Some Quick Thoughts Post Chicago

For what tonight was I thought we saw a lot of good things from Northwestern. Remember, Coach Carmody probably wasn't playing anything like his normal rotation and that has to make an impact on the way things work. Plus, with nine new players on the roster (most of who played) you can't expect a perfect day the first time out in a real game. Still, NU won but left with lots to work on.

To me three big areas exist to work on. The first is that Chicago still managed to grab a lot of offensive rebounds despite NU's increase in height. Now, in someways it can be tougher to block out a quick 6-6 guy if you're 7 feet tall 270 plus pounds, but we can all agree we want NU doing better on the glass than they did tonight.

The second area of concern was free throw shooting. NU lost some early Big Ten games last year (most notably Illinois and Michigan) because they didn't shoot we'll at the charity strip. This team needs to improve in that area, especially because it looks like with their increased size that they'll get there somewhat regularly.

The final area where I'd like to see NU be more consistent is three point shooting. Tre Demps was on fire tonight but beyond that NU tossed a lot of bricks out there. I'm sure we'll see better nights from guys like Crawford and Sobolewski because we've seen them do it before, but the Wildcats need consistent three point games from those guys and guys like Jared Swopshire to compete in the Big Ten. I did like that Alex Olah hit a three and that Nikola Cerina seems to have a nice jump shot as well.

Aside from Demps, who to me was the most impressive player, and Crawford who was solid in limited time, I was most pleased with Olah. He wasn't facing great competition but he put the ball in the basket a variety of ways and looks more like a B1G center than many of NU's past centers did from day one. I also like that Cerina seems to have an outside game which he can use to help open up the inside.

I suspect we'll probably see less of guys like Ajou, Abrahamson, and James Montgomery III when we get into regular season games, but it was good to see those guys get time and I think they all learned a bit tonight.

What did everyone else think?

What do we expect vs Chicago?

Northwestern will play an exhibition game vs the University of Chicago tomorrow night. At one time this was a conference game but now UC is a division three team. The teams have met in regular seasons games since Chicago left the B1G but this contest is simply an exhibition in which I expect NU to use all of the 15 players on the roster. The end result could be a close game or even a Chicago win, but I'm not worried about the final score of this game. I'm much more concerned with seeing what combination Coach Bill Carmody puts on the court first and what players get some run off the bench. I'm also interested in seeing what the newcomers look like and seeing how comfortable they looking running the NU version of the Princeton Offense. I suspect transfers Nikola Cernia and Jared Swopshire will pick up what Coach Carmody wants them to do, but freshman center Alex Olah is a critical player for NU's tournament chances and how well he plays and how many points he produces could make a huge difference for the Wildcats.

Another guy who I think is critical for NU and who I can't wait to see on Wednesday is redshirt freshman guard Tre Demps. Dave Sobolewski had a great freshman year for Northwestern, but I feel like playing 36 minutes a game kind of led to him showing signs of fatigue down the stretch. Demps might be the guy who gives NU a solid backup point guard for the first time in my memory. That means Sobo can get a break for 10 minutes a game and be much energized down the stretch of games and in the stretch of the long Big Ten season. Demps was regarded as something of a guy who could score going at the hoop and hit an open shot if needed when he was recruited out of Reagan High School in Texas. If he brings those skills that'll be a nice compliment for what NU has in Sobo as well as his backcourt mates Reggie Hearn and Drew Crawford.

Finally, I hope NU plays man to man defense in this game. Yes, the 1-3-1 will be used by the 'Cats during the season but being able to play solid man to man defense might help NU vs some of their Big Ten opposition who has now seen the 1-3-1 for several years. I also wouldn't be shocked to see NU redeploy their match up zone which was a stable of Carmody's early years in Evanston but which hasn't been used as regularly in recent seasons.

 

…And We’re Back

We are back and ready to start the 2012-13 men’s basketball season for the Northwestern Wildcats. This is a season that many fans once again enter with great expectations, but it will feature a somewhat different looking Northwestern team. Gone is NU’s all-time leading scorer in John Shurna and missing due to suspension is dynamic (but often injured) guard JerShon Cobb. Instead, the Wildcats will need consistency from the maddeningly inconsistent Drew Crawford and some help inside from several fresh faces.



What do I expect this season? Well, I must admit that I feel similar to what I’ve felt the last couple years which is the feeling that NU will be right in the thick of the race for an NCAA Tournament bid, but will in the end fall a little short. What’s different though is that in the last few years NU’s failure to make the tournament was based on failures on defense or rebounding, this year I’m worried about offense. I think the ‘Cats will take a major step forward on the glass this season. Adding 7-foot 275-pound freshmen Alex Olah who is reported to be “the real deal” by NU insiders should help tremendously with the lack of rebounding NU struggled with in the past. In addition, Olah is reported to be a competent scorer around the basket who knows how to make sure the ball ends up in the hoop. Even better, he said that when watching the ‘Cats play last season he was most frustrated by the lack of offensive aggressiveness shown by his predecessors at center Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti. Olah will be joined in the starting front court by one of the more exciting additions NU has had via transfer. Jared Swopshire is a 6-8 forward who joins NU for a year as a grad student after playing three years for Louisville. Swop hit two threes in the Final Four against Michigan State last March. I’m not sure if any of NU’s other transfers (such as the big Mike Thompson) played in the Final Four at their previous schools, but I’m certain none were as significant contributors to a team which was just a step away from the National Title as Swopshire was. His addition should be a huge boost for NU not just in terms of talent, but in terms of providing NU a leader who knows what it takes to reach that next step which NU keeps missing. Backups in the front court are another transfer in 6-9 245-pound Nikola Cerina who sat out last year after transferring from TCU and 6-8 Mike Turner who redshirted last year, but is expected to provide NU with a unique athletic dimension the team has not previously featured. I’m probably most excited to see Cerina amongst the newcomers as he’s reported to be the team’s most explosive player. I’m really curious what that explosiveness looks like. NU also has three true freshmen front court players. 6-7 forward Kale Abrahamson, 6-10 Aaron “The Jewish Dwight Howard” Liberman, and 7-2 Chier Ajou. How much those three will play is unclear and I wouldn’t be shocked to see at least one redshirt, but without a doubt NU has more depth than ever before up front.



NU’s backcourt has some less depth thanks to JerShon Cobb’s academic issues, but the ‘Cats do return 6-5 swing man Drew Crawford who was third in the Big Ten in scoring last season along with fellow starters Dave Soblewski and Reggie Hearn. Hearn shot 44% from three point range in Big Ten games last year before hitting the wall totally in the NIT at Washington and looking like he couldn’t have thrown the ball into Lake Michigan from Lakeside Field. Sobolewski was one of the best distributors in the Big Ten last year as a freshman, but needs to become a more regular producer of points this season. The good news is that he showed flashes of offensive punch and if Olah, Swopshire, and Cerina make teams worry about NU’s production in the post it seems logical that Dave will be the player who most benefits. A close second to that might be Alex Marcotullio who probably contributed more last year as the dynamic defender at the top of NU’s 1-3-1 zone, but who has the ability to be a light’s out three point shooter. Alex Marco3llio4 as he goes by on twitter will need to drill some big threes this year and along with Crawford show the leadership Coach Bill Carmody needs from his seniors. Somewhere in the guard rotation should be redshirt freshmen Tre Demps and true freshmen Sanjay Lumpkin. I’m hoping both will provide not only added depth but a little more athletic skill which will get NU more points going towards the hoop and give Marcotullio some rest and help in playing aggressive defense.



The team plays an exhibition against former Big Ten Conference foe the University of Chicago this Wednesday and then opens officially next Tuesday against former Big Ten Conference coach Mike Davis and Texas Southern.

Quick Thoughts on Bill Carmody’s Return

Frustrating as Bill Carmody’s team are to watch at times I have no problem with him coming back to coach Northwestern next year. The odds are that NU wasn’t going to hire a game changing type of coach, especially if the University of Illinois couldn’t land one. Therefore, it’s better off with Carmody who knows the massive restrictions which NU has and is willing to work under them and make NU competitive. The key now is if Carmody can find a way to improve his own weaknesses.

Just Down Right Bad

Northwestern was just flat out bad in this game. They couldn’t hit enough shots to stay in the game and they turned the ball over so much they missed chances to get more shots. I’m sure a lot of people will blame Bill Carmody for this loss because that’s just what is done at Northwestern, but it’s not his fault that his players just seemed completely overwhelmed tonight. I’m sure he prepared them for the fact that Washington was going to play pressure defense. They just clearly didn’t get the message.

I think the key to Northwestern’s failure to win in the Big Ten Tournament and in this game was the fact that point guard Dave Sobolewksi was overmatched against very athletic teams. It’s also possible he just burnt out at the end of season after playing nearly every minute of every game, but the fact of the matter is his production when the season was on the line was less than impressive. It’ll be interesting to see if Tre Demps helps put NU on more even footing athletically at the point guard spot when NU faces very athletic competition.

The loss isn’t all on Sobolewksi, though, the fact is believe it or not Northwestern had chances to make a run in the second half, but just missed far too many open looks. Yes, Sobo had some of those, but he wasn’t the only one. Reggie Hearn was so cold I thought on saw icicles on his nose.

To be honest, other than John Shurna I’m not sure Northwestern had a player who looked to have any idea how to put the ball in the basket tonight. Making matters worse, Northwestern actually got some steals and made probably more stops against Washington than I thought they would, but it didn’t matter because they couldn’t even finish on fast breaks. Washington sure could, though.

Washington was far more athletic overall and really just made Northwestern look bad. I still think Northwestern could have hung around if they’d made more shots, but Washington was the better team. They handled Northwestern’s 1-3-1 zone really well and NU couldn’t play man-to-man because Washington would have scored at will.

This is disappointing because it ends a season which while tough at moments, was mostly filled with good competitive basketball with a game which was anything but competitive.

As I said above, this game was lost due to turnovers and missed shots. That’s not the fault of the coach, but this might still be Bill Carmody’s last game at Northwestern. This major laying of an egg type performance is the type of game that gets a coach fired. Whatever the case, Jim Phillips needs to make some decision on Carmody’s future because his contract runs out after next season and he can’t coach 2012-13 as a lame duck. That’s not a productive way to run a program. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I suspect we will hear something on that issue very soon.

I really am sorry the season ended this way for John Shurna, but let's remember his great record setting career and hope that he makes an NBA roster as that would help build the NU basketball brand for young people out there as much as anything besides making the NCAA Tournament.

Wildcats in Washington for NIT Round Two Matchup

Turn on your favorite episode of Frasier, get your umbrella, order some Starbucks, and grab your favorite grunge mix tape, because the Wildcats are going to Seattle.

The NIT seeding document (which is clearly just for show) says that geography is included in placing teams in regions. Therefore, based on the last two years we can only conclude that the geniuses at NIT HQ believe that Washington is right next to Illinois. Clearly, the need to take a geography class. Either that or they’ve discovered wormhole travel and haven’t let anyone else in on the secret. Whatever the case, like last year’s quarterfinal game, Northwestern must travel west to play a team in Washington. On the positive side, UW is located in the easy access city of Seattle while the trip to Washington State forced the ‘Cats to travel to difficult to reach Pullman. With that in mind, I’m hoping NU gets off to a better start in this contest and I’m hoping that we’ll see a good NU turnout as even in Pullman the west coast Wildcat alums represented NU well.

Washington won the Pac-12 regular season title, but was upset by Oregon State in the Pac-12 tournament. Thanks to that loss and overall weakness of the Pac-12, the Huskies are in the NIT instead of the NCAA Tournament making them the first major conference team to win their league regular season title and not play in the NCAAs. Washington is a young team with only one senior who sees significant time. That senior is Darnell Grant one of two big front court players for UW. Grant has posted 10+ rebounds three games in a row and when teamed with 7-0 center Aziz N’Diaye the two certainly seem a formidable presence inside the paint. Of course, Northwestern isn’t know for getting rebounds, but they’ll have to do a better job on the glass against Washington than they did vs Akron or Minnesota if they want to get out of Seattle with a win.

In the back court Washington has one of the nation’s best freshman guards in Tony Wroten. He’s the team’s leading scorer and posts almost five rebounds and four assists a game. He’s 6-5 and should be an interesting matchup if NU goes man-to-man. I wouldn’t be shocked to see JerShon Cobb or Drew Crawford draw that defensive assignment. Another tough guard for Washington is Terrence Ross who scores more than 15 points per game. He’s 6-6 so he’s another guy that one of NU’s bigger guards (maybe Reggie Hearn) needs to defend. The only small Washignton guard is 6-3 Abdul Gaddy and 6-3 isn’t that small. He’s the point guard who will try to distribute the ball around for the Huskies.

I’m sometimes off on predicting how NU will defend a team, but considering that C.J. Wilcox off the bench and Ross are the only Washington players who make more than 35% of their threes and that Washington is barely better than 1-to-1 in assist-to-turnover ration I’m betting we see a lot of 1-3-1 from Northwestern.

On offense, the Oregon State version of the Princeton Offense was good enough to upset Washington recently, so we have to hope NU’s version (which is reportedly a little more creative) can do the same. It’ll probably come down to three point shooting and minimizing Washington’s rebound advantage for NU. The other intangible is the road environment. Washington had just under 3,000 people for their first round game and I can’t think this game will bring that many more to Alaska Airlines Arena. I do know that NU will have a nice crowd so that ought to help somewhat. Also while it probably means nothing Northwestern is 7-0 this season on ESPNU and is 5-0 on ESPNU away from Welsh-Ryan Arena. Also, the ‘Cats will likely wear their black jerseys which they’re 4-1 in this season. I know none of that really impacts the outcomes, but I’m liking the omens I see. I also like the fact that I think Washington will turn the ball over. If NU gets production from players other than Shuna, Crawford, and Cobb they can win this game. Of course, they haven’t gotten that production in the last two contests. Still, I feel this game is a lot like the game at Illinois which NU pulled out thanks to Reggie Hearn’s huge afternoon. I predict: Northwestern, 69 Washington, 67

Wildcats Finally Survive a Close one at Home: Advance to Round Two of the NIT

Amazingly Northwestern had actually pulled off more close wins on the road than at home this season (see: Penn State, Iowa, and Illinois) tonight though the Wildcats managed to pull off a 76-74 victory over Akron and now move on to play in the second round of the NIT for the second straight year. This win also gives the Wildcats 19 total wins on the season which leaves them one win away from a school record three straight 20 win seasons. At this point it’s unclear when NU will be playing again, but I’ll post that as soon as I learn.

As far as tonight’s game goes, this was really all about the Wildcats two stars John Shurna and Drew Crawford winning the game for the their team with some solid support from JerShon Cobb who provided 19 points, but the rest of the ‘Cats pretty much just seemed to stand around and watch those guys play offense. I will give point guard Dave Sobolewski credit for a game with 5 assists and only 1 turnover in 32 minutes, but after a terrible shooting day against Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament it now looks like Sobo is reluctant to shoot the ball. No matter who NU plays in the next round of the NIT, I think Sobo will need to step up as will Reggie Hearn, Alex Marcotullio, and Davide Curletti. The ‘Cats won’t be able to pull off another game with just Shurna, Crawford, and Cobb scoring.

For what it’s worth, though, I thought it was a great game by Drew Crawford who pulled his typical Houdini magic and reappeared after disappearing in the Big Ten Tournament against Minnesota. It would be amazing if Crawford were consistent at all or even if his bad games just weren’t so bad. An average game from Drew would be fine, but being so erratic won’t help if he’s expected to be the star next season. Still, today he was very good with 27 points and 7 rebounds and was really the guy who got the ‘Cats going in this game.

Equally good was John Shurna who posted a double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds, also added seven assists and hit the 2,000 point mark for his career. His work was even more impressive in considering that he was facing 7-0 Zeke Marshall who at one point was a top-50 recruit. I’ll be honest while Marshall had a nice game with 17 and 7, I thought he’d be much more of a factor which is why I thought the ‘Cats were in trouble in this contest. I’m glad I was off on that prediction. NU will also face size from whatever team they play next so it’s a good sign they didn’t let Marshall totally have his way and Shurna deserves credit for that. If this was John’s last home game (and I hope it’s not) it was a great way for the Wildcats all-time leading scorer and shot blocker to go out. But I hope NU’s fans get to see him in Welsh-Ryan again.

As noted above the only Wildcat who really provided a supporting role today was JerShon Cobb. I’m convinced that if Cobb had been healthy this NU team was NCAA Tournament material. But that’s just more bad NU luck. On the positive side, Cobb made some shots today that I can’t remember another NU player making. The most impressive was a step-back jump shot when the ‘Cats had fallen behind which gave NU back the lead. Also, fantastic was a drive were he reversed in a layup. Cobb’s got big time potential and him being hurt really did limit NU for the season’s first 2/3s.

I’ll look forward to seeing what happens in the second round of the NIT to NU. Last year’s second round game vs Boston College was one of the best games the ‘Cats played all year. Hopefully we’ll see a similar result this season.