We should have won that game the way we played on both sides of the court. But we shot 37% FGs and 27% on 3s. If we even shoot 40%/30% then that’s pretty much the margin. Game was there for the taking when we tied it up the last time but we couldn’t make ANY shots after that and the momentum immediately died.
Amazing season but what should have been
- Thread starter FanatiCat
- Start date
If Northwestern wasn't a bad shooting team, this entire season is a very different conversation
This is not on NU, UCLA was the better team, although not by much. Great game, great effort. They could have won, but they didn't I really hope Collins can get Buie and Audige back next year for an encore, which could be a great one, with that experience.
Boo and Chase running it back with another year of development from Nicholson and Brooks with another big added to fill Verhoeven's spot and probably another decent bench wing... and we're talking about something special.
Jesus, fricking Christ. They're not a bad shooting team, they just aren't a great shooting team. They lost to UCLA by 5 points in a closely fought second half in the second round of the NCAA's. Not too shabby. Is there a point to wishing for what might have been? What this NU team has accomplished is pretty darn good.
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I mean... they are objectively a bad shooting team. I'm not wishing for what should have been and I'm not OP. Wishing for what could have been along the lines of "if only they hadn't shot bad" is silly for a team that is bad at shooting.
We don’t shoot well. That’s plainly obvious. I agree we could have won this game. I’m kinda ticked at Barney for his dribble post-ups. Tonight, he had 2 guys open out at the line. That is a very coachable thing, but he does it (shoots) every time.
Our next season does not hang on Buie and Audige returning. If they don’t, there’s a good story to tell legit good guards that they can come and be plugged into a very tough group of sumsofbitches. One good transfer and I think we have reasons to believe we can have a repeat.
I'm strangely elated. The Wildcats showed they belonged there. No shame in this loss. What a season!
Wrassler, stop it. This is basketball, the team that loses makes less shots. #7 seed vs. #2 seed, and a great effort by the 'Cats. Couldn't be more proud of this team.
He was just off tonight, probably partially because UCLA is so good defensively. He's got a total scorer mindset as a young player and isn't really looking to move the ball out of the situations his penetrations create. THat's been fine since he's provided such needed scoring but it bit us tonight. Oh well, he was a big part of how we got here.
We need a combo guard and spot up shooter. Hunger’s lost season sucks but he looks like he can play.
Perhaps not, but it certainly would be a fine thing if they do return. Expect Returns.
YES! Expect Returns. I can picture that slogan on the collectable cups at concessions next season.
HJ, your philosophical underpinning is that we are all flawed, but can improve.
I think his somewhat selfish/arrogant scorer mentality has actually been what we've needed out of him for a lot of this year. We needed somebody to step up and SCORE and that's his mentality, and he can do it. Certainly developing more ability to share the ball might be a new step in his development.
I don’t think it’s selfish. I think it’s a habit he learned in high school and scored a lot of points with it. He’s just not able to do it against power competition.
Great Effort - Great Team - Great Fun!! Thanks for a GREAT Season!!
I’m having a hard time finding another game where NU shot both <40% FG AND <30% 3s. Understand some of that is UCLA taking Boo out of the picture and getting in everyone else’s head I guess, taking bad shots that they didn’t need to and bricking 3s.
I think it's selfish and I'm glad it's selfish. Selfish/arrogant isn't a bad quality in a scorer or athelete. In fact, it's probably required to an extent. His attitude with the ball is generally "I'm going to go score." You can't have a team full of guys all looking to share the ball all the time, somebody has to be willing to take it.
We shot poorly, as we often do, and still had a chance to win with a few mins left. Vintage performance from this group, in that sense. Imagine if we had a middle-of-the-pack shooting team!
Hell of a season. Proud to be a fan.
Hell of a season. Proud to be a fan.
We keep hoping that Berry steps into that role, but he's just too inconsistent.
We did it 9 times this season, and went 4-5 in those games including the wins over IU and Purdue at home.
Great effort and they never gave up, but frustrating because it could have easily have been a win if for example Berry and Barnhizer didn’t shoot a combined 2 for 17…
I still have pretty high hopes for Roper
Young players, big stage. They will have more chances, I hope. It is a shame, though because both of them missed some open looks. I would love to see a stat sheet that listed open and contested 3 pt shots/ made. With UCLA smothering Boo, both those guys had opportunities as a result.
We were 41% FGs against Purdue. I wrote BOTH < 40% FGs AND < 30% 3’s. The second IU win did fit that bill although it looks like we just took way more 3s to make up for it. Seems like we cut back too much on taking 3s toward the end when we really mathematically needed them to get ahead. Can’t count on 2’s or fouls driving to the rim, we needed 3s to fall badly since we were playing from behind from the get go.
Yeah, tonight he was just off. Really the first off night for him in quite awhile. Excited about his future. He's a truly varied scorer, he can shoot the 3, he can create off the dribble, he can get his back to the basket and he can move inside and in the mid range. Quite a varied game.
You just beat me to it, FW. I can't help but think "what if" Roper hadn't gotten hurt for the second time? I can't remember who we were playing, so I'm going by memory, but I think he was 4 for 4 from the field when he got hurt in that game. May not have been that hot the remainder of the year, but he certainly would have been another scoring option in games such as tonight.
Yeah they were last in B1G in 3pt %. I am not beating on them. They are good at many things.
Nailed it. Happened a few too many times throughout the season. Crazy to think what could have been. Proud of their effort. Future is bright for NU hoops.
We have now graduated as a basketball school. We are just like every other fanbase that plays the “what if” game after a loss.
There's no what ifs. It would have been a great thing had we made more shots - that's how upsets happen - but I mean we were like 32 percent on 3s all year. That is bad in today's games. It's just reality, I mean teams in that 20-30 in the ranking, they have a flaw or two. We went as far as we could. Better shooting would have been great, and it would have probably gotten us a win. But ... we are what we are. And this year that was a team that played at 120 percent all the time, defended the crap out of the ball (not really sure what that means, but we did), and far exceeded any rational expectations and hopefully set a standard for the way Northwestern basketball plays. For so many years we were soft - this year's team was TOUGH even by B1G standards. Winning would have been amazing, it would have been the greatest, but I mean ... UCLA is good, has some studs, defends well, is well coached ... and we had our shots. And it wasn't like a fluke, either.
Simply put, we were the kind of team we always WANTED Northwestern to be (minus two stud shooters lol) ... and what an incredible ride.
Simply put, we were the kind of team we always WANTED Northwestern to be (minus two stud shooters lol) ... and what an incredible ride.
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