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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.