Johnny “Cash” and the Wildcats Ready to Play MSG

Johnny "Cash" Shurna broke out during last year's in-season tournament at UIC

Northwestern is heading the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival for the first time since the late 1960s when they went 1-2 in what was then an eight team event. They’re heading to Madison Square Garden for the first time since a loss to Fordham in 2001. I’m excited about this event and Johnny “Cash” Shurna getting to take his game to “the world’s most famous arena”, but I’m weary given the ‘Cats past history. I have believed for eight years that the 2001 loss to Fordham is what kept the ‘Cats out of the 2001-02 NIT despite their 16-13 overall record. I think the selection committee, based in New York, looked at NU’s schedule, saw a loss to Fordham, and basically said, “Well, Fordham is no good and Northwestern lost to them, so we don’t want them in our tournament.” Now, the truth is events from the past don’t play a role in deciding current games so I shouldn’t let such nonsense worry me. So let’s move on.

Instead, I’ll let the fact that Northwestern’s only challenge in their 7-0 record came on the road at Texas-Pan American worry me. Now, certainly New York, New York is far more accessible than Edinburg, Texas, but the road was tough for NU last year. That’s why the ‘Cats current 2-0 mark in true road games is so significant even if the wins were over Northern Illinois and UTPA. Still, I think we can all agree that NU isn’t losing to Mount St. Mary’s or SIU-Edwardsville which basically means that NU’s potential 11-0 non-conference mark goes on the line Monday and (hopefully) Tuesday.

NU’s opener Monday is against St. Francis (NY) who sits at 6-3 overall this season. They have two players named Akeem both from New York who star for them. Akeem Bennett is a 6-3 guard who has started all nine games and is the team leader in points (16.3ppg) and rebounds (6.1rpg). He’s also a very good three point shooter at 43% overall and has made 6-of-7 in the two Northeast Conference games St. Francis (2-0) has already played. Akeem Johnson is 6-6 forward who is force off the bench at 12.0ppg and 5.9rpg. He makes 60% of his field goals, but only converts 55.3% of his free throws. Perhaps that’s what limits him to around 22 minutes a contest. The other St. Francis (NY) player who averages double figures is Ricky Cadell. Cadell’s another solid shooter at 45.5% overall and 41.5% from three. The major chink in his amour is his 1-to-2.2 assist to turnover ratio. Actually, as a team St. Francis has more turnovers than assists. That means it’ll be critical for NU to apply pressure defense whether in the 1-3-1 or the matchup zone JerShon Cobb, Alex Marcotullio and Jeff Ryan need to keep starting offense by getting their hands on balls and creating turnovers. If NU manages to do that they’ll have a chance at another very solid win. The crowd could be pro-St. Francis as they are a local school, but I’d suspect the majority of the fans in attendance will by St. Johns fans waiting for their game to start. This is actually a good simulation for the Big Ten Tournament when NU often plays in a half-empty NBA arena with no atmosphere at all. One more worry is that in such places sometimes shooting is tough, but I’m thinking John Shurna could make shots pretty much anywhere.

I don’t want to say too much about the Tuesday game because we really don’t know who NU will play. The odds favor St. Johns (5-3) over Davidson (5-4). St. Johns is the home team, they’ve got a deeper roster, and they already who the Great Alaska Shootout so they’re tournament tested (remember when the Great Alaska Shootout was THE preseason event). Even given those facts, Davidson is a very solid program and could spring the upset. If you’re going to attend and stick around to watch that game or stay tuned in on the MSG Network, if you can, then watch 6-7 forward Justin Brownlee of St. John’s who converts 59.2% of his shots for 13.6 ppg and 6-10 center Jake Cohen of Davidson who averages 14.7 and 6.7 that’ll be an intriguing matchup. Also, checkout the sidelines for former Purdue head coach Gene Keady who is an advisor for new St. John’s head man Steve Lavin.

I predict: Northwestern, 77 St. Francis (NY), 62

I’ll save game two predictions till I see game one from all four squads. I will say, though, I think NU will get tested in game two no matter whom they face.

Note: NU will be withour forward Ivan Peljusic due to an appendectomy. If his spot in the rotation comes up look for guard Nick Fruendt.

20/20 Vision for John and Juice: Shurna nets 28 and Thompson 23 in Wildcats Seventh Consecutive Win

Northwestern won tonight’s game 78-62 and while it wasn’t always pretty, it was a very solid win. American University hung with the ‘Cats in the first half (NU held a 38-34 halftime advantage) and early in the second, but NU pulled away in the second half to cruise to a comfortable lead and eventual victory. NU used some nice pressure defense in their man-to-man and matchup zone defenses to get that lead. I thought NU would play more 1-3-1 coming into this game, but it wasn’t terribly effective when NU did play it early and Coach Bill Carmody said after the game he’d told the ‘Cats at halftime, “we’re not going to that 1-3-1 defense” as he knows they’ll need other defenses to be effective in the Big Ten. In NU’s second half matchup and man defenses Carmody credited the play of Alex Marcotullio and Jeff Ryan for making things happen. It’s impressive to watch those two play defense, whatever the style. They both are adept at tipping balls away and slowing down an offense’s momentum. As a result, they both often mange to start fast breaks for the ‘Cats and while it’s not usually them who scores, they deserve as much credit for many of NU’s points as the guys who actually get them in the scorebook.

Carmody also said that center Luka Mirkovic was “terrific tonight” and I have to agree. I said last time out Luka wasn’t aggressive enough, but he brought his aggressive side tonight. He got a ton of tough two hand rebounds and scored 11 points, most importantly converting 5-of-6 free throws. I still think Coach Carmody needs to get out the blocking pads in practice and start hammering Luka as he tries to make layups so he learns to finish at the rim, but if he can make foul shots and get rebounds he’ll be a solid contributor all year. Monday night should be a good test of consistency as Luka hasn’t had a lot of big games away from the friendly confines of Welsh-Ryan.

Drew Crawford had some foul trouble early and only scored 4 points, but he really had a very nice game. Coach Carmody said Drew, “passed the ball exceptionally well” and the numbers prove that out with 5 assists and 0 turnovers for the sophomore. I’ll also say right now that I expect Crawford to have a big scoring game Monday vs St. Francis. Drew showed last year that he’d often precede a really big scoring game with a very solid all-around game that wasn’t necessarily huge in the scoring column, but that helped NU win.

Now, I’ve kind of worked backwards in my praise as obviously the two biggest starts of the game were John Shurna and Juice Thompson. Shurna scored 28 points on 9-of-14 from the field and 7-of-8 from the charity strip. It was great to see the extra work Shurna put in on free throws paid off tonight. Of course, Shurna made a wide variety of shots, but probably the most memorable were a 35-foot three as the shot clock ran down and his last bucket a running one hander on the baseline. Both were spectacular shots. People all across Big Ten country are debating just how good Shurna is or will become. Personally, I think he’s certainly the most consistent scorer in the league right now, but (and these two don’t always go together) he may also be the most explosive. It’s amazing how many points Shurna can put up in short order and how many different ways he can get them.

Juice Thompson scored 23 points and when American locked down Shurna for a stretch thanks to some solid play by Charles Hinkle, Juice stepped up. Thompson made 4-of-6 threes tonight and did a really good job attacking the basket as well. Unlike the Long Island game were Thompson was almost exclusively a perimeter player, he scored half of his baskets inside the arc tonight.

The only major critical issue I want to bring up tonight is one I’ve had for awhile. Bill Carmody is excellent at setting up out of bounds plays, but NU is consistently terrible with the ball in the last possession of the first half. Why is this? Because Carmody doesn’t use a timeout in order to setup a play and inevitably everybody stands around until about 3 second are left on the clock and then Thompson or Shurna forces a shot. This makes no sense to me. You only get to carry four timeouts to the second half anyway. Why wouldn’t you use the non-carry over TO if you got it in order to setup a play? Especially if setting up plays is your best/favorite skill in the world. I’d really like to know.

Overall, though, this game was a solid positive and I look forward to seeing the ‘Cats play in the world’s most famous arena early next week.

Wildcats Face Potential Tournament Team in American U.

Let’s be honest, Northwestern’s non-conference basketball schedule isn’t that tough. The ‘Cats are 6-0 currently and will be favored to go 11-0 in non-Big Ten (or B1G) games during the rest of the regular season. With that schedule, NU really won’t get to post many wins they’ll use to impress tournament selection committees. Without any big name non-conference wins, NU needs to find a way to justify its non-conference schedule and one way to do that is to look at the number of teams NU plays that do make the postseason. Teams such Creighton, Georgia Tech, and Long Island have legitimate hopes of making some postseason. Those might not be great wins, but at least when a committee looks at NU’s record against teams who are in the postseason those wins will help. American University falls into the same category for NU. The Eagles will not be a top-25 team at any point this season. However, they have a legitimate shot at a Patriot League title and an NCAA bid. They would likely be a #15 or #16-seed (at least one projection has them as a #16-seed facing Duke in their tourney opener), but they’d be in the Big Dance and thus beating them is as significant as anything else NU might do during the non-conference season. Plus, this game is on real TV on the BTN as opposed to streaming video so more causal fans can watch. That’s potentially good for generating a positive impression in the college basketball world at large if the ‘Cats play well again.

Another reason this game against American U has value for NU is that the Eagles have big man with skill in Vlad Moldoveanu. The 6-9 forward scores 20.3 a game and grabs 5.6 rpg. He’s also a decent three point shooter at 31.2% and knocks down 75% of his free throws. Basically, he’s an all-around good player and facing him should test NU’s centers the same way facing Creighton’s Kenny Lawson Jr. did. I have to say that NU’s duo of Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti came through against Lawson so I hope they come through versus big Vlad. That Wildcat duo is maddeningly inconsistent and can’t be so if NU wants to do anything in the Big Ten. Overall at this point I’ve probably been more impressed with backup Davide Curletti than starter Mirkovic. Curletti always seems to be hustling and trying to play hard, he just sometimes seems to have trouble with playing foul-free defense. He’s a lot more confident than he was the last two years as he’s now not worried about shooting a three or making a post move. Luka on the other hand seems to be too easily discouraged by bad results. He’s reluctant to take shots if he doesn’t have success early and doesn’t consistently hit the glass or play defense aggressively. Mirkovic was a highly regarded recruit who has shown flashes, but he needs to really step up if NU has any chance of making the Big Dance.

If American wants to make the Big Dance they need more than just Vlad which is why University of Georgia transfer Troy Brewer is perhaps the Eagles key player. Brewer is legit with BCS credentials as he scored 12 points in the 2008 SEC Championship game as a freshman to lead Georgia to the Big Dance. So far this season he’s hitting for 13.6ppg and knocking down 38.8% of his threes. The one weakness he has is more turnovers than assists. With Brewer and Vlad being AU’s only players making over 30% of their threes I’d look for coach Carmody to drop NU into the 1-3-1 early. I know he wants to work on the matchup/switching man, but Carmody has to see that NU hustles more in the 1-3-1 and this Eagle team seems like a perfect team to play that zone against. The Eagles third leading scorer helps argue the point. Stephen Lumpkins scores 12.4 ppg, hasn’t tried a three all year, and has more turnovers than assist. If NU does play 1-3-1 AU will try to get shooting from the sub-30% three point trio of Daniel Munoz, Nick Bersch, and Nick Hendra. All three are regarded as potential shooters, but their numbers don’t show success. Hendra and Munoz are the team’s best ball handlers though and I’d expect them to be the guys under initial pressure against NU’s zone.

Statistically despite AU being a top team in their league NU should dominate this contest, but I’m a bit worried about how NU’s centers will handle Moldoveanu. Can Luka and Davide really shut down such a player? They did stop Kenny Lawson Jr. Therefore, I’d like to think they can even if NU’s interior defense in their last game was terrible. It’s also worth noting that despite a 5-3 record AU has lost their last three overall and their last two against BCS teams by 21 and 19 points respectively. I also think you’ll actually see NU play better on offense than they did versus LIU, despite the fact they shot 50% overall. That means this probably is another pretty solid win for the ‘Cats which is good as they wrap up this home stand and get ready to play in New York. I predict: Northwestern, 85 American, 64

Wildcats Survive Rust and Late LIU Comeback Attempt to Post Sixth Win

Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said after the game his team played “decently” in their 81-65 win over Long Island. That description seems apt to me as I wasn’t overly impressed walking away from tonight’s contest, but I it certainly didn’t fall in the category of a “non-loss” as opposed to win as some other past NU non-conference games over the years have.

Basically, NU used an outstanding game from John Shurna (as long as he wasn’t at the free throw line), a good start from JerShon Cobb, okay defense on the perimeter resulting in nine steals, and a few highlight reel plays from Drew Crawford and Juice Thompson to get away with tonight’s victory in spite of shooting just 13-of-25 from the free throw line and playing what Carmody called “not good” interior defense.

After not playing for 13 days rust is almost always a factor. I watched Ohio State return to action after a long break recently and I think the ‘Cats played a better game tonight than the Buckeyes when took the court after the end of their finals vs IUPUI. That said, if not for JerShon Cobb starting off the game with two early threes and a two, NU would have started very slowly. Thankfully, NU parleyed Cobb’s nice start into an early lead after LIU jumped ahead in the games opening moments. Cobb finished the day 4-of-9 overall, but made 3-of-4 threes, dished out 3 assists to only 1 turnover and set a new career-high with 12 points. If not for picking up early fouls he might have done more.

Fouls were a problem for Northwestern as they committed 14 in the first half. If Long Island wasn’t nearly as bad as Northwestern from the line the game might have been closer. LIU made just 16-of-30 free throws. They also helped NU by committing 15 turnovers while only dishing out 9 assists. Basically, LIU played offense by driving to the basket and trying to get fouled. NU, on the other hand, did execute the Princeton Offense very well at times and finished the game with 24 assists on 29 made field goals. That’s assists on 83% of the team’s made shots which is a sure signal the Princeton Offense is working. The best play in my mind was when John Shurna tossed a backdoor alley-op to Drew Crawford. It showed me that Shurna is as good of passer as he is shooter and that NU isn’t afraid to incorporate their explosiveness into their regular sets. After all, the play was simply a backdoor play that Tim Doyle might have tossed to Craig Moore except that with Crawford as the recipient the play can take place above the rim and become much tougher to spot. That’ll be huge in Big Ten play.

Speaking of Shurna and Crawford, both had good moments and bad moments in this game. Shurna’s 10-of-11 from the field for 26 points along with 7 rebounds and 7 assists with a number of highlight reel shots and dunks are hard to complain about, but his 4-of-10 free throw shooting cost him a 30-point night (which could be huge in his battle for the league scoring title) and might have made a big difference in a closer game. Crawford had two big dunks tonight as both the above mentioned alley-op and a put-back slam brought the crowd to its feet. However, I also saw a lot of forcing shots in his 4-of-16 shooting night. One thing I think Crawford could learn from Shurna is to let the game come to him a bit. Early on Shurna wasn’t getting shots, but he was still finding a way to win by setting up Cobb and Thompson for baskets. On the other hand, Crawford seemed anxious to get going and settled for some bad looks. I’ve seen this tendency in Crawford to get hungry for points more so than pretty much any of his teammates. I think he needs to watch what Shurna does on film and see that on a team with Shurna, Thompson, Cobb, and even guys who can heat up like Alex Marcotullio, Luka Mirkovic, and Davide Curletti that forcing shots isn’t what anybody needs to do.

Part of the credit for this game being kind of close has to go to LIU’s offensive approach which was very aggressive. NU played mostly the matchup zone/switching man-to-man, but again revealed major weaknesses in defending penetration. Somehow, NU needs to learn how to move their feet and when to move and help a player who gets beat. As a result of LIU’s approach both Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti hit early foul trouble. Curletti probably had the better day with 7 points and 2 rebounds to Luka’s 2 points and 6 rebounds, though, neither probably felt great about tonight. In Luka’s case, I think he has the opposite problem of Crawford. Luka is often times very unaggressive and doesn’t seem to really attack the glass. Personally, if I were Bill Carmody I think could care less if Mirkovic ever scored, but I believe I’d find myself nearly in tears begging him to get consistently aggressive attacking the boards and playing defense. Carmody even said after the game that NU’s poor inside defense “didn’t bode well” for facing 6-9 American University dynamo Vlad Moldoveanu who scores about 22 points a game.

That’s Thursday, though. Right now, I think NU needs to go home, feel good about being 6-0 for 12 hours or so, and then comeback to the gym tomorrow morning and work on free throw shooting, and playing help defense in order to get ready for American University.

Wildcat Return to Court after Finals

Northwestern is back in action Monday night hosting 6-3 Long Island. It’ll be NU’s first game since defeating Georgia Tech back on November 30th in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. At 5-0 the Wildcats were off to a hot start and I certainly hope the long layoff doesn’t harm their momentum. This is a scary game, though, as LIU isn’t a total cupcake and as a jump shooting team rhythm is a key to NU’s success. They won’t have a safety net a la Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger who can score 40 points inside if the team is cold from outside thanks to the long break.

If NU doesn’t slump numbers would indicate a high scoring affair. Long Island averages 81.1 points per game and NU has already shown that posting 90 is almost routine for these Wildcats. It’s a shame the game won’t be live on TV, but only live on-line at bigtennetwork.com. The game will be rebroadcast on the BTN at 4PM CT on Tuesday, but I doubt anybody will try to live in a vacuum in order not to learn the score until then.

In order to score those 81.1 points per game LIU averages four players in double-figures and shoots 34.1% from three. This might be a game in which NU will try to stay away from the 1-3-1 defense and work more on the matchup and switching man-to-man that Coach Carmody has repeatedly said will be critical for the Big Ten season. LIU’s best player is 6-5 guard Kyle Johnson. Johnson hits a high percentage from three (48.8%) and hits the boards hart (6.1 rpg).6-7 Julian Boyd was the best scorer in his teams win over Lafayette last time out with 23 points. For the season he’s a near double-double with 12.4ppg and 8.4 rpg. He does have somewhat of a chink in his amour, though, as he’s only a 63% free throw shooter and he does get to the line a fair amount. It’ll be interesting to see how the Wildcats defend him. NU has actually done better than expected when facing challenging big men this year. Another 6-7 player for LIU is Jamal Olasewere. He’s at 12.2 and 5.9 per game. Amazingly, despite all their players high rebound totals LIU is actually outrebounded on average. However, they still do pull down 41-plus a game so you can what type of pace they play at. The guy who sets that pace is C.J. Garner. He’s a 5-10 sparkplug who is similar to NU’s Juice Thompson. The major difference between the two is that Garner isn’t a three point shooter (only has taken two all year) he prefers to attack the basket or put the ball in the hands of other shooters as he has a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Overall, this game may present more of a challenge to NU than some might expect. The long layoff, lack of a crowd thanks to no students, NU’s dependence on outside shootings, and LIU’s offensive talent make this seem like a potentially close game. I think Northwestern will be able to pull out a victory (and I actually think they’ll shoot pretty well), but I think it’ll stay closer longer than people expect. I predict: Northwestern, 83 LIU, 75

A Way to Early Look at NU’s NCAA Tournament Chances

One recent projection of the NCAA Tournament field had Northwestern in the Big Dance as #9-seed. That’s very exciting, but the truth is NU has a massively long way to go if they want to make the school’s first trip to March Madness. The good news is thanks a very strong Big Ten schedule Northwestern will get the opportunity to do that work. The bad news is it could take a lot of work and most of it will have to wait till the new year.

Right now Northwestern is sitting at #94 in the latest RPI rankings. NU has been steadily dropping over the past few days. Some of that is from the ‘Cats not playing, but some is from simply playing teams who aren’t going to be listed as quality wins come March. One of the ways the committee ranks teams is their record against the top-50 and the top-100 RPI rated teams. Currently, Northwestern is 0-0 against that group. They’re 1-0 and against the top-150 with a win over #137 Georgia Tech. This isn’t meant to be negative, but it is meant to make sure we as fans understand where we are right now. The majority of Northwestern opponents so far this season have been rated below #150 nationally. Their next opponent, Long Island, currently sits at #196. The next, American University, is #172. Essentially, unless some of NU’s past opponents pull some upsets then the ‘Cats might win and still slip in the RPI.

In terms of the pre-Big Ten season the game NU needs to target is the expected matchup versus St. Johns on December 21st. The Red Storm currently sit at RPI spot #24 and that will be NU’s third legit road game on the year. Were it not for NU having recorded 40% of their wins on the road thus far this season they might not be in the top-100 of the RPI themselves. Thankfully, the wins over #281 NIU and #319 UTPA aren’t as meaningless as the might have been because they did come on the road.

Bottom line, though, when it comes to Selection Sunday unless NU wins the Big Ten Tournament they probably need at least six (and maybe more) wins over top-100 in order to just be considered for the NCAA Tournament. A win over St. Johns would give the ‘Cats one. That means would need to record at least five major upsets in Big Ten and probably get to an overall Big Ten record of 10-8 or at worst 9-9. That’s possible, but it’ll be tough. The good news is that the league’s difficulty increases NU’s chance of gaining respect even if they finish just .500 overall in league play. The bad news getting to .500 may be tough. The Big Ten is the #3 rated conference right now, but that’ll go up once league play starts. Especially if a team like Indiana becomes a surprise success as I think they might become. Essentially to see NU’s name in the NCAA Tournament bracket I think we need to hope that not only do the ‘Cats do their job with a number of upsets starting in late December and running till early March, but that teams like Creighton (currently #162) and Georgia Tech pull themselves together and pull some upsets themselves to make NU’s wins over them look good.

Cobb Brings Right Attitude to Northwestern Hoops

Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald at times this season lamented the fact he couldn’t have 22 Dan Persa’s on his team. His comment wasn’t a slap at the rest of his starters, but simply an honest statement of fact his quarterback brought a special combination of fearlessness and self-confidence to the field every game which is often lacked by even the best of players. As I listened to Fitzgerald make this comment a couple times I wondered who (if anyone) on NU’s basketball roster had something like Persa’s unique makeup. I eventually decided that Michael “Juice” Thompson was the guy. After all, playing in the Big Ten at very generous 5-10 and battling against bigger players while playing defense on the bottom of the 1-3-1 zone takes a special kind of toughness (or creativeness if you believe the player survey that had Juice as the Big Ten’s dirtiest player). I still think Juice is pretty good example of Persa-like basketball player, but I also think NU now has another Persa-type guy in JerShon Cobb.

“When I get there we’re not going to be trying make it, we’re going to be trying win it.” – JerShon Cobb on NU and the NCAA Tournament

Last year after Northwestern started the year with a slew of impressive non-conference wins, Rivals.com checked in with Cobb as he started his senior season of high school. They asked Cobb what he thought of the ‘Cats chances of making the tournament. Cobb showed no doubt that the Wildcats would make the dance—probably showing far more confidence than most fans and maybe some members of last year’s team. From that moment I knew I was going to love the kid's attitude. He possessed the same type of belief without evidence that Gary Barnett had when he coached the Wildcats to their first Big Ten title in football in over 60 years during the 1995 season. While the ‘Cats didn’t end up making the tournament last year, Cobb won his second Georgia State Championship with Columbia High School and joined a long line of college and NBA starts as the Atlanta-area Player of the Year. Those two events pretty much clinched my belief that when JerShon arrived NU would be getting a special player.

"I always knew I chose the right school. There was never a doubt in my mind."– JerShon Cobb when asked if NU’s win over Georgia Tech justified his choice of school.

Then Cobb arrived on campus and suffered through injury early this season. He then saw limited playing in NU’s win over Creighton and felt the natural frustration of a high school star in a reduced role. Thankfully, though, he at least felt healthy. It was finally in NU’s game against his hometown team, Georgia Tech, that Cobb was able to put his confidence and his health together and have a big game. He kept NU in the contest early with some impressive hoops and played solid defense all night. Eventually, he earned praise from ESPN for his “smooth game”. After the game the media asked whether the NU victory gave him validation of his college choice. His response was perfect. So many people it seems want to talk about way NU can’t recruit elite players. They try to place blame on Bill Carmody or Welsh-Ryan Arena or any number of other failings with NU’s coaching staff or administration. I think the honest is reason, though, is that 16 or 17 year old kids are fearful of going to a program that doesn’t have tradition and potentially not winning. These are kids and most of them don’t possess the confidence in themselves to get over the potential fear of getting labeled as going to a “loser”. Georgia Tech had one of those kids in Iman Shumpert, an Illinois kid who said he was worried NU wouldn’t surround him with enough talent. Players NU lost out on in recruiting last Spring most likely had the same fear, but JerShon Cobb came to NU with only confidence. Confidence in himself and his vision of the future of Northwestern basketball. That confidence to ignore what others say and believe in oneself isn’t something many people his age have. Dan Persa had it and succeeded despite a so-so offensive line and running game. JerShon Cobb actually has way more talent (and probably confidence) around him then Persa did. That’s why I know I can say Northwestern is going to the NCAA Tournament in the near future and when it happens I know JerShon Cobb will be able to say he never doubted it would happen, because like Persa he doesn’t play worried he’ll lose, he plays knowing he’s going to win.