Wildcats Learn Something about Depth in Exhibition Win

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?

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.

Wildcat Win Exhibition over Eagles 91-71

As former Northwestern football coach Randy Walker was found of saying, “It wasn’t a game of perfect, but it never is.” Northwestern won an exhibition basketball game over Robert Morris University tonight by the score of 91-71. In the contest the Wildcats had some major highlight moments and some moments which no doubt will frustrate both the players and coaches when they watch the film of the contest tomorrow. Still, it was a solid start to NU’s season with some good stuff for NU to feel happy about and some stuff that the team knows they most improve on before they start the season for real a week from tomorrow at Northern Illinois.

Northwestern led the Big Ten in scoring in conference games last season and while the Wildcats didn’t burn out the lights in the Welsh-Ryan Arena scoreboard, they didn’t have much trouble scoring against the Eagles. Northwestern, not surprisingly, was led in scoring by John Shurna. NU’s leading returning scorer and last year’s Sporting News Most Improved Player in the NCAA scored 22 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, and dished out 4 assists. He also was the only Wildcat who really stayed in rhythm from three point range all night and ended up 5-of-7 from behind the arc. NU will have nights when other players have hot streaks from three, but it was nice to see Shurna assert himself when others struggled to hit the deep ball early on. I also loved seeing Shurna pass with ease as I have to imagine he’ll see some double teams where he’ll be able to find a wide open teammate under the basket.

NU’s other two big guns, Drew Crawford and Michael “Juice” Thompson, also got in double figures for NU. Crawford scored 16 points and finished one rebound short of a double-double with nine. Most importantly, though, four of those nine boards were on the offensive end. The most impressive of which involved him grabbing a missed three out of the air with one hand and slammed it down with ease. He also had six blocks and while many of RMU’s players were shorter than Crawford, that stat still shows his athletic ability.

Juice Thompson had an easy night playing 25 minutes which I think is a pretty safe bet will be the lowest total he plays all season. He made 4-of-8 shots overall and 2-of-4 from three, both when the game was still kind of close, and ended up with 10 points and 2 assists. Not surprisingly for a guy who probably knows the Princeton Offense as well as anybody in the program other than Bill Carmody, Thompson only had one turnover (the team had just four).

The other Wildcat in double figures was freshman JerShon Cobb. Cobb seemed to find his game in the second half and he finished with 12 points, 2 assists, and 2 rebounds playing mostly during the second stanza. He also showed a nice touch from the free throw line after missing his first two attempts. By all reports Cobb is a good free throw shooter.

I mentioned my worries about the center spot, but Luke Mirkovic got 8 points and 8 rebounds and Davide Curletti got 4 and 2. That means NU’s centers posted 12 points and 10 rebounds. That’s a combined double-double from that spot and totals which, if repeated regularly, will lead to a lot of Wildcat wins.

I’ll also say NU got some decent bench production, 23 points, but I also have to guess that Coach Carmody was more apt to play the bench tonight than he might be later in the season. Still, it was great to see Jeff Ryan get extended time and when Mike Capocci took off on his backdoor slam it was clear the kid is a freakish athlete, we just need to hope he can find enough basketball skills to go with that athleticism because it could sure help in the Big Ten.

My biggest disappoint was, again not a surprise if you followed the team last year, defense. NU tried to play a lot of man-to-man, but wasn’t that good at it. Some will say that’ll improve over more games, but the team does practice. They should be better. I will say that Robert Morris was very athletic, but most of the Big Ten is as well and somehow NU needs to learn how to play real man-to-man at least every once and a while. Wisconsin does it every possession of every game and I really don’t think they are any more athletic than NU. In fact, many of their guys in recent years would be insanely jealous of Drew Crawford, Mike Capocci, and JerShon Cobb’s athletic ability. Closer to home, Alex Marcotullio always plays good defense (today was no exception) and he isn’t NU’s most athletic guy. Some of his teammates need to take a lesson.

NU’s other area for improvement statistically is free throw shooting where they were only 9-of-17, but some of that is based on who got to the line. Some fans will also mention the ‘Cats got outrebounded, but it was by one and I was impressed with NU’s better rebounders when they were in the game.

Overall this was fine start down the road of the 2010-11 season, but to once again reference Coach Walk, I’m not all Chuckles the Clown about it. NU still has a lot of work to do in order to reach that road’s ultimate destination—the NCAA Tournament.

Exhibition: Robert Morris @ Northwestern

Northwestern starts the game portion of the 2010-11 schedule with an exhibition matchup on Thursday against Robert Morris College. The game can be seen on-line at bigtennetwork.com or, of course, by spending $5 to go to Welsh-Ryan Arena. Two years ago NU lost to Robert Morris and then posted one the best seasons in school history, so I don’t honestly expect to learn much from this game, but I’ll be watching a four key areas. Speaking of four, I don’t know if excellence in all these areas can get the ‘Cats to the Final Four in April, but it might get them into the Big Ten Tournament’s final four for the first time.

1) Defense

Northwestern played terrible defense for most of last season. Coach Carmody and the players have admitted as much. If NU could have played even halfway decent defense they likely would have been bound for the NCAA tournament. NU has worked on various defensive changes (including man-to-man) and I will be fascinated to see what defenses NU uses against Robert Morris. Personally, I’d really like NU to just play man-to-man regardless in order to work on it in a game setting. With Drew Crawford, JerShon Cobb, and John Shurna, NU has athletes who can play man against similar players.

2) The Center Position

The Center combo of Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti wasn’t great in Italy and Luka was arguably NU’s most important and inconsistent player last year. When he played well NU won games, but when he was bad the Wildcats were pretty bad as a team. Somehow, NU needs to find a way to get double figure points and at least seven or eight rebounds a game out of these guys combined regularly if they want to compete in the Big Ten.

3) JerShon Cobb

What role NU’s highest rated recruit of the Carmody era will play is a question many fans are asking. I honestly think JerShon will start, but even if he doesn’t, Coach Carmody isn’t going to leave a potential offensive and defensive playmaker on the bench long. It’ll be great to see JerShon on the floor.

4) The Bench

NU’s bench has at times been invisible, but this year it features 5th-year seniors Jeff Ryan and Ivan Peljusic as well past starter Mike Capocci. It’ll also likely feature Alex Marcotullio coming off the pine to add three point shots and aggressive defense. Basically, this should be a good bench and I want to see how Carmody (generally a short rotation type of coach) uses these guys.


What is everyone else going to be watching?