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

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

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