+/- for the Auburn scrum

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Player	Mins	NU pts	AUB pts	Raw +/-	Player +/-	Net +/-
Nicholson	19	31	28	3	5.0	8.0
Barnhizer	28	32	27	5	2.5	7.5
Verhoeven	21	11	15	-4	5.8	1.8
Berry	26	25	28	-3	-0.3	-3.3
Beran	37	41	41	0	-4.3	-4.3
Audige	32	32	36	-4	-2.2	-6.2
Buie	37	38	40	-2	-6.5	-8.5

It was a real slugfest. Another rough night for Buie. Bad shooting for each of the 5 guys who don't play center. Nicholson and Verhoeven were a combined 3 of 5 from the floor. Everybody else was 11 of 51.
As color analyst Pete Gillen opined "Northwestern has to stop shooting 3 pointers and go inside - take it to the rim or dump it to the big guys - if they don't they're going to lose."
Well, we attempted 32 shots from inside the arc and 24 from outside.

The lineup that won the game against Liberty by outscoring them 22-9 (Nicholson/Beran/Berry/Audige/Barnhizer) only played 90 seconds against Auburn and that little segment was a 3-3 draw.
The frontcourt of Nicholson, Beran and Barnhizer (our 5,4,3 lineup) outscored Auburn 25-20 in about 15 minutes of action. With Roper injured, this seems like our best choice.
Verhoeven played 21 minutes and the total score was 15-11 Auburn. Thats a real rock fight.

 

[Secho99]

Thanks for always providing these numbers, PWB.

Boo is unfortunately bad right now. He's shooting 34% on 2s for the year and 35% on 3s. Small sample size, but not a good sign from a guy who really needed to improve at finishing in the lane/near the rim to take the next step. And contrary the belief of some on here, both Boo and Chase had very low turnover numbers last season, but that's shot up to an alarming rate for both of them this season and needs to get turned around quickly.

The positive is that KenPom rates us as the 6th-best defense in the country so far, and we're 3rd in the nation in 2-point FG defense (37.6%), 36th in 3-point FG defense (26.3%) and 4th in block percentage (19.4). We're likely due for some sort of correction there but I won't complain if this continues to be a defense-first team. I just hope with an 8-man rotation (7 without Roper) that the team isn't completely out of gas by late January.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Thanks for always providing these numbers, PWB.

Boo is unfortunately bad right now. He's shooting 34% on 2s for the year and 35% on 3s. Small sample size, but not a good sign from a guy who really needed to improve at finishing in the lane/near the rim to take the next step. And contrary the belief of some on here, both Boo and Chase had very low turnover numbers last season, but that's shot up to an alarming rate for both of them this season and needs to get turned around quickly.

The positive is that KenPom rates us as the 6th-best defense in the country so far, and we're 3rd in the nation in 2-point FG defense (37.6%), 36th in 3-point FG defense (26.3%) and 4th in block percentage (19.4). We're likely due for some sort of correction there but I won't complain if this continues to be a defense-first team. I just hope with an 8-man rotation (7 without Roper) that the team isn't completely out of gas by late January.

Yeah, the numbers always provide an interesting, unbiased view, even when its a brutal game.
There's always something to learn, if you have an open mind!

I'm getting a little concerned about our point guard situation. Audige will turn it over a lot if he has to be running the offense. Buie sorta seems like he is running his own offense and everybody else is on a different page. Gotta get that sorted out.