Two programs that Northwestern fans love to hate. Make your Sophie's Choice.

I thought it warranted its own thread.

Hankwitz made studs like Saquon Barkley look mortal.

He exposed skinny Jared Goff too back at California. Except Skinny Goff never beat Hank like Saquon did with one long second half run.

Do you remember when they needed the backup QB to beat NU in 2014?

Sorry, Lions fans. This is Goff’s ceiling. A quality DC and talented defense will expose him. Good luck in the draft.

The secret will soon no longer be a secret. VR training is the next big thing to Juggs training to help develop elite skills, this time for quarterbacks. Jayden Daniel’s is the poster boy of its effectiveness.

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We must beat IU at home on Wednesday given Sunday at Illinois is a likely loss. If we go 1-1 against those two we have 3 games at home that could get us back to 6-6 in the league. Don’t quit on this team. We are still in the fight, albeit barely at the moment.

Cheap calls, bad calls, calls I don't understand (Penn State). Game changers. Momentum killers. It just happens again and again and again.

There is no way Goldin gets ejected if that happens the other way around.

Unreal.

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Did I miss something? Why is he not seeing the floor at all? He is an elite defender and rebounder. I would rather play small ball with Mullins than watch Fitzmorris be two steps behind his man on every possession.

Congratulations to Ben Johnson, but doesn't he still have a few years of eligibility on the NU football team?

Kinda crazy - it seems like this twitter that’s been breaking scoops is an undergrad at Notre dame and one of his buddies is an undergrad student manager feeding him secret scoops (according to him, Brooks out for the season). Collins probably should do something about whoever is leaking all this information. The x account is nubbguruinsider

Kafka, Ayeni, Rees and Candle all mentioned here. Can’t see guys like Shaw or Chryst coming to work for this administration.

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I’ve tweeted out key quotes from each but here’s the transcript of my questions to Jalen Leach and Brooks Barnhizer postgame.


Brooks Barnhizer:
Q: You took 13 free throws but 11 came in overtime, a few off intentional fouls. When I talked to Coach, I asked if he thought you and the program got the respect you deserve, and he said no. You’re a very physical player, what was your take on that situation?
A: You know, I never really want to shed light on that. I feel like I’m a very physical player and yeah, I feel like I should get to the line a little more, but that’s just the way it is right now. So I got to figure out how to maybe not try to be as physical. Because, sometimes what it looks like since fouls aren't being called, it looks like I'm kind of forcing stuff, and I'm just kind of throwing stuff up. And that's the last thing that I want to do for our team. But I'm really just trying to get to the line and, you know, get some easy ones. So if they're not going to call those fouls, we have to make more moves and shoot more shots, instead of trying to get down there and get those calls. But, we'll figure it out. Regardless if they do start, you know, calling it more or they don't, we're gonna have to figure it out.

Q: Jalen got a tough call, got ejected on that flagrant two at a pretty crucial point of the game. You know, you really seemed to make a point to get going after that. How are you able to kind of rally the team and get to overtime from a pretty tough point in the game?
A: Yeah I didn't have a really good start, and I have got to [going forward]., It unfortunate what happened in Jalen. We don't think he should have been thrown out, but I know that they don't really play about plays like that. So, you know, I just wanted to get going and try to pick up some slack that I didn't really come out with in first half. And I don't think I played really well on the first half, but you know, I played better in the second half and then the overtime. With me being leader of the team, it's got to be a full 45 minutes. It can't just be, you know, 37 of the 45. I have got to find better ways to start for sure.

Q: It’s been a little bit of a colder stretch from you from the three point line, especially towards the start of some of these games. What do you think's been going into that? Is that just kind of law of averages thing? You think they'll even out, or has there been something else you’re seeing?
A: Definitely. I work on those shots every day. I just got to make shots. Honestly, I gotta rep it out. I definitely work on my three every day so maybe it’s an overthinking thing. I’m going to go out there and shoot the ball so, you know, it'll definitely even out and I'll be alright.

Jalen Leach
Q: Really tough situation where you’re playing one of the best games in your career and you get ejected. What was your thought process as that play was happening?
A: I have a lot of thoughts, but I was trying to get over the screen, to be honest. I didn't try to do anything malicious or anything like that, just trying to get over the screen. Stuff like that happens. It was unintentional. Like I said, this is what it is.

Q: It's bittersweet that you probably had one of your best games here, I thought you were doing a really good job of handling Michigan's pressure. Comparing that to Dayton early in the year, how do you feel you've progressed this season as an initiator and ball handler?
A: I'm just trying to put my myself in those situations more, especially like in practice. It’s just about being confident with the ball and trying to get our team into our offense.

Where is he at? I saw him a lot last game.

Here are @mshelton33's takeaways from Ann Arbor.

According to Torvik's website, at the time Jalen Leach was ejected, Northwestern had increased its likelihood of victory to a game-high 50%,
The likelihood of a Northwestern victory dropped to 25% as soon as Leach "fouled out."

I should point out that this game's official play-by-play is riddled with errors. Most importantly, Angelo Ciaravino played 6 minutes less than what the box score says. Matt Nicholson played 6 minutes more than what the box score says. The official scorer sucked. The major mistake happened at 18:37 of the 2nd half, when Nicholson committed a foul and Collins subbed in Ty Berry for Angelo Ciaravino. The official scorer has it as Berry in for Nicholson. That lineup played for 5:41. I re-watched the game. Nicholson stayed on the court. I checked Torvik, his numbers are wrong too. Everybody uses the same source.
Beyond that, there is a steal by Windham that is credited to Ty Berry. Nicholson gets an offensive rebound on his own made free throw. Thats just the errors I noticed. I'm guessing there are more. Correcting for the known errors, here's what we get... I dropped the last 19 seconds, which lasted an eternity and consisted of fouls, lineup changes and free throws.


Rough game for Martinelli particularly. 5 of 17 from the field with 4 turnovers, 0 steals, 0 assists, 0 blocks with 9 of 12 from the free throw line.
He played the whole game and was clearly tired, contributing relatively little after halftime.
He and Barnhizer get punished by this metric, since they are being made to handle the ball and they're turning it over often, with minimal assists.
5 turnovers, 1 assist, 0 steals for Barnhizer.
Barnhizer did a good job defensively on Michigan's Danny Wolf - but that doesn't show up here.
Meanwhile Leach was playing his best game of the season when he was intentionally kicked in the nuts by the refs. He shot the ball really well and was able to get to the rim several times. 5 assists, which is great when we only had 7 as a team, but thats offset by his 3 turnovers.
Matt Nicholson definitely played almost 36 minutes. He had 16 rebounds... at least according to the incompetent official scorer.

Lineup-wise, the starters (Nicholson/Martinelli/Barnhizer/Ciaravino/Leach) played 6 minutes together and won 9-8.
The old starters (Ty Berry in for Ciaravino) played almost 13 minutes together and outscored Michigan 27-22.
Nicholson/Martinelli/Barnhizer/Ciaravino/Berry got about 5:30 together and tied 9-9.
When Fitzmorris played with Martinelli/Barnhizer/Berry/Leach for 3:49, we outscored the Wolverines 9-7.
KJ Windham got 3 minutes with the A team after Leach was ejected, playing alongside Nicholson, Martinelli, Barnhizer and Berry. We got outscored 4-3 over that segment as Barnhizer turned the ball over twice, Ty Berry missed a 3-pointer on consecutive possessions and Martinelli missed a shot. The only time we scored was when Berry poked the ball away to Nicholson who got it back to Berry for a fastbreak layup. Regrettably, we took 10 seconds to get the ball across midcourt when Barnhizer rebounded a missed free throw, dribbled around then passed it to Martinelli near midcourt who passed it back to Windham facing a double team. Windham responded to that turnover with a brilliant steal, but Collins took him out with 6:17 to go - and that ended KJ's afternoon.

Hopefully Berry and Leach have some momentum going into the Indiana game.

Not sure what's going on with Justin Mullins, but I don't want to see Blake Smith playing in close games unless it is absolutely necessary.

I feel bad for @lou v over the defeat in Detroit; however I no longer have to dread the thought of JON and BJo wearing Super Bowl rings…that would have been tough to stomach. Guess I’m all in on Washington, I’m assuming Jason Wright would get a ring?

Two programs that Northwestern fans love to hate. Make your Sophie's Choice.

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Back later with some thoughts.

A couple things worth pointing out.
When Berry turned the ball over at the end of regulation, Reese had it for maryland and was looking to pass it upcourt when Nicholson reached in from behind and slapped the ball out of Reese's hands, off Reese's leg and out of bounds. Not sure why he wasn;t credited for a steal, but he wasn't. That set up the game-winning play, in which Nicholson's screen free up Martinelli.

In the table above, Nicholson benefit from the "It wasn't my fault" aspect of the Player+/-. When he was in the game, his teammates did not play well. When Fitzmorris was in the game, his teammates played better.

🤔 Second interview for Mike. Maybe he can bring Big Zach home as OL coach.

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Northwestern (11-6, 2-4 Big Ten) is on the road this afternoon at No. 20 Michigan (13-4, 5-1 Big Ten). The game will tip at 1 pm CT and will air on BTN.

Seems like todays playoff games would be a good talking point for recruiting...aint always going to be sunny and 70 if getting to the Super Bowl is your football goal....November in Chicago will get ya ready.

Yes, the start to conference play hasn't gone great. But as I mentioned the other week, our schedule to open conference play is absolutely brutal. Is 1-4 good? Of course not. But consider this:

We lost on a prayer against an Iowa team that beat Indiana by 25 and lost at Michigan by just 2 points
We beat an Illini team that beat Oregon on the road by 32 points
We got screwed by the refs against a Penn State team who beat Purdue by 11 at home and lost to Oregon at home by just 1
We got beat by a Purdue team that beat Nebraska by 36 points at home
We got beat by an MSU team that beat Nebraska by 37 points and Washington by 34 points at home

We are not as bad as we seem.

Next up, we get a Maryland team that is 0-3 on the road and only beat Minnesota by 6 tonight at home.

There is plenty of season left.

This feels like one of those years we are decent but just can’t catch the 50/50 breaks that make us a tourney team versus a bottom dweller. Love the heart of this team but just doesn’t seem meant to be.

Go Cats