Wallow away, but ...
Now that you say it, maybe I should re-examine a couple things in my life
Now that you say it, maybe I should re-examine a couple things in my life
Butler game . Good battle , bad outcome
- Thread starter LansingCat
- Start date
Ha! This is well said. I have zero further objections to any of your comments. I'm not quite at 30 years of fanhood yet but approaching, hoping we make the tourney before then.
And as an NYer, excited to be able to watch in person Monday and Tues nights, hopefully can help us bring back some Ws. Go Cats.
There are multiple types of close outs. Not all include having your hands high. This is a scouting report thing. Not saying it was the case, but you will not have high hands closing out on a driver
This loss was very disappointing because NU could've easily won this game without some mistakes down the stretch. Just got to win these types of games against strong opponents if they want to get to the next level, ie. The Dance. Last year we couldn't close the deal vs. Maryland, Michigan, etc. and it would be nice to see this team get over that hump.
Lumpkin may just be a guy, but he had 10 pts on 4 of 8 shooting, 5 rbds, 2 assts and a steal.
Think CC would take that every game (heck, think CC would take it if Lumpkin did that for half the games).
Pardon is still young (really should have r'shrted) and Skelly did alright w/ his minutes.
The so-called just guys NU frontcourt actually did a pretty good job keeping the 3 Butler forwards in check, relatively.
Chrabascz - 3 of 12 (.250) for 13 pts
Wideman - 3 of 5 (.600) for 9 pts
Martin - 6 of 16 (.375) for 22 pts
The diff. was any one of these 3 things...
1. Baldwin being more of a difference-maker off the bench than Brown.
2. Lindsey not being very efficient - 4 of 12
3. TO margin - 8 for Butler vs. 16 for the 'Cats and of the 16, 10 were committed by NU guards; and if including Law (as you seem to want to include him more w/ the backcourt, that becomes 13 TOs at the hands of the guards/wings).
Seems to me that the blame is being put on the wrong position group.
Yeah, shooting at a .375 clip is really shooting lights out.
Katatonic i agree with you that the NU backcourt made more mistakes vs Butler, which I equate to far more activity. The guards and wings (and yes Law is a wing, not a post player) have to create all the activity and offense, and therefore they have far more opportunity to make mistakes. Yes Lumpkin had a nice game vs Butler. And Pardon is young. And Skelly is Skelly. But none of those guys would start or play much for most Big Ten teams. Let's take a look at their numbers after the conference season, but more importantly let's look at their impact.
I'm not picking on these guys -- they are what we have, they play hard and I hope the best for them. But until NU can recruit more impact upfront -- and I feel like I've been saying this since 1975 -- we're still an average team.
I'm not picking on these guys -- they are what we have, they play hard and I hope the best for them. But until NU can recruit more impact upfront -- and I feel like I've been saying this since 1975 -- we're still an average team.
I agree with your general premise that NU is historically weaker than the rest of the conference in the post with a couple exceptions over the last handful of decades (Andre Goode, Evan Eschmayer. Olah). This can be attributed entirely to entrance requirements and not because bigs are turned off by the lack of program success. As an assistant dean told me, the size of football and basketball recruits correlates inversely with grades and test scores.
Collins' recruiting of bigs has already exceeded what I thought to be possible. Benson in a national recruit with offensive skills and decent size who is two months into college. Pardon is described as undersized but I'd like to see him perform for a year to determine if he's a fit for the system. Let's see if he averages eightish points and the same amount of rebounds and doesn't give up too much on D. I do have some concerns that his shot blocks while impressive will be less than the number of his shots that are blocked.
Collins has built more of an MSU roster with middling bigs who can get up and down the floor. That fits the style he said he wants to play.
This roster played Ken Pom #20 Butler to a standstill and could have won if they didn't turn the ball over like a high school team. Let's see how this plays out over the next two games and if this team has taken a competitive step up versus last year.
NU's roster has gotten taller under collins. More importantly, it is much more athletic, quicker and much more skilled. We'll see how his thesis plays out.
And let's not forget that the one guy sitting out (Rap) and the one guy injured (Falzon) are two of the taller, higher rated recruits on the team.
Idaho, not discounting what you've said, I'd just like to see a bit more on court performance against quality competitions.
Teams often learn how to win through the pain of losses and failure. I hope McIntosh learns from the loss and from his turnovers and never tries a behind the back dribble drive when double teamed. My guess he learns from this. Also, the team learns to not turn it over 16 times
^ The thing is, BMac is a Jr. (and an old one at that) - he already should've known better (esp. as a late TO by BMac in a couple of games hurt the 'Cats last season).
The 'Cats let one get away from them; if they had been able to pull a win against Butler and now the win over UT - would have set themselves up nicely entering the B1G schedule.\
A key opportunity lost, but I'm sure no one is harder on BMac than himself.
The 'Cats let one get away from them; if they had been able to pull a win against Butler and now the win over UT - would have set themselves up nicely entering the B1G schedule.\
A key opportunity lost, but I'm sure no one is harder on BMac than himself.
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Didn't pick up his dribble until he went into his shot. A close out occurs on the catch.
As a Butler alum and season ticket holder who grew up a Cats fan, going back to this post makes me happy.
I think this was a bigger game than either team realized at the time.
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