Northwestern (17-7, 8-5 Big Ten) plays at Rutgers (13-10, 5-7 Big Ten) tonight at 5:30 pm CT. The game will air on BTN.

This is Northwestern's second straight game without starting guard Ty Berry but the first knowing he will be out for the season. Rutgers has won its last three games, including a 22-point drubbing of Wisconsin.

Without a good 3-point shooter on the court with Buie, the offense is going to be stagnant. Barnhizer and Martinelli will take wide open 3’s but neither is comfortable coming off of screens. We couldn’t run a pretty big part of our offense. Once they blitzed Buie in the 2nd half, we were forced to put the ball in Martinelli’s hands way too often. He’s a change of pace guy. Matt has no game outside of dunks and layups. Clayton hasn’t scored in conference. We could have still won if Clayton and Matt made their shots and Rutgers didn’t get every roll (how about that last hook shot?), but without Berry and Langborg, we are bad offensive team.

NU did play Detroit Mercy earlier this year. They got their first win to get to 1-26, and one guy stormed the court.

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Northwestern fell to 1-6 on the road in Big Ten play in a 63-60 loss at Rutgers that featured yet another night of controversial officiating.

I’ve got an update on Berry. He is definitely out tomorrow for the Penn State game. Long-term, his status is still not clear. They’ll know more next week.

I’ll let the doctors on the board speculate what that might mean.

Edgy has a story on local QB Owen Lansu from Downers Grove North. He picked up his first Power Four offer from Cincinnati. But he also told Edgy this about NU:

"I'm also looking to go visit both Iowa and also Northwestern this spring. I really like what Northwestern has to offer and they are one of my top schools for now."

I got this via email today:

There is a hearing via Zoom on February 13 at 9 a.m. Central Time as part of the breach of contract and defamation litigation that former Northwestern University head football Coach Patrick Fitzgerald filed against Northwestern and university president Michael Schill. Winston & Strawn Partners and Counsel for Coach Fitzgerald, Dan Webb and Matthew Carter will attend along with Coach Fitzgerald. During the hearing, counsel is expecting the Court to set a case schedule, including a trial date. At trial, a jury will ultimately decide Coach Fitzgerald’s claims.

Here's a look at what NU lineups have been able to accomplish this season when Ty Berry was not on the court...
I am using 17 games... all the Big Ten games plus Dayton, Mississippi State, DePaul and Arizona State.
This includes the entire book on how Clayton has been used...


Most importantly, the starting lineup is -11 for the season. Thats a reminder of the old, painful Nance/Beran days. Okay probably not that grim, but not good.
We have been better with Hunger at the 5 with the current (non-Berry) starters.

The sample sizes for Clayton are almost all very small. Not a lot of game time was given to developing Plan B (what if one of my 5 non-centers gets hurt?).

What we see is that Clayton has been able to sub in for Martinelli and Langborg without giving up too much ground.
The minutes he has played for Barnhizer have been productive.
The minutes Clayton has played for Buie, we have not been able to score.

With so little data on Clayton, its a bit of a crapshoot.

Meanwhile, Luke Hunger stands ready, willing and able to sub in for anybody who weighs 20 lbs less than he does.

Here are our takeaways from Chris Collins, Boo Buie and Brooks Barnhizer's remarks to the media yesterday afternoon.

I know in basketball it's one game and you lose your redshirt (other than extenuating circumstances, usually related to injuries), but my question is to you have to officially declare that you're pulling someone's shirt before a game, or can you just put a guy in who has never played? Like we don't think Straus/Barkley are going to play this year, but if the everybody fouled out and/or got hurt and it was the difference between losing a winnable game with only four players on the floor or burning a redshirt, can Collins just decide to burn the shirt on the fly in the middle of a game? I assume he can, but I'm appealing to the experts here.

Anyone know what their status would be? If I injured, both have had a half season to bulk and practice. Even if for just a few minutes, it would be nice to have a schollie player and not a walk-in pick up 5 minutes a game. And help them for next year. So….what gives?

Dang.

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For Fitzgerald vs NU. Judges urges both parties to try and settle. I think Fitz goes to trial unless NU comes up to $70mm (at least) or issue a Public apology and fires Schill.

He has to pay a $1.5M buyout. Chip must have FU money to make this perplexing move.

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One key detail is that McGarigle remains as LB coach, so DJ Vokolek will stay a floating defensive assistant.

After getting blown out by the Illini in early January, the coaches and players corrected the glaring problems apparent in that game and bounced back with a double digit win at home over MSU and a road win at PSU. That week, in my mind, was the most important so far this year.

It has been 8 days since Berry’s season ending injury, and after the next two games, the Cats could have pretty much locked up a solid NCAA bid (10-5 conference), slid back to the bubble (8-7) or stayed the same (9-6).

I’m hopeful the coaching staff has made the adjustments to game planning that it can. Berry was both a strong defender and the best outlet option for Buie when opponents ran double teams at him as he moved through high screens. I have to think they will put the ball in Barnhizer’s hands more and run sets that open Buie as a shooter, and also emphasize getting the ball to Martinelli mid range. I would also expect them to try to really take the air out of the ball during the stretches where starters are subbed out.

On defense, I would expect a little more hedging at the perimeter the next 2 games, allowing Rutgers and IU to try to win at the 3 point line. In some ways, the loss of Berry’s defensive skill is a bigger loss than his shooting.

What is clear is that they have to adjust. Martinelli’s strengths are different than Berry’s, and the sets that are run and defensive assignments need to reflect that.

I think the staff has done an excellent job in getting the most from the roster this year. I’m actually optimistic that the next four days could be the ones people look back to as decisive (in a good way) for evaluating the overall success of the year. I am actually looking forward to Monday’s comments.

So, through Rutgers' first 20 games, they were one of the worst offensive teams in the country, had been rotating 10 different players in games with 6 different starting lineups, and were 10-10 (2-7). Then, Jeremiah Williams became eligible. Since then, they've won 3 in a row and are an entirely different, much more dangerous, team.

Williams was a two-time transfer (Temple, Iowa State) who had to sit out like all of the other ones until the NCAA was overruled back in December, however he was also involved in the Iowa gambling scandal and thus had a 15-game suspension given to him from the NCAA. He only became eligible 3 games ago after suing the NCAA and winning.

As a result, Williams has become an immediate starter, their rotation has shrunk to 9 players, and they have been playing significantly better, even while taking their leading scorer Aundre Hyatt out of the starting lineup.

So, a current scouting report:

Derek Simpson is the starting PG, a sophomore who was a SG last year, and scored 12 points on 13 shots against us in the regular season finale in 2023. This year he has transformed his role into more of a passer, who takes fewer shots but gets to the line more frequently, where he shoots 85%. He is not a great shooter otherwise, but he is an excellent defender, averaging 1.4 steals/game in conference, but 2.2 steals/game in the last 4.

Simpson is backed up by Noah Fernandes, a 5'11" grad transfer from UMass who had started the first 14 games but has seen his minutes reduced during conference play. Up until their last game against Wisconsin, he had done very little in conference play, but then he scored 17 points on 6-6 shooting including 5 threes. Fernandes had lost his starting job to 7th-year player Austin Williams, however Williams has seen his minutes drop to 0 since Williams returned.

The starting SG is freshman Jamichael Davis, who is largely a black hole on offense, but must clearly be an impact defender to earn the minutes he has been playing. He is a terrible shooter and has a 1:1 assist/turnover ratio, but does average 0.9 steals/game. In the last 3 games though, his A/T ratio is 2.75:1, and is averaging 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals/game in 25mpg.

Back to Jeremiah Williams. He played two seasons at Temple as their PG, then transferred to Iowa State but tore his achilles before the season began, and missed the entire year. He missed nearly 2 years between the injury and gambling scandal, but has established himself as Rutgers' best offensive threat already as a 3rd guard. He has become a volume shooter but still retains his passing skills, picking up 7 assists against Wisconsin over the weekend. Hopefully we have enough tape on him from the last 3 games to plan how to defend him.

As mentioned before, Aundre Hyatt has been removed from the starting lineup with Williams becoming eligible. Last year Hyatt had a good game in their win over us, but we shut him down in the 2nd matchup when we beat them. He shoots the most 3s of anyone on the team, but again, until the game against Wisconsin when he made 3-5, he had largely been ineffective, shooting 25% in conference play. With Williams eligible, he is shooting less, but remains a solid defender, averaging 0.8 steals/game.

Mawot Mag is the 4th starter, in his 4th year at Rutgers. Last year he had a solid 1st game against us but only played 15 minutes due to foul trouble, then suffered a season-ending injury in February that kept him out until mid-December this year. Once he returned, he immediately moved into the starting lineup, where he has been one of their best defenders. In the 3 games prior to Williams becoming eligible, Mag was in a huge slump, going 1-15 shooting with a total of 2 points scored. However in the last 3 games, Mag has averaged 14 points/game, up from 9.7 pre-Williams in conference.

Cliff Omoruyi is the final starter and starting C. He is a beast of a player, the best shot blocker in the league, and one of the best rebounders as well. Stop me if you've read this already, but Williams has brought out the best in him this season as well. Against Wisconsin, he nearly had a triple-double with 13 points, 13 board and 8 blocks. His one weakness is foul shooting, where he's only a 54% shooter in conference play. When he's not in foul trouble, he generally plays 30mpg, so hopefully Big Matt can get him on the bench. His backup had been Antwone Woolfolk for much of the season, but he's pretty terrible, and coinciding with Williams returning is a larger behemoth in Emmanuel Ogbole, who returned from a torn ACL and is playing 8mpg.

Which brings us to the final player of the current rotation, Gavin Griffiths. A goofy-looking goggles-wearing freshman who has largely struggled this season. He saw a lot of playing time early in the season, but less so during conference play. There's not much to say about him, other than that he takes and misses a lot of shots when he's in the game.

In their 3-game winning streak, their starters have held their opposition to a disgustingly-low 0.62 points/possession while playing 24% of the minutes, winning 45-31. Their second most used lineup, swapping Hyatt for the freshman Davis, is their best lineup, at +10 in 8% of minutes, scoring 1.44 PPP against 0.77 PPP. Their next two most used lineups have Williams on the bench, and their defense suffers, giving up 21 points in 20 possessions for a PPP of 1.05.

Since the start of 2024, Rutgers has the best defense in the country, while we have had the 10th best offense in the country. Their defense has only gotten better, and their offense has improved even more significantly. If we're going to win this one without Berry, it's going to need to be even more of a rock fight than the PSU game was. Having been to a game at the former RAC earlier this season, their crowd gets loud, their students are vulgar, and given the past three games, I'm guessing that they will be pretty rabid, especially if they get off to another hot start like they did against the Badgers.

Don't sleep on the Scarlet Knights.

dOSU fired Chris Holtmann today. Not a big surprise.

Here are our takeaways from Chris Collins, Boo Buie and Brooks Barnhizer's remarks to the media yesterday afternoon.

@lou v breaks down the impact of Ty Berry’s season-ending injury on the 2023-24 campaign.

At the pre-game shoot around, he walked over to where Ty Berry was sitting and commiserated with him. Seemed to be giving words of encouragement and empathy, as Robbie had a similar injury his senior(?) season before they played us.

Class act. And one of the best analysts in the business.

Am I the only one that hates this new rule? The change that the player now has to be in a set position during pre-game warm-ups in order for it to be a charge has really taken one of the more exciting plays on defense out of the game. What bugs me the most is that the refs are now erring on the side of calling everything a block. That call on Clayton yesterday was awful. Clayton got himself set, made himself a drink, and then got run over by the PSU player, only to be called for the block. I then saw the same thing happen in the Iowa-Minnesota game later on. Another awful block call.

The rule is confusing to me. I can't remember if it was Hummel or Morris in the Iowa game who kept saying that the player has to be set before the offensive player puts down his plant foot to jump. If that is the case, that happens after the player starts to gather the ball. He usually take one to two more steps before taking off, so you shouldn't have to be set on the gather. In Clayton's case, I think he was set even before the gather.

If they are going to keep this dumb rule, then I think it should be reviewable immediately after the call just like a goaltending is reviewable. It is really frustrating when a player gives himself up like that and doesn't get rewarded, especially when he totally deserves it as I saw in both games yesterday.

*perhaps they know on The Rock.

In the movie there is that scene where they are insisting on a reentry plan and they put the NASA director on the phone and he says something like 'we're working on it and will get it to you as soon as we can' and Lovell tells the guys: "they don't know!"

These two clowns - Tweedledum and Tweedledummer, are probably running around trying to duct tape something together at the last minute when it could have been in LOI/MOU form a year ago. So we will end up with something expensive and stupid.