs in that great basketball, Michael “Juice” Thompson, won’t be back next year. Still, I’d like to think those games are something NU can build on as they move forward to next season.

Next season is a critical one. With everybody returning hopefully healthy by the time the season starts and a decent class of freshman Northwestern could make another run at the NCAA Tournament. It seems for the last few years it’s been legitimate to believe Northwestern might make their first NCAA tournament and next year shouldn’t be an exception. It certainly isn’t going to come easy, but the NCAAs don’t generally come easy for any team in the Big Ten.

John Shurna is the biggest reason to believe in NU next year. Shurna’s year took a major hit on December 23, 2010 when he went down with an ankle injury vs Mount St. Mary’s and never recovered. But Shurna was dynamic before the injury and finished last season as one of the top scorers in the Big Ten. No reason exists to think he can’t return to form if his ankle returns to form. Shurna will need to take on more of leadership role without Juice, but I think he certainly can do so without a problem.

I thought one of the best moments of this past season was NU’s home win against Illinois with a great crowd and a national TV audience. In that game, Juice Thompson was huge, but freshman JerShon Cobb stepped up significantly as well. Cobb than went down with an injury shortly afterwards. Cobb’s health probably impacted NU as much as Shurna’s down the stretch as he was a key figure on defense and on the glass for NU with his athletic skill. I also really liked Cobb’s mid-range game which he showed at its best vs Illinois. JerShon’s continued development will be important next year as well. He needs to get double-figures every game to take pressure off of Shurna and Drew Crawford.

NU’s sophomores this year were inconsistent, but both give NU fans hope for their junior season. Alex Marcotulllio was great at the end of the year and has to be considered a likely starter next year for the ‘Cats. I loved the intensity that Alex played with and I look forward him logging heavy minutes next year. Drew Crawford showed some of the most athletic moves I’ve seen from an NU player this past season, but struggled with his consistency. I think a lot of that has to do with confidence. If Drew Crawford can trust his abilities, I think he’ll be dangerous next season.

In the front court at the center spot NU also saw inconsistent play. Both Davide Curletti and Luka Mirkovic had great moments, but neither regularly impressed. NU needs to recruit big men hard to give these two support and so someone is ready to play upon their graduation.

The coaching situation at NU is a subject which I and others had a lot to say about this year as well. In the end, though, Bill Carmody earned the last year of his contract which is next season. I do think Carmody will need to show real progress over this year to keep his job next year, but after NU’s final five games it is hard to object to his return.

We’ll get into the spring recruiting period soon and really get a view on NU’s future then. If the ‘Cats do get a couple big men signed I think next year and the year after will look more promising. That’s worth keeping an eye on.

Season’s Over, But Not Without a Fight

2011-03-24T07:48:00.001-05:00

Sometimes you don’t win in sports. It’s as simple as that. Even if you play well the other team comes out on top. What’s kind of depressing about Northwestern’s season end loss to Washington State is that while NU played well, they could have played better and with such a narrow margin of defeat you can’t help thinking about what went wrong. Still, the fact of the matter is the game was close and well-played on both sides so it really isn’t productive to focus on NU’s poor start, some odd officiating, poor shooting all night from three (especially from John Shurna), or the fact that WSU’s Casto had himself magically unsuspended to play in this game. Northwestern lost because they couldn’t score more than two points in overtime. That’s the fact of the matter and I’m not going to put the loss on anything else.

I’m sorry to see Juice Thompson go and so much wish he would have made just one more shot, but again he played a great game making multiple big shots and hustling from the opening jump to the last buzzer. I sincerely hope Alex Marcotullio and JerShon Cobb learned something from him about competitiveness because he was teaching a great lesson about how competing all out for 40 minutes makes you a better player every time he stepped on the floor.

I did think Alex continued to show his growth versus Washington State. He does play hard and has gotten way more comfortable on offense. I so wished he would have made one of his two final shots, but obviously the first one was something of a panicked shot because he wanted to give NU a chance for a rebound and the second was totally rushed with less than two seconds left. I think as he gets into his junior and senior year when he gets his feet set Alex will be one of the best shooters the Big Ten has to offer.

Marcotullio and the ‘Cats also played very good defense in the second half. Unfortunately, their first half defense reverted to the defense NU played for the majority of the season as WSU got whatever shot they wanted. Some of that I think was because Northwestern early on looked unprepared for Washington State’s trapping defense and that got WSU easy shots, but regardless the truth of the matter is that even though NU got the lead briefly and got the game tied at the end of regulation, in a lot of ways Washington State won the game when they built up a 14 point first half margin and forced NU to virtually always play from behind.

That playing from behind is part of the reason NU shot so many threes, but that’s also part of NU’s game. I just wish John Shurna could have made closer to his average. Instead, he hit just 2-of-10. That’s too bad because I think he’s almost over his injury, he just missed. Of course, some credit for that has to go Washington State’s physical defense. I think one of the offseason goals for NU has to be for Shurna to get into the weight room so physical defenders can’t wear him down as much.

So, the season is over. This is a tough end, but if I had to pick anything other than a championship to end my year, I’d pick finishing my year with a close loss to a higher ranked team every time. Sure, you’re stuck wondering “what it?” but the close loss also proves you belonged in the game with that opponent. It wasn’t a lucky break you were there and it wasn’t the fault of the teams you beat. You deserved your opportunity to play for something special and though it didn’t work out, you still have reason to be proud of your effort.

One Shot Away

2011-03-24T00:28:00.001-05:00

I’ll have more on this loss tomorrow. It was a good game and really both teams played well. Northwestern had their chances in the overtime period and didn’t capitalize and still got two final chances which came up just short. It’s obviously disappointing, but really NU played well. They simply didn’t get the same good shooting they got at Boston College and since they don’t have any serious inside presence the sub 30% three point night pretty much sealed the Washington State victory and even then NU was just one shot away from sending the game to a second overtime. The loss stinks and I'm sorry to see Juice Thompson end his career. I do kind of wish he could have gotten one of those two last shots, but WSU wasn't going to let that happen.

No More Suspension for Casto

2011-03-23T21:09:00.000-05:00

Washington State lifted Casto’s suspension. That kind of negates the idea that NU will catch the breaks tonight, but you never know. At least now if NU wins WSU won’t have any excuses about not playing at full-strength.

Wildcats go to West Coast for NIT Quarterfinal Matchup with Washington State

2011-03-22T20:53:00.001-05:00

Northwestern went to the east coast for their second round NIT game with Boston College and we can only hope that a trip to the opposite side of the country produces similar results. If the ‘Cats can beat the Cougars on Wednesday night in Pullman, Washington, it’ll mean NU will be back on the east coast for the NIT semifinals next week. Bottom line, the NIT might help Head Coach Bill Carmody and his team rack up a ton of frequent flyer miles.

Of course, to get to that semifinal game the ‘Cats have to get past a tough Washington State team in their own building on Wednesday night. NU caught something of a break when WSU suspended their third leading scorer DeAngelo Casto on Tuesday. Of course, WSU will still have Klay Thompson and he’s one of the best scorers in the nation. Thompson scores 22.2 points per game, but put up over 30 several times this season, including 43 in a Pac-10 Tournament loss to Washington. He does it in part from three point range where he makes 41.5% and the free throw line where he makes 83.4%, but really he can score from anywhere. Northwestern’s defense has been significantly better their last five games and it will take another solid effort to contain Thompson. Despite Thompson’s 6-6 size, I still think you’ll Alex Marcotullio as the primary Wildcat defender simply based on Marcotullio’s ability to fight through screens away from the ball. His primary goal has to be to stop Thompson from catching the ball in position to score.

After Thompson the next best Cougar scorer is Faisal Aden. He averages 12.9 points per game and is a decent three point shooter at around 33%. He’s another player NU has to be alert to defend as with Casto out one might think Aden’s role in Washington State’s offense will get even more significant. Another player the Cougars will need to step up is 6-10 Brock Motum. Obviously, losing Casto’s scoring and 255-pound frame hurts Washington State. However, at 6-10 Motum will negate what was going to be a size advantage for Luka Mirkovic inside. Hopefully, Luka will still be able to make an impact based on his superior strength.

Overall, Washington State like Northwestern and Boston College and UW-Milwaukee is a team that will shoot a lot of threes. The Cougars have attempted 655 threes this year and made 36%. Abe Lodwick is a forward who makes about 32% of his three point shots and who will likely get a start versus Northwestern. Guard Reggie Moore is also an excellent three point shooter, but he scored only two points in Washington State’s win over Oklahoma State.

On defense I think Washington State will likely play zone. Washington State has seen Princeton Offense-like teams in Arizona State and Oregon State. They also watched NU’s game against BC on tape (and maybe live) and even as well as Northwestern shot in that game, I think watching NU carve up Boston College with backdoor dunks will make zone a more logical way for Head Coach Ken Bone to defend NU. That means all of NU’s shooters must be on their game. John Shurna needs to make better than 1-of-8 threes and Juice Thompson, Drew Crawford, and Alex Marcotullio must continue to shoot well.

This is something of a tough game to predict. Washington State has the advantage of a home game, but NU has the advantage of rest. Washington loses a solid player in Casto, but gains size in their lineup which works against Northwestern. The crowd for WSU will probably be much better than the crowd NU saw at BC, but I’ve heard stories of several NU fans that are making major personal efforts to arrive in Pullman by 8PM local time Wednesday night. This game is important to both teams I’m sure, but I’m hoping that the dedication of such NU fans somehow carries over to our players and the ‘Cats play as hard as they’ve ever played before from the tip till the last horn whatever the result. I think Klay Thompson will score a lot of points, but I think John Shurna will have a big day as well. In my ideal scenario I’d love to see Thompson score about 42 and Shurna score about 39, but get his final three at the buzzer to propel NU to a win. Bottom line, I think Washington State’s biggest advantage is they are the home team, but I think NU is the better team, especially now that WSU doesn’t have Casto’s bulk to push around Luka. Hopefully, some of the intangibles will break in NU’s favor as well and it’ll be enough. It is about time that they do (though, actually, it’s well past time they do, so take that for what it’s worth). I predict: Northwestern, 69 Washington State, 68

Don't Forget Wash. State -- Ok. State is Tonight

2011-03-21T20:39:00.002-05:00

It's a little late. Okay, a lot late for those of us not on the west coast, but if you can't sleep you can catch the matchup between Washington State and Oklahoma State tonight and get the first look at who will be NU's matchup in the NIT's round of 8. I guess I'm kind of rooting for OSU because of the shorter travel, but both teams will be tough. OSU has size and WSU has Klay Thompson who is just a total stud. I guess we will see what happens, but I will say I'm happy to be deep into March and posting about games which will impact NU this season.

Wildcats Top Top-Seeded Boston College to Advance to NIT Quarterfinals

2011-03-19T11:57:00.000-05:00

That was awesome! This morning’s dismantling of Boston College was probably the best game Northwestern played since they dismantled BC’s fellow ACC team Georgia Tech. Making this win even better, I actually think as well as Northwestern played, they could still play even better. And they get a chance to do so against the winner of the Washington State-Oklahoma State game which will be played in Pullman, Washington on Monday night.

Today’s brilliant performance started about five minutes into the game and continued until the final horn sounded. All five NU starters scored in double figures and all five contributed to NU winning the rebounding battle 29-20 (and 10-3 in offensive caroms) and holding BC’s All-ACC guard Reggie Jackson to just 8 points, the Los Angles Dodgers wish they could have contained Reggie that well (yes, that was another baseball joke, sorry).

It’s hard when watching a game on TV to really say a team “wanted” to win more, but it sure looked like Northwestern did. As pointed out on the broadcast, the ‘Cats seemed to get to almost every 50/50. The last time NU played with such aggressiveness was when they lost to top-ranked Ohio State by just one point late January. If NU plays with that type of intensity they are tough to beat because since they are such good shooters they can turn an offensive rebound into three points with ease.

That intensity also carried over on defense. BC only turned the ball over 11 times, but 6 of those were off NU steals and the ‘Cats made life tough for BC on a number of other offensive possessions. NU played their man-to-man almost the entire game. One possession of 1-3-1 was played, but Coach Carmody called it off after BC hit a three. Actually, the 1-3-1 possession did force BC to burn a ton of clock and NU almost got a TO, but with as well as NU was playing in the man, it was probably the right move to stick with it. I also liked how NU didn’t switch as much in the man-to-man as they have in the past. They pretty much tried to fight through screens with the exception of guarding Jackson. In order to ensure Jackson also had a guy in his face, the ‘Cats would switch when BC set ball screens for their star. Alex Marcotullio and Drew Crawford statistically led the ‘Cat defense with two steals each, but the whole team was involved. I’ve been critical of how well Bill Carmody motivates his players to hustle and play defense, but I have to say NU looked well motivated to do those things today. Actually, I think the last two (maybe even three) games have been amongst the best of Carmody’s career in terms of having the team motivated to play and in terms of handling the in game coaching situations.

On offense NU shot 54.8% overall and 41.7% from three. The ‘Cats knocked down 15 threes which was huge in extending and then holding the lead. Every time BC looked like the might come back it seemed NU found an open man who canned a three. Juice Thompson led NU with 6 made threes and 22 overall points along with 6 assists. Drew Crawford showed up and as I anticipated his reemergence was part of what sparked NU’s success. For the game Crawford connected on 3-of-5 threes, scored 13 points, and dished out four assists. Alex Marcotullio also made three three-point shots. Alex finished with 12 total points and three assists.

Though they weren’t big three point shooters today (only one each) NU’s staring bigs, John Shurna and Luka Mirkovic, also played great games. Shurna scored 20 points to along with 9 rebounds and 4 assists. He also had three dunks which had both him and every Wildcat fan nationwide grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Luka Mirkovic scored 13 points, 5 rebounds and dished out 7 assists. Most impressively for Luka, he didn’t miss a shot. Every time Luka had the chance to finish at the hoop he did so and some of the shots weren’t easy finishes. If Luka plays like that in NU’s next game I think the ‘Cats might be in Madison Square Garden for the NIT’s final four.

Without knowing who NU will play it’s a little tough to look ahead. I’ll simply say that continued hustle on defense and the glass and John Shurna adding a couple three pointers to his inside scoring could, and maybe even should, be a recipe for NU continuing this postseason run. It also might be nice to see NU add a little more scoring punch off the bench, but when the starters play as well as they did today that becomes less critical. Perhaps, JerShon Cobb getting back into form will make a difference in that area. Regardless, NU has now achieved milestones in tying the programs highest win total and advancing further than ever before in the postseason, even better, NU is now one win away from a couple more major program milestones. I look forward to seeing the next game which will likely be Wednesday with a location and time to be determined Monday evening after the Washington State-Oklahoma State game. Wildcat Nation will be waiting to see that result.

Wildcats go on the road in NIT Round 2

2011-03-17T21:24:00.001-05:00

Northwestern will play at Boston College on Saturday. It’s an early tip at 11AM Eastern and 10AM Central time. Traditionally, such early tips result in low scoring games because teams don’t conduct a pregame shoot-around. Both NU and BC have some offensive firepower, though, so it’ll be interesting to see exactly what happens.

If Northwestern is to stop BC the first guy they have to contain is Reggie Jackson. Mr. October (okay, it’s not the same guy) averages more than eighteen points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists a game. He’s a guy that’s really athletic and can score with jump shots as well as he knocks down about 42% of his threes. As a team BC makes 38% of their threes. Some would assume that means NU can’t play the 1-3-1, but NU sprang the 1-3-1 on UW-Milwaukee even though they were good shooters and it worked because the Panthers hadn’t seen anything like it all year. BC is probably a little more athletic and able to get into the teeth of the zone, but if Alex Marcotullio continues to be disruptive at the top of that 1-3-1, it’s possible BC could fall victim to NU’s pressure just as Milwaukee did.

Along with Reggie Jackson, BC has two other very good shooters in Biko Paris and Danny Rubin. Both make more than 40% of their threes, though, in Rubin’s case that’s pretty much all he does. Paris, on the other hand, is another well rounded guard who can do a lot of things well.

The size for BC comes in the form of 6-8 Joe Trapani. He scores more than 14 points per game and grabs more than 7 rebounds. Also, like the rest of his teammates he can knock down a three as he hits better than 35% of the ones he takes. Look for 6-6 Corey Raji to attack the glass for BC as well. He’s athletic and long and can get to the glass off of those long three point misses that occur for a distance shooting team.

In this contest, I expect a ton of threes to be launched. NU and UW-Milwaukee fired up 67 total threes and NU and BC may best that mark. BC’s inside guys might be a little more athletic and physical than Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti, but they’re also better shooters and might play on the outside even more. For Northwestern, a hot shooting John Shurna can get up more than 10 three point attempts and make nearly as many as can Juice Thompson and Alex Marcotullio if they’re feeling it from the outside.

The key player for NU, though, has to be Drew Crawford. Crawford can match the athletic skill of several of BC’s guards better than anyone else on NU’s roster other than, perhaps, injured guard JerShon Cobb. That means Crawford will be a key on both defense and on the glass. In addition, I truly believe NU is a hot shooting night for Drew Crawford away from another breakout performance similar to what we saw versus Georgia Tech and at Iowa. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait till next year to see it.

This is a tough game to call, but I see BC’s 12-4 home mark and I see NU’s road struggles and I worry. On paper these teams are pretty even, but if NU starts slow on the road BC could build an early edge. The ‘Cats must hit some threes early and let BC know that they have come to Chestnut Hill ready to play. If that happens NU could sneak away with a win. However, I’m not sure that’s where the smart money should go. I predict: Boston College, 68 Northwestern, 59

A Postseason Win! Northwestern Tops UW-Milwaukee for First Postseason Win in 17 Years

2011-03-16T21:27:00.000-05:00

It wasn’t perfect, but the result was. Northwestern used just enough three point shooting and the surprise springing of the 1-3-1 defense (nice move by Coach Carmody to see that Anthony Hill would do more damage to NU than the Panther three point shooters) to help hold off a Wisconsin-Milwaukee comeback effort in the second half to capture the program’s first postseason win in 17 years. Northwestern will now face Boston College in Chestnut Hill on Saturday morning at 11AM Eastern Time. That to me isn’t an ideal start time, but I suspect the NIT wants to try to avoid too much overlap with NCAA games. And considering that we could be Wisconsin-Milwaukee and not play till November, I’m not going to complain.

Tonight’s Wildcat win featured solid play from John Shurna, Juice Thompson, and Alex Marcotullio. It was good to see Marcotullio step up with the injury to JerShon Cobb keeping the talented freshman on the bench and Mike Capocci and Drew Crawford both struggling. I think Capocci probably still isn’t a 100% after his own injury and Drew Crawford simply isn’t shooting well right now. Personally, I think it’s all psychological with Crawford and probably instead of practice would sit him in the video room and have him watch one of the games were in exploded for 25 points plus because it’s pretty clear right now the kid needs a confidence boost.

Speaking of confidence, Shurna seemed to have plenty off it coming off his tremendous performance in the Big Ten Tournament near upset of Ohio State. Tonight, John scored 25 points, connected on half his threes, and pulled down eight rebounds. He was also part of very a strong middle 3 in NU’s 1-3-1 which helped keep Panther star Anthony Hill from getting many good looks at the basket.

Juice Thompson was good as well in what is probably his last game at Welsh-Ryan Arena unless Long Beach State pulls enough upsets for NU to make it back home in the NIT’s quarterfinals. Juice made seven field goals and assisted on six more. He totaled 20 points and 4 rebounds. He made 4 threes, but seemed to have a number of others which nearly went as well. As NU heads on the road, the continued desire of Juice to will his team to victory and extend his college career will be critical to future Wildcat success.

Alex Marcotullio continues to develop thanks to Cobb’s injury. He stared again tonight and scored 13 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, and got 3 steals. His constant hustle had him in the middle of a number of other plays for near steals as well. Alex sometimes still makes mistakes, but it is important to remember he’s still young and is just now cracking the starting lineup. Overall, his energy always seems to help NU and I think he’ll be a big help when NU tried to defend a fairly athletic BC team.

I mentioned Drew Crawford earlier. Somehow, someway, NU needs him to step up when they play Boston College. Crawford worked his way to 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists today, but his scoring punch is missed by the ‘Cats. I think he’ll be the key guy in the BC game so I hope he gets with Coach Henderson and they work on brining back the hot-shooting Drew Crawford we know exists.

Credit also goes to Luka Mirkovic who helped NU win the rebounding battle with 8 boards of his own (including four on the offensive end) and by holding position against Anthony Hill and allowing his teammates to get rebounds. Luka also did a good job in his role as a passer in NU’s offense and got four assists to his name.

NU only got two bench points today (Mike Capocci free throws) and I think both Capocci and Davide Curletti will need to do more for NU to upset BC. Hopefully, another couple days will help heal Capocci.

So, it’s on to Boston College. It’ll be a tough game, but it is way better to move on than go home and I’m glad that once again NU has a postseason win on the resume. It’s a good feeling and one that’ll potentially get even better on Saturday. I can’t wait!

Postseason Play Back in Evanston for First Time in 17 Years as Wildcats Host Panthers

2011-03-14T19:53:00.001-05:00

I remember as a young impressionable child having my parents take me to Northwestern’s NIT game against DePaul in 1994. I think that day even more than the football team’s run to the Rose Bowl a year later is what cemented me as a Northwestern fan. Welsh-Ryan was rocking that night and when Kevin Rankin put in a dunk off the opening tip the roof almost came off the place. The atmosphere might not be as great Wednesday night when the Wildcats host the UW-Milwaukee Panthers, but I know hosting a postseason game is a special thing for Northwestern and I suspect NU fans will turn out to support the Wildcats.

Ideally, Northwestern wouldn’t host postseason games because they’d play at a neutral site in the NCAA Tournament. However, with the clear death of the NCAA Tournament dream, I can’t complain about hosting a game in the NIT. The NIT is still a chance to win a championship and hosting this game gives NU at least a slightly better shot at picking up a title than they had the last two years when the opened NIT play on the road and lost both games.

The Panthers are coached by Rob Jeter a former assistant at Wisconsin-Madison so NU should more or less know what to expect. UW-Milwaukee will use the swing offense and be aggressive in man-to-man defense. That swing offense creates open shots for a number of Panther including 6-8 Tony Meier who despite his size prefers to play on the outside. Meier is third on his team in scoring with 11.8 ppg, but makes 43% of his threes and is one of four Panthers starters who will shoot from the outside. I suspect that Northwestern will stay away from their 1-3-1 zone given Milwaukee’s ability to knock down treys. Another high scoring Panther is Tone Boyle. Boyle makes 38.3% of his threes and scores 13.1 ppg. He’s a 6-4 guard that NU will likely need to stop from getting open looks. The one Panther starter who doesn’t shoot threes is actually their leading scorer. Anthony Hill scores 15.5ppg working on the inside. At 6-7 he’s also the team’s leading rebounder with over 6 boards a game. He converts more than 50% of his looks so NU needs to keep away from the basket and off the glass.

One area where UW-Milwaukee has trouble is ball security. Point guard Kaylon Williams is the only Panther in the regular rotation who has more assists than turnovers. That means NU needs to play the same type of pressure defense they played in the Big Ten Tournament. If NU does so I suspect they’ll get some easy baskets and have more total shots than the Panthers.

The Panthers regular rotation tops out at 6-9 height wise. That means NU could win the rebounding battle if they go aggressively to the glass and Luka Mirkovic stays under control. If Luka does stay under control he could get some easy baskets like he got versus Indiana. Also, John Shurna’s resurgence in the Big Ten Tournament loss to Ohio State is a major plus for NU and I know Juice Thompson will have a big game. The question as far as NU’s advancement in the NIT is Drew Crawford. Will he have a jump shot? And if he doesn’t have a jump shot will he try to finish aggressively if he takes the ball to the hoop? If Crawford can’t shoot and needs to drive, he needs to try to finish strong and dunk the ball instead of putting up wussy finger role layups.

At home and with more size I think NU has a great chance to win this game. I hope the fans sure up, though, because I’m sure UW-Milwaukee will have their supporters as well. It should be a lot of fun and if NU does win they might have a chance at a home game in round two as Boston College passed on hosting a first round game. Of course, we need to make we take care of round 1 first. I predict: Northwestern, 77 UW-Milwaukee, 70

The NIT: A chance to win a ring.

2011-03-13T21:21:00.001-05:00

I’ll have a preview for NU’s game with Milwaukee up tomorrow night, but I just want to say that I think the best thing to about this (aside from NU’s first postseason home game in 17 years) is the fact that this is a chance for NU’s players to win rings. You can, as was said on the Big Ten Tournament broadcast, win rings in four ways: win the regular season league title, win the league’s tournament title, win the NCAA tournament, or win the NIT (maybe they give CBI or CIT rings too, but you get the point). That means the Wildcats have a legit chance to win a ring and that’s something they should take pride in trying to do because a lot of teams don’t have the same chance. It’s something that I know Juice Thompson will take pride in trying to accomplish and I hope the underclassmen try to play as hard as Juice does in order to give him a shot at ring. I also hope NU fans show up in good numbers to support the Wildcats. To host a postseason game is a rare opportunity for Northwestern and it should be something fans enjoy. There isn’t much time, but I hope the ticket office gets the word out to those NU fans that are football season ticket holders, but not basketball season ticket holders. Attacking that market strongly could help fill Welsh-Ryan up with purple and that’ll hopefully help push NU to an opening round win over the Panthers in what should be a good game. I’m excited and I hope others in Wildcat Nation are as well. This wasn’t what we wanted when the season started, but it’s also better than I thought things might be in the middle of the year. Therefore, I’m looking at this is a positive step for NU basketball right now.

NU Hosts the NIT vs UW-Milwaukee

2011-03-13T20:31:00.002-05:00

Northwestern will host UW-Milwaukee on Wednesday at 7PM in Welsh-Ryan. The game is on ESPN3.com, which is probably about right for this matchup, but it's NIT home game which is a step in the right direction.

Let’s Give Out Some Awards…

2011-03-12T17:28:00.000-06:00

The Big Ten gave out their postseason awards earlier this week so I’m going to do the same today. Somehow I hope this eases the pain of yesterday’s loss. By the way, did Penn State win? I like those guys, but I’m refusing to watch any basketball related stuff till 8PM tomorrow’s NIT selection show and I encourage everyone to do the same. It keeps the pain and anger down.

Anyway, some awards. I’ve got an MVP for this season (two actually), a defensive player of the year, and a newcomer of the year (can you guess who wins this?). So let’s get started…

MVP (x2) Michael “Juice” Thompson and John Shurna….I know it’s kind of a cheat to chose two guys for an award which ends in “player” not “players” but I just couldn’t pick. I liked the fact that Juice willed the team to victory a number of times and kept the ‘Cats close in a number of games they lost, but I also couldn’t ignore the fact that John Shurna’s injury pretty much cost Northwestern the NCAA Tournament. So I guess I’m giving Juice the MVP based on what he did and Shurna the MVP based on what he could have done if healthy the whole season. That might not make sense to everyone, but it does to me and these are my awards.

Previous Winners
2009….Craig Moore
2010….Juice Thompson

Defensive Player of the Year Alex Marcotullio…..I really considered not choosing a winner for this award, but Marcotullio always tried on defense even if his physical skills put him at a disadvantage compared to the guy he was guarding. I don’t think the same can be said for many of his teammates (I’m looking at you especially Drew Crawford) therefore Marcotullio gets this award, but as bad as the Wildcats were on defense I don’t think he should be that proud.

Previous Winners
2009….Jeremy Nash
2010….Jeremy Nash

Newcomer of the Year JerShon Cobb….NU’s only newcomer wins the newcomer award. A big shock, I know. But the truth is Cobb had a very nice freshman season. It just was sidetracked due to injury three separate times. Still, when he played he showed nice consistency for a young guy and a court presence which reminded me of a more veteran player. I honestly believe he has a chance to very a good player for NU. He showed his potential best in the game against Illinois at Welsh-Ryan Arena when he routinely schooled Demetri McCamey who some said before the year was a future NBA guard.

Previous Winners
2009…John Shurna
2010…Drew Crawford

Close Again, but Still Nothing

2011-03-11T13:32:00.000-06:00

I don’t really know what to say right now. Another good effort, but the bottom line is Northwestern just can’t reach the summit when it comes to postseason sports in both men’s basketball and football. I know people will talk about how this was a great effort, and it was, but it means nothing and I can’t pretend like it does. The loss is a loss. No such thing as a good loss exists which means the NIT selection committee is just going to see Northwestern as an 18-13 team with really no good wins. That means the odds are NU is going to play a road game in the NIT now, and because they stink outside of Evanston they’ll likely lose it. So while a 67-61 loss to the #1 team in the country (especially playing short handed) is a nice accomplishment, it’s not an accomplishment that’s really worth anything other than another number of the record’s right hand side. It’s like the Outback Bowl two years ago, everybody was so proud of that game, but the bottom line is it was a loss. I don’t care how great the game was; we’ve mastered losing close games. Let’s work on winning them.

What went well today? John Shurna was great. He scored 23 points and really came back from a major sub-par effort against Minnesota. I wish he would have tried score in the post late in regulation instead of passing to ice cold Drew Crawford and I think he forced a few shots in OT, but overall I’d say Shurna was NU’s best player today. Crawford did alright as well, but the fact his jump shot has totally deserted him makes him a less effective player. He did do a decent job of taking the ball to the hoop, but his preference for finger rolls and fade-a-aways made him miss a number of looks I thought he could/should have finished. In the end, those might have been the difference in the game. He did hit all his free throws and actually NU’s free throw shooting today was fantastic. If NU had won in regulation it would have been the reason. I thought NU also did play decent defense, but the fact is Jared Sullinger is just a monster compared to anybody NU has. No matter how well Luka Mirkovic, Davide Curletti, or John Shurna played him, the odds were they were going to foul him at some point. In overtime, the refs seemed to become more willing to call those fouls and that hurt the ‘Cats as well.

Juice Thompson wasn’t as good today as yesterday, but OSU’s Aaron Craft is a great defender and he made Thompson have to really work for shots that yesterday he could have got with ease. NU also didn’t really get the same bench contribution today as yesterday, but I think we all knew that Ohio State was a tough game for Nick Fruendt. Maybe having JerShon Cobb and Mike Capocci might have pushed NU over the top in this one, but that’s worthless speculation.

In the end, NU played well, but the better team won and the game’s best player made the biggest difference. It was simply a surprise that most of that difference came at the free throw line and not in the post where NU actually did okay on Sullinger. If Northwestern ever wants to truly compete with good teams, they will have to improve their post players. Like I said, Mirkovic and Curletti did okay, but Sullinger still got way more rebounds and scored way more points. Also, Mirkovic almost cost NU a chance to win even earlier in OT with a silly technical foul because he couldn’t control his emotions. Thankfully, the OSU player missed both shots the so the foul didn’t really matter in terms of points, but it did send Mirkovic to the bench which might have made a difference since then the smaller Shurna had to guard Sullinger.

The bottom line is this is another terribly disappointing loss for Northwestern basketball. It’s the kind of loss that makes you wonder if making the tournament will ever be possible. NU actually caught a few breaks today such as an Alex Marcotullio three counting when it shouldn’t have and OSU shooting sub-par, but is wasn’t enough. Seemingly, nothing ever is.

Juice =’s Record Setter and Second Chance at OSU

2011-03-10T16:08:00.002-06:00

Juice Thompson has accomplished a lot in his Northwestern career. Even before this season started his name was all over the NU record book during this year he’s simply added to it. Thanks to his 35 points today in round 1 of the Big Ten Tournament, Juice is now in the Big Ten record book as those 35 points bested the mark of 33 points set by Purdue’s Brian Cardinal in 1999 for the Big Ten Tournament’s single game scoring record. Juice and the ‘Cats now get to face #1 Ohio State tomorrow at 11 AM Central time for a shot at their first ever trip to the Big Ten semi-finals. Though winning that game is unlikely, one has to remember that in a similar game last year it took a 40-footer from OSU star Evan Turner to top Michigan. Also, given how well NU played OSU this season, I don’t think a win is impossible.
Certainly, an effort like Juice gave today would help as would some support from his teammates.

In today’s game Northwestern as team for the second game in a row played very good defense. Minnesota shot just 37.5% overall and just 33% from three. Also, NU did a very good job making it tough for Minnesota to get open looks for three. The ‘Cat defenders were in the face of Blake Hoffarber and the other Gopher guards for a good portion of the afternoon. Really, when Minnesota made open threes they were off of offensive rebounds. That’s something NU will need to prevent versus Ohio State, but Minnesota didn’t get many, so there is some model of how to do it. NU got outrebounded 40 to 30 by Minnesota, but with only five turnovers the ‘Cats were able to maximize each possession. Since NU will likely burn 30-plus seconds off the shot clock during each possession tomorrow, that ball control will remain critical.

Obviously, with 35 points, today was the Juice Thompson show, but you have to give some credit to Alex Marcotullio, Nick Fruendt, and Drew Crawford who helped Juice out on a day with John Shurna was held to just 2 points on 1-of-5 shooting. Marcotullio scored 13 points and made 5-of-8 shots overall and 2-of-5 from three. He once again played solid defense and tied Drew Crawford for the second highest Wildcat total with 6 rebounds. I think Marcotullio’s increased comfort in driving the ball has actually helped his shooting as teams are starting to notice he’ll finish at the rim and might have to give him a little space on the outside. Nick Fruendt played heavier minutes today than he had all year because of the injuries to Mike Capocci and JerShon Cobb. In those minutes he dropped in 7 points on 3-of-5 shooting and didn’t look tentative at all on the court. That’s huge for a guy who had only played in 16 games coming into today. Odds are Cobb and Capocci won’t be back tomorrow, so Nick is going to get a shot to really test his comfort and confidence when he lines up across from Buckeye swingman William Buford.

I also have to give credit to Drew Crawford who was second on the team with 15 points and did what I’ve been asking for a while and took the ball to basket. As a result, he scored 6 of his points from the free throw line and several of those came at key times. As was stated on the ESPN2 broadcast, Crawford looks good when he shoots threes. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised that if NU does upset Ohio State the reason is Crawford gets hot and knocks in eight or nine threes, but when the shots aren’t falling from deep for Drew, he can still make a difference with his athletic skill if he attacks the basket.

Inside, NU didn’t get a ton of points or rebounds from Luka Mirkovic or Davide Curletti, but both battled enough to keep the rebounding gap respectable. John Shurna helped out with 7 boards and I never truly thought Minnesota’s athlete advantage took over. While I’d of course like to see more points from the Wildcat front court, containing the opposing athletes is just as important tomorrow.
The other thing that is important tomorrow is more consistency from NU behind the arc. Sure, the ‘Cats made nine threes, but that was on 31 tries. That’s 29% three point shooting. That won’t get it done against Ohio State. If NU is going to beat OSU they need to have a hot shooting night (or midday). If you look at NU’s 58-57 loss to Ohio State earlier this year, while NU did play well in almost every phase of the game, they didn’t shoot the ball well that day either. Ohio State is a great basketball team and the odds of NU beating them aren’t good, but as I’ve said before, Northwestern is a team I’ve seen get white-hot from behind the arc, but I haven’t seen that in a while. If they are to advance in the Big Ten Tournament, that white-hot shooting NU team needs to reappear. That means John Shurna and Drew Crawford need to do much much more than make one total three and Juice needs to pretty much repeat his efforts as do Marcotullio and Fruendt. All that happening will be tough, but at least with NU now moving to 18-12, I think they’re surly in the NIT and have a case for a home date. Of course, that case and the dream of making the Big tournament would improve with a victory tomorrow.

Win or Go, Well, Not Home, but Away in the NIT

2011-03-09T18:35:00.000-06:00

What’s at stake for Northwestern on Thursday? Well, I’m guessing an NIT home game. NU’s 17-12 record combined with a strong Big Ten puts them probably right at the borderline on the middle of the NIT. Right now, NU is probably a 5-seed or a 6-seed, but I think with a win over a Minnesota team that is also likely destined to play in the NIT would give NU a strong case for a home game. The game would give NU a two out of three advantage over Minnesota for the year and place the Wildcats at a respectable 5-4 in their last nine games. If they drop a game on Friday to Ohio State, NU will still be 5-5 in their last ten, which while not an official criteria, is still something committees look at when judging teams.

NU just beat Minnesota in the season’s last game, but of course that game was in Evanston at Welsh-Ryan Arena where NU is much better than anywhere else (with the exception of Iowa City, Iowa). Now, NU has to go into Conseco Fieldhouse to try to top the Gophers. Conseco will be pretty empty when these two teams play so the crowd won’t be a factor, but for NU, which is a shooting team, playing in a new environment means adjusting to shooting in that new environment quickly.

Once again, Minnesota’s advantage is the fact they have three monsters inside. Trevor Mbawke at 13.7ppg and 10.5rpg is the headliner, but Ralph Sampson III and Colton Iverson both have size and the ability to rebound and score as well. Sampson even has displayed a nice touch on mid-range jump shots which sometimes presents a matchup problem. NU’s Luka Mirkovic was terrible against Minnesota last week, but thankfully Davide Curletti made up for Luka’s poor play. I think for NU to win on Thursday, though, both will need to play well. Sure, Curletti has been great of late, but Minnesota might shoot better than they have been of late and if that happens, NU can’t give up any easy baskets to along with made Gopher threes. Therefore, both Curletti and Mirkovic need to be tough on the defensive glass.

Minnesota’s Blake Hoffarber is one of the Big Ten’s best shooters, but he was pretty much locked down by Alex Marcotullio and Juice Thompson when the teams met in Evanston. If that happens again I think NU will win the game for sure, but you can bet Tubby Smith will be trying to find ways to get his senior guard open looks. I expect Hoffarber to run off a lot of screens and given NU’s trouble with fighting through screens that does scare me. It is critical that the Wildcat defense be aggressive and active and that they communicate with each other at all times. Whoever has Hoffarber can’t let him go, because if they do it’ll be Gopher threes all over the place.

On offense for Northwestern everyone is pretty much hoping the eight days off since the last game continues John Shurna’s recovery. Shurna is so good when 100% that early in the year one would have said he had an outside shot at Big Ten Player of the Year. He might still have a shot next year if he’s healthy, but he probably isn’t 100% yet. Still, if Shurna is closer to 100% his ability to not only shoot, but to drive on a bigger player and get fouled could allow for NU to get some easy points. I also expect to see a good game from Drew Crawford. Crawford struggled towards the end of the regular season, but he rarely has extended slumps and I would be shocked if he didn’t post a decent game Thursday. I just hope that he doesn’t settle too much for jump shots and that he tries to make things happen at the hoop (and that he converts free throws if fouled).

Overall, NU is in a much better spot than Minnesota for this game. Therefore, I think a quick start for NU would be fantastic. If NU gets off to a hot shooting start I suspect the Gophers will fade away as many of them are likely less than thrilled with the way their year has ended. With Drew Crawford due, I think NU can get that quick start. In the end the game will probably be close, though. I predict: Northwestern, 67 Minnesota, 64

Don’t Give Up Till It’s Over: The Big Ten Tournament Four Days From an NCAA Bid

2011-03-07T20:19:00.003-06:00

Let’s be honest, this season was disappointing from a Northwestern fan’s perspective. From the moment this summer when Kevin Coble decided he didn’t want to play basketball for Bill Carmody anymore NU’s NCAA dreams were pretty much put on life support. Then in December when John Shurna went down with his ankle injury the life support machine got turned off. Instead of a healthy Shurna who probably could have led NU to a 9-9 Big Ten record even without Coble’s backing, the ‘Cats and the less than 100% Shurna struggled to finish 7-11 in the league with their only real quality win coming over a mediocre Illinois team. NU’s perceived underachievement has led some to label the ‘Cats the nation’s most disappointing team. I don’t know enough to argue one or another on that, but I do know this was in many ways the most disappointing year for me as a Northwestern fan. Many of the bad NU teams I’ve seen have simply been bad. There weren’t any expectations of success. This year the team had realistic hopes of making the NCAA Tournament, but once again fate seemed to throw every bit of hard luck possible at NU’s men’s basketball program. Does that constitute a cruse? Who knows? But let’s remember before we write this year off, it’s not over yet. Four wins in four days in Indianapolis and the entire history of the 2010-11 season will have to be rewritten.

To be honest, from the moment the Big Ten created their conference tournament I always kind of figured that would be how NU first made the Big Dance. In a way, that’s kind of crazy because winning four games in four days is really much harder than going 9-9 over 18 league games as tournament contenders Illinois and Michigan did. However, I think I’ve be skewed by looking at so many bad Northwestern teams that I figured getting hot over four days was more likely than any sort of consistent performance in the league. Consistency certainly wasn’t NU’s strong suit this season as not only was the team remarkably inconsistent, but many of NU’s players swing on the continuum from spectacular to terrible at remarkable rates. Drew Crawford and Luka Mirkovic stand out the most, but they aren’t the only Wildcats who lack any sort of consistent game.

Those inconsistencies, though, are part of why I can’t give up on this season just yet. Sure, the ‘Cats could lose to Minnesota on Thursday, but Northwestern is a streak-shooting team and they haven’t really had a hot streak since January. I saw them light up Georgia Tech for 55 points in a half and torch Iowa for the best 15 minutes probably ever played by a Northwestern basketball team. I’ve seen Crawford, Juice, and John Shurna get into stretches where they don’t miss. That hasn’t really been the case recently, but I know it could happen. If the ‘Cats catch fire in Conseco Fieldhouse they’ll have a shot at knocking off #1 ranked Ohio State in the second round of the tournament. If they do that, it’ll blow the door wide open for any would-be title contenders to claim a title which many assume will another Buckeye coronation.

The odds are against NU pulling off such an upset or perhaps even beating Minnesota on Thursday, but if ‘Cats play loose and confident no matter the situation they have a shot. And as someone once said…well, I guess that’s something.

It’s enough at least that I’m not giving up hope for another few days or to put in another way, as an upstart baseball team from the middle of the past decade once asked, "Why Not Us?"

Juice Finishes Off Senior Night with Strong Second Half

2011-03-02T21:33:00.002-06:00

On a night when Northwestern got some great contributions from underclass bench players Alex Marcotullio and Davide Curletti, it was still the senior Michael “Juice” Thompson who ended up leading NU to victory. Thompson scored 15 of his 18 points in the second half and really took over in the game’s final moments with a couple big threes and some big free throws to push NU to victory. He also led NU in rebounds with a career high 7 boards which helped NU stay nearly even with Minnesota on the glass.

The 11 point win essentially serves as game two of a three game NIT-seeding series with Minnesota for Northwestern. With tonight’s win, I believe NU ensures they’ll get a bid to the NIT (they have the same league record as last year, no bad losses, and overall the college basketball world isn’t as strong). However, at this point Minnesota would probably get a higher seed and a home game while NU would be a bottom half of the bracket seed and play on the road for the third straight year. That’s legitimate as Minnesota has more quality wins than NU. However, if NU can beat Minnesota in game three of the series in Indianapolis on March 10th that’ll likely move NU ahead of the Gophers on the NIT Selection Committee’s big board. Of course, if NU does beat the Gophers in round 1 of the Big Ten Tournament, then perhaps they should focus on beating Ohio State in round 2 and trying to somehow get themselves into the NCAA Tournament for the first time. After all, that is still the goal for every NCAA team until they are officially eliminating and NU isn’t out yet.

If NU is going to beat the Gophers again in Indy, playing defense like they did tonight will certainly help. Alex Marcotullio played a career-best game on offense, but it was his defense which really helped NU. He frustrated Minnesota’s guards (especially Blake Hoffarber) all night by not allowing them clean looks from three and staying physical with them when they tried to drive. It was exactly the type of effort which NU needs more consistently if they ever want to seriously compete in the Big Ten. Marcotullio’s 5-of-9 shooting and 18 points, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 3 rebounds were also all great for NU on a night when NU didn’t shoot all that well (just 37.3%) and needed somebody they could count on to make big plays.

Marcotullio’s former AAU teammates Davide Curletti also helped NU to victory. Curletti had a significantly stronger game than Luka Mirkovic for the second game in a row and probably deserves a start in Indy. He helped keep NU in the game in the first half and for the game scored 12 points, got 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, and didn’t miss a free throw going 6-for-6 including a couple in the clutch.

The fact NU gets a week off before playing Minnesota again also may help the Wildcats. John Shurna scored 15 points today and although he didn’t shoot all that well (5-of-14 overall and 3-of-10 from three) he did show moments of explosiveness with a couple dunks, blocks, and rebounds. With another week of rest, perhaps the non-conference season John Shurna will show up for NU. If that happens, I think Northwestern has chance to beat any team they face the rest of the season.

As the Wildcats leave Welsh-Ryan for the 2010-11 regular season, they obviously would like to make the NCAA Tournament, but you have to be pleased that even if they don’t, they still have chance at the postseason for the third year in a row. While NU hasn’t won a postseason game since March of 1994, that fact that NU has a real shot of being in the NIT three seasons in a row is unprecedented success for the Wildcats in the post World War II era. A ton of credit for that success goes to the senior class honored tonight before the game so I want to give credit once again to Juice Thompson and his classmates Mike Capocci, Ivan Peljusic, and Jeff Ryan. All four contributed at different levels on the court during games, but each gave of themselves four or five years of heavy commitment to Northwestern basketball and as turned out their four or five years included some of the program’s most successful seasons. Let’s hope more success is in their future.

Wildcats Host Gophers on Senior Day

2011-03-01T20:56:00.001-06:00

On Wednesday night Northwestern hosts Minnesota in what will probably be the final home game for four seniors. Jeff Ryan, Mike Capocci, Ivan Peljusic, and Michael “Juice” Thompson have some chance of playing a home game at Welsh-Ryan in the NIT, but the odds are this is the last time those four will play a home game for Northwestern. Obviously, Juice is the headliner, but all four of those players have been part of two (and potentially three) postseason teams for Northwestern which is unique accomplishment in the history of Northwestern basketball. Perhaps what is even more remarkable is that this class which has a great chance to make three postseasons started their careers with very poor seasons. Fifth year seniors Jeff Ryan and Ivan Peljusic saw NU go 2-16 and 1-17 in conference play during their first two years in the program and Juice and Mike Capocci were around for that 1-17 season. Despite such poor starts, all four played roles in helping NU move their record to 17-14 and 20-14 the past two seasons and in helping NU to a sure winning season this year. They were also all part of an NU team in 2008-09 which was probably the best Northwestern basketball team in the last 40 or 50 years and the team which has come the closest to taking NU to the NCAA Tournament.

I’m sure the lack of an NCAA invite is frustrating to these four seniors as it has been to many seniors in the past history of NU hoops, but the door isn’t truly closed for these four just yet. They have a home game Wednesday and then a rematch with Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. If the ‘Cats win that first tournament game and three more they still have a chance and that would be a remarkable legacy for the seniors to leave. Regardless, though, I’ll have positive memories of all four. Juice has of course made countless big plays, but I’ll never forget Ivan Peljusic’s great game against Indiana in NU’s near upset of the Hoosiers his freshman season or Mike Capocci’s big dunks along the way like the one his freshman year vs Michigan, or the great defense Jeff Ryan played on Robbie Hummel when NU upset Purdue at Purdue during that 08-09 season.

As to if NU can actually beat Minnesota on Wednesday and send the four seniors out winners, I don’t know. This Northwestern team is unpredictable and the current state of NU’s program isn’t great. They’ve suffered many more embarrassing losses than expected this year, a poor close to the season has put Coach Bill Carmody on the hot seat, and the team hasn’t been fully healthy since December. Now, they face a Minnesota team who is also struggling, but who probably has a significant advantage over NU in one key area—inside play.

NU’s starting center Luka Mirkovic got benched in the ‘Cats last game against Wisconsin due to his poor play and NU turned to Davide Curletti. Curletti played great, but he’s only 6-9 and Minnesota has great size in Ralph Sampson III, Colton Iverson, and the super-athletic Trevor Mbawke who is walking double-double at 13.9ppg and 10.4rpg. Those are impressive totals and I know Curletti can’t stop all three and he might not be able to stop any of the three. For Northwestern to win, Luka needs to comeback and have a good game. The positive is Luka is generally better at home, so that has to help. But you can’t count on Luka showing up to rescue NU’s season.

I’ll also be interested to see how (or if) NU plays defense on the Gophers. NU has struggled on defense all year and often tries to their 1-3-1 zone to get them out of trouble. However, Minnesota has shown the ability to knock down threes which will probably force NU to go man-to-man. If that happens, NU has to pressure the ball better than before in order to keep the Gophers from easy entry passes and short looks inside. NU also has to keep Minnesota off the glass. I fear Minnesota might employ an offensive approach which encourages three point shooting just because they believe their big three big men will dominate NU on the glass. If that happens NU doesn’t have a great chance for success. I predict: Minnesota, 78 Northwestern, 70

Wisconsin Continues Home Dominance in Win Over Northwestern

2011-02-27T19:22:00.003-06:00

Nothing all that unexpected happened in Wisconsin’s 78-63 win over Northwestern and from NU point of view the loss itself isn’t that depressing. After all, everybody losses at Wisconsin. What is depressing is that you could probably have predicted how the game would go without having to see it and that shows NU’s total lack of progress. Once again the Wildcats got buried in a huge hole, played awful defense (especially to start the game), stayed close with threes, had a chance to swing momentum, but in the end lost because the other team made more clutch shots. It was much like the game Thursday vs Penn State or any number of other NU games this season.

It’s this holding pattern of the same mistakes over and over again that has me so frustrated with this team and coaching. Once again, NU started the game with some of the most fundamentally unsound defense you can play in Division 1 basketball. They tried to bail themselves out with the 1-3-1, but the Big Ten has adjusted to that gimmick in the last two years it seems. Plus, with as good as Wisconsin shoots and passes the ball, the 1-3-1 isn’t going to beat this Badger team. It is the total lack of defense that has me most upset and I’m really getting sick of zones all the time. In basketball I believe you should play man-to-man defense most of the time and have a zone to use against poor shooting teams and as a key change up. Honestly, man-to-man defense doesn’t take that much talent. It takes wanting to make an effort to play hard ALL OF THE TIME Wisconsin had a bunch of guys on the floor who wouldn’t beat many NU guys in a foot race or jumping contest, but who play 100 time better defense than NU and actually do a far better job of moving their feet to contest drives because it is important to them and doesn’t seem to be to NU’s players or coaches. Sorry folks, but no team can be fundamentally as bad on defense consistently as NU and have the coach not deserve some blame. In the second half, NU played much better defense after going away from the 1-3-1 for the most part and actually made a game of the contest. Unfortunately, they missed a couple key shots whereas Wisconsin made some and that was enough to push the Badgers over the top.

I was happy to see Drew Crawford get more assertive on both offense and defense in the second half (he does need to make free throws) and David Curletti played a career game. Crawford to me is far too bothered, though, by not scoring. When he didn’t score in the first half he played crap defense, when he got aggressive on offense and saw the ball go in the hoop in the second half he played hard defense. Curletti saved NU from getting blown out a couple times with some nice baskets and some decent defense as well. Luka Mirkovic was terrible tonight against Jon Leuer’s superior athletic skill. Perhaps the whole night was summed up in a sequence were Luka had a point blank layup and threw it basically from one side of the glass to the other almost as if he were trying to use the glass to pass the ball (but, sadly, he was trying to score) and then on the other end of the floor Leuer made an inside bucket as he was falling out of bounds and got fouled. And, yes, Luka got fouled on his miss too, but the point is Leuer converted a much tougher shot and took contact and Luka missed a 1-footer by 3-feet.

Northwestern is now 6-11 in the Big Ten and plays 6-10 Minnesota on Wednesday. Those teams will likely also play in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. I don’t really know what to expect, but I hope a good crowd comes out to honor Juice Thompson on his senior day. This team has massively underachieved and they’ve caught some bad luck (the latest another injury to JerShon Cobb) but Juice has fought through all of it and deserves respect for that.

I am tremendously sick of the DVR stuck on reply collection of mistakes NU makes game after game and desperately want someone to make those stop, but I’m willing to sit through them to say thanks to Juice and the other seniors. After that, unless NU learns to play defense and rebound they’ll only have one more game anyway because a 6-12 Big Ten team that hasn’t won in three weeks is not getting an NIT invite.

151-12…Say You Can, Know You Will!

2011-02-25T19:48:00.003-06:00

When Kevin O’Neill was hired as Northwestern’s head coach someone asked him what the difference was between him and then football coach Gary Barnett. O’Neill replied that Barnett was more of a “slogan and song coach” while O’Neill himself was more of a “play your butt off or I’ll kill you coach” (of course it was KO so he didn’t say butt). Bill Carmody has never to me fit into either category. He’s certainly not a slogan and a song guy, but if he were one to kill guys who didn’t play hard, NU would have run out of players the last few years. So, what is Bill Carmody? I don’t know, but if wants to lead NU to victory over a Wisconsin team that is 151-11 in home games under Bo Ryan and beat Northwestern like the proverbial drum at Welsh-Ryan he needs to be Gary Barnett.

People don’t realize that what Gary Barnett did in taking Northwestern to the Rose Bowl in 1995 (okay the game as Jan 1, '96) was probably the greatest coaching job ever in NCAA history. It’s marred now by his unceremonious departure from NU which pissed the NU community and the disastrous conclusion to his tenure at Colorado which made him something of a coaching pariah. The truth is, though, what Barnett did was amazing. He sold his players on belief without evidence and they chose to believe. When he took them to South Bend, Indiana as 27-point underdogs and told them not to dump Gatorade on him or carry him off the field after they won the game, the players took that as a natural instruction because he’d been training them to expect to beat Norte Dame from the time they started spring and with those final instructions he reminded them he KNEW it would happen. Yes, part of the reason Northwestern won that game was a great defense and some major clutch offense from Darnell Autry, Steve Schnur, and D’Wayne Bates, but you can’t underestimate the psychological advantage Barnett gave his players leading up to that September 2, 1995 day.

I think for NU’s men’s hoops team to beat Wisconsin on Sunday it is critical to gain a similar psychological edge. That’s why if I were Bill Carmody I’d paste 151-12 all over the place. I’d put it in the locker room, I’d put on the road trip agenda, I’d even top on the marquee on the team bus. I’d want our guys to be focused on the idea that it is possible to beat Wisconsin at the Khol Center and that there should be a belief inside the program that such a thing is possible.

I really do believe confidence and comfort is a major factor in basketball success because shooting is such a precise motion. Confident and relaxed a good shooter is going to make the majority of his shots, but part of the game is getting him out his rhythm. The defense tries to do this as does the home crowd. Between Bo Ryan’s tough man-to-man and the Wisconsin home crowd it’s pretty easy for even the best shooters to get a little tense and rush their shots in Madtown. But it doesn’t have to happen. Northwestern has a group of great shooters that when they feel good can put up points as well as team in the NCAA. They have an offense that when run correctly can get them open shots against any team in the NCAA. The problem is when panic sets in and they start to miss shots and stop running their offense. We’ve seen that happen several times this year, including the first game against Wisconsin. But, again, it doesn’t have to happen.

I honestly believe that an athlete can think themselves into success long before a game is played. Does it guarantee victory? No. But it does give that athlete the best chance at victory because confidence increases one’s chance at successes. That’s what I want from the Wildcats on Sunday. I want them to give themselves the chance to win they didn’t give themselves in the past. I want them to look at 151-12 and say to themselves, “We can make that happen.” And inside KNOW they will make it happen.

I actually really do think NU will win this game. The sad part is thanks to the loss Thursday vs Penn State the win will really be meaningless (unless you’re really hyped about the difference between being a 5-seed instead of a 6-seed in the NIT).

Northwestern’s Tournament Hopes Vanish, Does Bill Carmody Need to Vanish With Them?

2011-02-24T22:36:00.002-06:00

I’ve kind of been regarded as the positive Northwestern basketball blog. Obviously, Fire Bill Carmody has been geared towards, well, having Northwestern fire Bill Carmody and Lake the Posts has made it clear he is not fan of Bill Carmody either. I’ve been frustrated at times with Carmody, but I’ve been more supportive than not because I really thought he was making steady gains. Some frustrated NU fans might have called that being content with being mediocre, but I was willing to take steady progress. After all, I’ve seen teams fail to even ever be competitive. Bill Carmody has made NU more competitive overall, but you can’t be a head coach in the Big Ten and beat Penn State less than 10% of the time over a five year span. This 15-12 team might be the best they’ve ever had! Let me make this clear, Northwestern has now beat Penn State just once in their last eleven meetings (and that was because Craig Moore threw in a miracle shot from about 40-feet) and the vast majority of the losses have been in embarrassing fashion. Penn State’s seniors have NEVER lost to Northwestern and they haven’t really ever been all that challenged by NU. NU also hasn’t won at Penn State in almost a decade, but why add to our collective misery by bringing that up.

Let me make it clear here, I’m not saying it’s time for a change just because NU lost to Penn State, and I never thought I’d say this at all, but it’s time for NU to make a change in their head men’s basketball coaching position. It’s time for a change because this latest loss to Penn State convinces me that we’ve maxed out on progress. Remember, I’m content with steady progress and small gains. One major goal I had for progress this year was to beat Penn State. As stupid as that sounds, I really thought it would be a clear piece of evidence that NU was moving forward. Beating them tonight would have been huge because it not only would have been that clear evidence of progress, but it would have knocked PSU off the tourney bubble and pretty much evened them with NU in terms of where they sat postseason wise. Mostly, though, it would have shown that Northwestern had overcome another hurdle in their quest to make the NCAA Tournament. Instead, we got more of the same.

If NU gets one more Big Ten win they will have the same total as they got last season (7), but 4 of NU’s 6 current Big Ten wins are over Indiana and Iowa who are the only two teams below NU standings-wise. A potential 7th would probably have to come over Minnesota who has lost 6 of their last 7 (but did beat NU) because the ‘Cats probably aren’t winning at Wisconsin who is 151-11 at the Khol Center under Bo Ryan. As much as I say I’m all for simple progress, I’m not sure that is steady progress because last year’s 7 wins featured victories over better teams.

Let me also answer the questions, would I change my tune on Bill Carmody if NU upset Wisconsin? As someone who up until today was pretty content with Carmody as the coach, I guess I might swing back the other way, but NU almost upset Ohio State this year and even if NU had beat the Buckeyes getting our butts kicked by Penn State twice again this year might have still sent me over the edge. Seriously, beating Penn State less than 10% of the time! How is that possible? Well, let’s look at tonight…

Northwestern scored just four point in the game’s first eight minutes and basically came out looking as if they had no interest in playing. Penn State on the other hand looked like they were playing their most important game of the season—which they were—but so was Northwestern and by watching NU you couldn’t tell. Instead, it looked more like they were a 1-14 team playing out the end of the season. To say NU was as flat as a pancake would be inaccurate because pancakes have some height. NU was flat as the flattest tabletop you’ve ever seen. Early in the game it was turnovers that really hurt NU. Yes, they missed a lot of shots, but not even getting shots hurt NU even more. The game started with Juice Thompson getting Luka a great shot and Luka let the ball go through his hands. It pretty much set the tone for the day. Now, let’s be clear, the fact Luka has no hands and Drew Crawford once again pulled Harry Houdini and disappeared isn’t really all the fault of their coach, but clearly they aren’t responding to whatever methods of motivation they’re getting to try and make them successful and, sadly, if at some point the players don’t come around the coach gets held responsible.

Another problem was it took until a JerShon Cobb three late in the second half for someone other than Juice Thompson, John Shurna, Luka Mirkovic, or Drew Crawford to score for NU. Crawford only had two points at half and despite the fact he seemed to be able to get to the basket whenever he wanted, he seemed to be content to miss threes for far too long. Of course, everyone except Juice Thompson decided to miss threes tonight. Alex Marcotullio scored 0 and NU’s bench overall had zero. Davide Curletti hasn’t scored in almost two weeks.

NU’s defense again was pretty bad as Penn State’s guards made a number of way-to-easy entry passes which resulted in layups. NU did an okay job on the glass, but it wasn’t enough to keep Penn State from the some critical offensive rebounds.

I don’t know what else to say. This sucked. It was just like twice last year where NU played big games vs Penn State and Penn State looked like the only Division 1 team on the floor. It was just like two weeks ago when the same thing happened.

This whole situation sucks because I really don’t want to see Bill Carmody get fired, but seriously, how can Jim Phillips think it’s a good idea to retain him? Anybody with basic logic and a seat at or television tuned to tonight’s game would have to tell you it’s time to make a change. NU has had a shot to make a move towards the tournament four times this season. When they hosted Wisconsin (result: NU gets creamed), when they traveled to Michigan and Penn State (result: bad start resulted in loss, Penn State hammered NU), and tonight (result: bad start results in Penn State hammering NU). This failure to show up in big games isn’t new to this year either. It’s happened in other huge games like the 2009 game at Ohio State where NU was truly playing for an NCAA-berth. They day NU started poorly, came back, but the poor start put NU in the hole that prevented the ‘Cats from getting the win. Maybe these slow starts are simply because NU’s players are no good, but I see evidence that tells me that’s not the case.

Northwestern will probably beat Wisconsin on Sunday (let’s remember I said this) and that win will probably save Bill Carmody’s job. That’ll be good for Carmody and his family and in the real world that’s good because I don’t want to root for anybody to lose their source of income, but the sad part is that even as momentous as that will be, it won’t get NU into the Big Dance because they lost every other showcase game they had this season and that's not good. Not good at all.

On Thursday NU Looks to Finally Beat Talor Battle

2011-02-22T20:45:00.000-06:00

Somehow when no one was looking Northwestern’s matchup with Penn State Thursday on ESPN2 at 8PM turned back into a big game for NU’s tournament hopes. Yes, the Penn State game’s magnitude is based somewhat on an expectation of NU doing something unexpected (I get a just used the phrase expectation of the unexpected, but I think as NU fan that’s something you have to develop otherwise you have no hope in your life) either at Wisconsin or in the Big Ten Tournament, but without a win over Penn State inside Welsh-Ryan even a win at Wisconsin or a run to the BTT’s final game might not be impressive enough to get NU into the Big Dance.

It’s still amazing, and more than a little depressing, to me that Penn State’s senior class has never lost to Northwestern. Of course, one look at Talor Battle’s career stats against NU and you don’t have trouble believing PSU might be the dominate team in the series. What’s really amazing is that with the exception of the 2008-09 game at Penn State in which NU held a large lead before Battle caught fire and lit the Wildcats up in the second half, the games haven’t even been close. We all remember a couple weeks back very well, but if we think back to last season it was the same story twice. NU doesn’t even seem to play Penn State well inside Welsh-Ryan, where they play everybody well!

At times people have focused on matchups and Penn State does have some big athletic guys in Jeff Brooks, Andrew Jones, and David Jackson. All three are about 6-8/9 and can score the basketball in a number of ways as well as rebound. I’ll be the first to admit that those types of players can give NU trouble, but Penn State isn’t the only team in the Big Ten with such guys. There is also Battle, who does seem to catch fire vs NU, but he’s not the only good shooter Northwestern faces during the course of the year. He might be the only one with 2,000-career points (a record he not surprisingly set vs NU), but if NU can contain Demetri McCamey who is bigger and probably a better pure shooter, shouldn’t they be able to contain Battle? For some reason Penn State seems to scare NU.

I actually think some of NU’s game plan vs Illinois is what they need to bring out in order to beat Penn State. Like PSU, Illinois destroyed Northwestern the first times the teams played, when NU was the road team. However, in the ‘Cat home game NU got the better of the Illini. How did they do it? I think one major aspect to NU’s upset of Illinois was letting go of the loss. This might be tougher vs Penn State because it’s not just the loss two weeks ago that they need to let go, but a whole career of failure. However, it’s not worth worrying about. Those games are in the past. They won’t give Penn State any extra points on Thursday nor will they cost NU any.

If NU can’t let go of those past games than anything else I write is worthless, but let’s assume they do and talk a little more specific basketball strategy. First off, I think NU needs to pick up Battle at 90 feet. NU hasn’t done much pressing, but I’m not saying press. Tim Frazier will probably bring the ball up the court for Penn State most of the time, I just want Talor Battle to have a shadow the whole day for tip to the final buzzer. I’d even try to follow him into the locker room at halftime, but that’s probably not allowed. I’d also say that I’d personally choose Alex Marcotullio to be that guy. I know that’d probably mean starting him over JerShon Cobb or Drew Crawford, but the truth is I think Marcotullio is the only guy Northwestern has who consistently fights on defense and I truthfully trust him more than anyone else. If Northwestern ends up with Cobb or Crawford switching all the time and Battle runs a pick-and-roll with a big guy and gets himself isolated on Luka Mirkovic as he did at PSU it’s over for Northwestern. That CAN’T happen, but I’m sure Battle will try to make it occur. Versus Illinois NU did a much better job of not letting guards attack big men and doing so again will be critical.

On offense, I think NU needs to try to play fast again. The slower offense worked a couple times, but Penn State wants to play slow. All their big wins have been low-scoring. I think NU needs to go back to the “see an open shot, pull the trigger” system for this game. They’ll be at home where they shoot better and maybe being given the green light will relax some of the guys who have slumped of late. Sure, if NU employs that game plan and the shots don’t go in then they’re screwed, but they’ve been pretty well screwed with every other game plan they’ve tried versus Penn State, so I’m advocating a different one. Remember, NU’s fearless approach on offense resulted in 55 points in the first half against Georgia Tech, so it does have a track record.

I’d also like to see NU hit the glass hard. Look back at the Ohio State game. OSU is big and quick, but NU hung with them on the glass because they sent four or five guys to the offensive glass every time. That’ll be critical as well because with Jones, Jackson, and Brooks PSU will probably get some offensive rebounds of their own.

In the end, I think this game comes down to how well Northwestern shoots the ball. Northwestern defended Penn State okay (but not great) in Happy Valley and I’m confident the Nits won’t explode on NU in Welsh-Ryan. However, NU’s 2-of-21 three point shooting pretty much cashed any chance NU had of getting a win in the Bryce Jordan Center. Inside Welsh-Ryan NU does shoot much better and I think the freedom to fire will make a difference. The last two wins have silenced a lot of Bill Carmody’s critics, but I really think the great coaches are the ones who you hate to play twice because even if you roll them the first time, you know they’ll have a plan to make life tough for you the second time around. Bill Carmody found a way to do that vs Illinois and I’m thinking (and hoping) this game goes down much the same way. I predict: Northwestern, 71 Penn State, 70

How Should Fans Feel About Luka Mirkovic’s Post-Basket Celebrations?

2011-02-21T19:13:00.002-06:00

One of the most recent debates on the Northwestern message boards has been about Luka Mirkovic. Not whether or not Luka should start (we seem to have gotten past that), but about whether Luka’s histrionics after he makes a three or gets an and-1 are appropriate. To be honest, I never gave much thought to the idea until this Saturday at Indiana. Before Saturday, I’d generally see Luka get excited, kind of laugh because most the time Luka is probably the Big Ten’s most unaggressive big man, and then forget about his actions until he did something similar. At Indiana, though, when Tom Pritchard mimicked Luka after making a basket shortly after Luka gestured “three” after he hit a three, I thought it might be worth discussing this issue.

I don’t generally have a problem with a player who shows emotion and wants to celebrate a big shot. John Shurna has been known to get hyped after he or a teammate hit a big bucket and no one in the Northwestern community seems to have a problem with what Shurna does, but a lot of people seem to think Luka should try to contain himself. I think the reason is twofold. One is that Shurna (when not hurt) is consistently good. He makes impossible shots look easy and hits threes with more ease than some people (like Luka) hit layups. The other reason is that Shurna appears to be acting spontaneously when his joy appears. I’m not saying Luka isn’t, but yelling with joy sure appears a lot more spontaneous than some type of gesture which one probably has to consciously decide to make.

From my point of view, I think the second point is the critical one. Sure, some people will say Luka needs to “earn” the right to celebrate, but if some third-string walk-on comes off the bench to hit a buzzer beater in the NCAA Tournament would people say he can’t celebrate because he doesn’t have a double-figure scoring average? I don’t think so. Maybe that’s an extreme example, but my point is that I don’t think the right to be proud of oneself should be restricted. On the other hand, I don’t like the idea that a player is spending any amount of time thinking about something other than actually playing basketball when the game clock is moving. That’s why I’m not in love with the idea of Luka making his “three” gesture or blowing kisses to the crowd on the way down the court after a made hoop. I don’t care if he wants to thump his chest after an and-1 (at the rate Luka makes layups maybe he should celebrate that) because it’s a dead ball and his focus doesn’t need to be on anything else. On the other hand, if he needs to take even one tenth of a second to think, “I want to make a ‘three’ signal” or “I want to blow kisses to the crowd” when he should be focused on where he needs to get in NU’s defense that is disappointing because it isn’t the smart basketball that NU needs to play in order to win.

If I were Bill Carmody my message to Luka would be to contain himself while the game is going on. I didn’t care that Luka’s “three” gesture fired up the IU crowd, but I did care that he let IU get an easy basket on him after he did it. Maybe the two weren’t connected at all, but maybe they were and I don’t want to take the chance.

On the other hand, if Luka wants to thump his chest after making and-1s that’s fine. The game is stopped. Sure, it looks a little ridiculous when a guy who can’t even shoot 50% from two feet gets all excited, but maybe it makes more sense, and if Luka himself doesn’t care how the move makes people perceive him, then I don’t care. I just don’t want him losing focus when a guy is going to be coming right at him trying to score. He isn’t prolific enough on offense that he’ll be able to make those points up.

Wildcats Sweep Hoosiers, Get Road Win, Get Fans Back to Talking About Postseason

2011-02-19T21:59:00.000-06:00

In this year’s Big Ten no team is bad and really only the top two or three teams are very good. That makes for a lot of exciting basketball and a number of unexpected results. Northwestern has to some extent actually had the most expected results as they still don’t have a loss to a team that is worse than them thanks to their 70-64 victory over Indiana today. With the win Northwestern moves to 16-10 overall and 6-9 in the Big Ten this year. The Wildcats next game is at home against their arch nemesis Penn State. If Northwestern beats Penn State and moves to 7-9 in the league I’d say they’ve clearly shown improvement over last season and I think that’s the most important thing at this juncture for the NU program (though I still really want to make the Big Dance).

Realistically NU improves their NIT position with this win and if they can beat Penn State they greatly increase the odds of playing a home game in the NIT as Penn State is a borderline NCAA/NIT team that NU may compete with for a position.

Today’s win also marks NU’s second sweep of Indiana in the last three seasons, their second Big Ten road win of the year, and their second win in IU’s Assembly Hall ever. Those are some good twos and it was NU’s number 22 who led the ‘Cats to victory. Michael “Juice” Thompson scored 22 points while playing all 40 minutes. In the first half he got NU going with three big three point buckets then in the second half he iced the win by making clutch free throw after clutch free throw. For the day Juice made 11-of-11 from the line to lead an NU team that shot 21-of-25 from the free throw line. I think it is very important in the future for NU to start trying to get to the foul line more by driving the ball instead of settling for jump shots. Yes, NU made 11 threes tonight, but most of the game’s key plays that kept the ‘Cats with the lead were layups or pull-ups on drives or foul shots thanks to an aggressive approach.

Juice was supported today by great play from Alex Marcotullio and John Shurna. Marcotullio came off the bench when JerShon Cobb went to the bench early with fouls and responded well. Marcotullio scored 11 points on the day and supported NU’s effort with 4 assists and 4 rebounds as well. He also hustled on defense and did as well as anyone else in trying to defend the Hoosier’s attacks of the basket. John Shurna basically split the first half minutes with Mike Capocci because Coach Carmody wanted Capocci’s superior defense in the game, but when NU needed someone besides Juice to assert themselves on offense in the second half NU stuck with Shurna and he delivered 19 points on the night including three three pointers and also five rebounds. Shurna still doesn’t look 100%, but he is clearly getting better and I like the fact that he didn’t just shoot threes to score. I think NU’s three point shooting opens up after they attack the basket and I’d like to see Shurna, Cobb, and Crawford not settle for bad jump shots as much.

Drew Crawford did score 9 points tonight and made a couple big threes. Luka Mirkovic also hit a timely three (which set off an amusing little interaction between him, the IU fans, and IU forward Tom Pritchard) and finished with 6 rebounds, though, Luka was typical of himself and struggled to convert on a couple other chances. He was 1-of-4 in two point shots and the one he made was a jump shot. Even more worrisome than his inability to make layup was that at times Luka provided no defensive support inside and IU got some easy baskets. Overall, IU actually shot better than Northwestern from the field, but the ‘Cats work from three and free made the difference.

If Northwestern wants to beat Penn State, the whole team will need to play better defense and the shooting we saw tonight his to continue. The ‘Cats are now on something of a winning streak and to finish the year strong would a huge plus on their pursuit of any postseason bid.

Short Turnaround Means NU has to be Ready for Indiana Fast

2011-02-18T22:32:00.000-06:00

Bill Carmody made it clear he doesn’t like the fact Northwestern will go to Indiana with less than 48 hours of rest on Saturday, but the game is happening so both he and his players better be ready. I’m personally not so sure they will be, but it is not because of Carmody’s apparent dislike of the way the Big Ten arranged their schedule. My fear comes from the fact that Northwestern would double their Big Ten road win total of last year if they won this game and that would still only give them two Big Ten road wins. Basically, Northwestern has been a poor road team (never more obvious than last Sunday’s game at Penn State) for the last two seasons and now the future of Carmody and his team may rest on winning in two of the Big Ten’s most difficult environments. Certainly Indiana’s Assembly Hall isn’t the dominate force it once was in Big Ten circles, but Tom Crean’s Hoosiers are improving and for Northwestern to win there (and also double their all time Assembly Hall win total from 1 to 2) it’ll take a well rounded effort and those have been rare for the ‘Cats.

With John Shurna on the mend, Northwestern has to be feeling good, but Indiana got a good game from the recently injured Christian Watford when they played Michigan. Overall Watford’s at 16.8ppg and hits almost 40% of his threes. IU has a 12-3 record at Assembly Hall this year and lot of that has to do with how they shoot in their own building. Much like NU at Welsh-Ryan, the Hoosiers make shots at home and that makes them tougher to beat. NU must defend Jordan Hulls who hits 43.6% of his threes and scores just over 11 points a game along with backup guards Matt Roth and Victor Oladipo who also can hit deep shots. NU also needs to keep guard Verdall Jones III on the perimeter because Jones is the type of player who could terrorize NU getting to the hoop, but who can also be forced into turnovers and isn’t a great outside shooter. Inside, NU had an advantage when these teams first met and Luka Mirkovic had a career game with 20 points and 13 rebounds. It’ll be interesting to see if Indiana does anything differently with big guys Tom Pritchard and Derek Elston to try and contain Luka.

Northwestern wins this game if they to shoot well from three. NU struck early from three vs Iowa, but hasn’t had a real good shooting game in a while. With the short rest NU might be a little tired and not ready to hustle after loose balls and for some reason they only rebound well against Ohio State. Therefore, they’ll need to counter those liabilities (and extra IU possessions) with lots of threes. Juice Thompson needs to have a good full game, Drew Crawford and JerShon Cobb need to hit treys and somehow John Shurna needs to get over his conditioning issues and stay on the floor. If all that happens I think Northwestern will win in a high scoring game. The problem is I don’t think it’ll all happen. I predict: Indiana, 84 Northwester, 72

Northwestern Snaps Losing Streak; Sweeps Hawkeyes for First Time Since 2004

2011-02-17T22:32:00.002-06:00

As expected this was a close game between two teams who were seeking to break losing streaks. Iowa is certainly improved from the team NU beat in January and while beating them isn’t a major accomplishment, this is a good win to get as NU moves to 5-9 in the Big Ten and knocks Iowa back to 3-11.

With the victory Northwestern HAS won their last two games and home and HAS played really well in their last three home contests. However, NU’s inability to win on the road has really been their problem the last two seasons. Last year NU only won on the road at Michigan in Big Ten play and this year they’ve only won on the road at Iowa. While the odds are this game won’t silence Bill Carmody’s critics (and really should it? Probably not yet.) and certainly won’t get Northwestern in the NCAA Tournament or even the NIT, the fact is Northwestern has a real good chance to make the NIT if they can continue to win at home. However, NU’s remaining home slate includes Penn State, who dominates NU’s men’s hoops squad with the same ease the NU football team dominates Iowa (and their aren’t many teams that dominate another team like NU does the Hawks in football), and Minnesota, a possible tournament team. In their other remaining games NU is at Indiana on short rest (Bill Carmody ripped the Big Ten office’s scheduling for this short rest road trip on WGN after the game) this Saturday and has to go to Madison, Wisconsin where they’ll try to be just the 13th opponent in the last decade to beat the Badgers on their home court. NU may very well be underdogs in every remaining game and that means that the ‘Cats will need an even better effort than their uneven effort tonight to get themselves in the NIT.

The best part of tonight was NU’s return to a pretty smooth offensive system (other than missed layups). The ‘Cats came out hot early and did job of moving the ball and shooting early in the shot clock if the opportunity presented itself. NU finished with 17 assists on their 27 made fields. They also made 12 threes which were, of course, ten more than Sunday at Penn State. No doubt exists that NU shoots better at home which is probably why they are 11-3 at home and 4-7 in locations that aren’t Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Four of NU’s five starters scored in double-figures and JerShon Cobb posted 8 points and 6 rebounds while only hitting 3-of-9 field goals and 1-of-4 free throws (after coming into the game as NU’s top free throw shooter) which means he could have scored more. Juice Thompson led NU with 16 points and 9 assists. Although he only hit 1-of-4 threes, he made a number of huge shots which once NU regained the lead early in the second half kept Iowa from making any sort of run to get the advantage back. Drew Crawford scored 15 points of his own and had an awesome tip on an Alex Marcotullio miss which turned out to be a big play as well. He also had 4 assists and 4 steals. Also, I take some comfort in the fact that 1/3 of NU’s made threes came from John Shurna who hit 4 treys and scored 15 points. However, Shurna still looked a little off at times. He’s missed way more free throws than before his injury and only got two rebounds, but he did show some ability to elevate on a give-and-go dunk.

NU’s final doube figure starter was Luka Mirkovic. Let me say that Luka hitting 2-of-2 threes is huge. I think NU becomes a remarkably better team if Luka is freed to take threes and knocks them done. Also, the fact is that Luka was pretty bad playing on the inside hitting only 3-of-8 two point shots, which means he might be better off shooting the wide open threes he gets anyway. I don’t understand how a guy who is almost seven feet tall can’t convert from two feet away, but Luka often can’t. Yet, somehow he finished today with 13 points and was really the guy who wont he game for Northwestern. He also got seven rebounds, though, if he could jump at all he’d probably have doubled that total. Still, he was better than Davide Curletti who played one of his weakest games of the season posting just a rebound and 3 fouls in 12 minutes. Both need to be much better against Indiana on Saturday.

Indiana, like Iowa, has gotten better since NU played them last and Coach Carmody clearly thinks NU is at a disadvantage based on his short rest rant to WGN, but the bottom line is that Northwestern needs to beat IU just as badly as they needed to beat UI tonight if they want to secure a postseason bid (and really get the heat off their coach) before the regular season’s final days.

Iowa and Northwestern Both Trying to Snap Losing Streaks

2011-02-16T18:39:00.000-06:00

Northwestern and Iowa are 4-9 and 3-10 respectively in the Big Ten and both have lost their last two games. Only Indiana has been worse than these two squads, but Northwestern still has something to play for in this game as they could still qualify for the NIT with a nice end to the season. I think if NU wins their three remaining home games and matches last year’s 7-11 Big Ten record they likely will make the NIT. If they lose this contest or any of the others they’ll very likely drop out of the NIT and maybe to 10th or 11th place in the Big Ten. That’s why this game is so important and why some might argue that Northwestern coach Bill Carmody is facing down unemployment as much as the Hawkeyes.

When these two teams last met Northwestern pounded Iowa in one of the best Big Ten games NU has played in recent memory. Since then things have gone more south for NU and north for Iowa. Iowa pulled off a couple nice upset wins against Michigan State and at Indiana while Northwestern has managed to embarrass themselves against Wisconsin and Penn State.

Iowa’s step forward has been led by point guard Bryce Cartwright who has mastered the ability to get his own shot against teams which lack a guard quick enough to defend him. His shot to beat Indiana has to be a high point in what has been a tough year for the Hawkeyes. Against NU, I expect Iowa to try and run pick and rolls as Penn State and Michigan did in order to isolate Cartwright on a big such as Luka Mirkovic. If that happens and NU switches, Cartwright will score with ease and I think I’ll encourage a walk out at Welsh-Ryan. NU has constantly been burned because they don’t fight through screens. It’s terribly fundamentally unsound basketball and needs to change, but NU hasn’t made such a change yet.

At 12.5ppg Matt Gatens is Iowa’s top scorer and is a three point threat to be contended with if NU tries to go 1-3-1, however, I’m really worried about 6-5 forward Eric May. May is kind of Iowa’s Drew Crawford. He can go off and score 25 points, but he might also post five. If he has a good night Iowa is much much more likely to win just as NU is when Crawford plays well. NU has to defend May’s three and keep him from getting easy drives as well. In the front court with May, Iowa has Jarryd Cole and Melshan Basabe. Basabe scores 10.5ppg and gets 7.0rpg and is a decent shot blocker, but at only 6-7 he is a little smaller than the guys NU will play up front. With Cole being just 6-7 as well, NU could get a number of baskets from Luka Mirkovic.

As has been the case a number of times this year, I have no idea what to expect from Northwestern. Will they pack it in and wait for the season to end or do they still want to keep competing for a postseason bid. I think by playing at home NU should be more motivated and I think Iowa’s lack of size really works to NU’s advantage. Hopefully, NU will play quick and be confident and hit some threes as they did at Iowa. That would be huge because other than a few nice games by Juice Thompson NU hasn’t shot well in a long time. A stretch of hot shooting to end the year is really what NU needs. I predict: Northwestern, 81 Iowa, 80

If NU were to make I change I'd want...

2011-02-14T21:57:00.005-06:00

Is Bobby Knight on the list of guys I'd like to see coach NU? If he were NU's coach would he bring the students candy as he did in a 2000 game in Evanston?

This post doesn’t isn’t meant to imply I’m writing off this season or Bill Carmody’s tenure as head coach just yet, but if I were Northwestern’s athletic director, I would make list of potential head coaching candidates and keep it in my desk drawer in case I needed it at the end of the year (or next year which is more likely because next year HAS to be NCAAs or bust for Carmody with no excuses about injuries or Kevin Coble caring more about himself than his team or whatever). Some have suggested NU make an in-season change now, but I’m not a fan of those moves because I think they put the interim coach and potentially the school in a no win situation. Plus, I could still see Carmody getting this mess back on track for an 8-10 finish and I'd give him a big thumbs up for that. But the fact is that Northwestern has only one game left on their schedule I’d say they should win. That’s Thursday at home against Iowa. After Sunday’s game at Penn State, I’m not even confident in winning that contest. It would take multiple upsets for NU to match last year’s 7-11 Big Ten record and most likely NU will be 5-13 or 6-12. Those records likely put NU in 10th place. If that happens it'll be a tough sell to keep Carmody around.

Here’s what I would consider a somewhat realistic list of potential candidates. Some of these are reaches, but others are not. My number one criterion is previous heading coaching experience. I’d also prefer someone people have heard of before because at this point I think interest in NU basketball is so low that if Bill Carmody were replaced by some faceless assistant it would be a stretch to expect more than 2,000 at Welsh-Ryan next year for non-conferences games. I guess I should also mention that these are, obviously, guys that I like and aren’t necessarily going to be huge names or names that most people would want.

1) Kevin Stallings – Current Head Coach at Vanderbilt – It would take a huge investment of money to get Stallings to leave Vandy. I’d guess in the neighborhood of $2 million a year. Realistically, that’s probably not money Northwestern would be willing to spend on men’s basketball, but if NU wants to win basketball games I think Stallings is the first (and maybe last) name that should be on the list. He’s won at Vandy by recruiting not only all over the U.S., but all over the world (he’s current best player is English and one past star was Australian) and he’s got Big Ten roots with Gene Keady at Purdue as well as in-state experience as the head coach at Illinois State.

2) Brad Soderberg – Former Wisconsin and St. Louis U. Head Coach – Soderberg is currently coaching at the NAIA level after the odd end to his career to SLU. He has posted 20 win seasons at the NAIA, Division III, Division II, and Division I levels. His career record coming into this year was 234-157. I like him not only because he’s always won and he’d be a cheap hire (still working on the NU budget), but because he was taught by one of my coaching heroes, former Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett. If I thought Bennett would come out of retirement he’d top this list, but right now I’d settle for a guy who played for him and coached under him. Bennett (with Soderberg) took a team with Kirk Penny, Mark Vershaw, and Mike Kelly as his best players to the Final Four. That’s amazing, but he did it be stressing defense, rebounding, and hustle plays. After what we’ve seen of Northwestern this past year, wouldn’t seeing that be refreshing. Plus, I’m pretty sure next year’s Northwestern team isn’t that much less talented than that 2000 Wisconsin team.

3) Ben Jacobson – Current Head Coach Northern Iowa – NIU got Jacobson to stick around after their great run in the NCAAs last season and now that NIU has stepped back a bit he’s no longer a “hot” name in coaching. However, he’s still a darn good coach and might be an easier hire now that he isn’t coming off a remarkable run. He’s known as an “offensive genius” which might not thrill some people who have heard this one too many times about Carmody, but the difference is with Jacobson it’s because of the fact his teams have an insane number of plays they can call at any time instead of an offense which forces decisions to be made on the fly based on reads and such. That might help a young point guard

4) Lon Kruger – Current Head Coach UNLV – This's another one that might take some money, especially because Kruger said he wanted to end his career at UNLV a couple year back. Now, though, some of the heavy Rebel donors are upset at the team’s recent struggles and Kruger’s rugged style of play. In other words, Kruger still has his teams playing Big Ten type basketball in a city that wants the Runnin’ Rebs of old to show up. At Illinois Kruger won with less talent than Bill Self or Bruce Weber and that speaks well of him.

5) Jeff Jones – Current Head Coach American U. – We saw Coach Jones in Evanston earlier this year with his American Eagles team. Jones was also once the head coaching at the University of Virginia for eight years. That means he’s got high level experience and while UVA isn’t Northwestern, it’s not exactly Memphis when it comes to admission standards. I also like the fact that Jones is 306-245 as a head coach with seven league regular season or tournament titles.

6) Bobby Knight – Former Indiana and Texas Tech Head Coach – Okay, this name is on the list mostly because I found the picture at the top of this post and wanted an excuse to use it, but I have to admit I’d probably not get upset if NU hired Coach Knight. Truthfully, I think Bobby Knight is enjoying retirement and his work at ESPN and doubt he’d want to coach again at 70 years old. It might be interesting though for him to come in and mentor a young coach such as Tavaras Hardy for a couple years. I mean Coach Knight did win more than 800 games and virtually all of his assistants who became head coaches have been successful which means he knows how to mentor young guys. I guess that means more realistically, I wouldn’t mind someone from the Bob Knight coaching tree such as his son Pat Knight or former Indiana Interim Head Coach Dan Dakich.

Groundhog Day Performance: Northwestern Repeats Their Regular Effort vs Penn St.

2011-02-13T17:02:00.004-06:00

At the half I really thought Northwestern still a chance in this game. Yes, they’d only scored 15 points, but they’d played enough defense to make me believe that if they came out like they in the second half against Michigan on offense, but played defense they would win. However, NU continued to struggle on offense and while they still played good defense (how many other games would NU have won if they just gave up 61?!), scoring just 44 points isn’t going to get you many wins.

I know a lot of people will put this on the coaching staff (and I’ll have some general thoughts on them later), but I don’t think the game plan NU used toady was that bad—in fact it was really pretty good. They got a lot of open shots they simply missed (missing 15 threes in a row is nearly impossible for a D1 team, but NU managed to do it today) and defensively I have to believe credit for that improved effort goes to an increased emphasis on defense in practice since the loss at Michigan.

The bottom line today is Northwestern simply didn’t take advantage of a myriad of chances they did have. NU missed not only a number of open threes, but they also missed a number of layups of mid-range shots. Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti are much too weak in how they attempt shots. I’ve lost count of the number of times they’ve had shots blocked at point blank range because they try to flip in a layup form their hip instead of powering up a shot with their shoulder to the rim. I have to say I really struggle with the idea that Ivan Peljusic could be any worse.

Northwestern also has a number of players who are steak shooters and they were all on bad streaks today. Drew Crawford, Juice Thompson, and John Shurna can all get hot at times, but they were all ice cold today even when open. Shurna (though he has moments) still looks very hurt. I don’t think it is worth sitting him at this point because that ship has probably sailed. Now if you tried to sit Shurna for three weeks he wouldn’t be back until the Big Ten Tournament and having missed that much practice would probably leave him just as off with his shot as he is now. In retrospect I wonder if NU wishes Shurna would have just sat the first three weeks of the Big Ten season. I don’t know, but it’s hard to believe NU could be any worse off than they are now whether Shurna played or not.

Northwestern now sits at 4-9 in the Big Ten and has a real good chance to finish 10th or 11th in the Big Ten this year. I don’t think this loss is on the coaching staff because the players missed so many good looks and the defense was good, but I’m starting to think Jim Phillips needs to consider making a coaching change if Bill Carmody really has only two more years on his contract. I’m not saying Carmody should go at this point (and I’ve never been a fan of in-season changes anyway), but if Carmody’s contract really is up after next year Phillips is in tough spot. He (and Northwestern as whole) would look idiotic to even give Carmody a one year extension if he finishes in the bottom two in the Big Ten, especially if NU continues to look bad in games which are allegedly big games (if NU rallies it’s obviously a different story). It’s a tough position to be in because Carmody has done a lot for NU and isn’t a bad coach, but the problem is you also have a small fan base that rapidly losing interest. Look at NU’s message boards or the number of comments on this blog recently, with each loss less and less people care about NU hoops. The only place people seem to talk about NU hoops a lot is in the comments section of Lake the Posts and that’s been more negative banter than positive.

Honestly, I’m glad I’m not Jim Phillips because I don’t know what I’d do. I will say that if things don't get better vs Iowa and Indiana and it looks like the team quit then I'd probably make a change. So is Carmody coaching for his job vs Indiana and Iowa? Maybe. I guess good news for him is that if he is it's Indiana and Iowa he's playing, though, I'm sure people in Bloomington and Iowa City are thinking the good news in those games is that they're playing Northwestern.