Last night in Eugene, Oregon, the Reverend Windham finally received his long overdue Holy Orders. He was proclaimed Bishop of the Backcourt in a 2 hour ceremony, during which he casually performed several miracles, to the utter astonishment of his mentor, who greatly preferred an impostor.
I threw out the last 70 seconds. Collins was swapping Ciaravino in for Nicholson defensively and we were fouling intentionally.
Ty Berry, KJ Windham and Matt Nicholson came to play. Unfortunately, it seemed like their coach was somewhat disengaged from the proceedings.
The Wildcats fell behind immediately 11-4, with Jordan Clayton getting the start at point guard.
There was a lot of loose talk before the game about how well Clayton had played in his debut, but a deeper look at the stats exposed that for misguided puffery.
Clayton had been a disaster on the defensive end against Washington, a reality conveniently ignored by some fans, coaches and random tv commentators.
That was somewhat excusable, I guess, as long as a major effort was made to get Clayton into the same general defensive zipcode as his teammates.
I'm not going to belabor it, Clayton played poorly against Oregon. I yelled at my tv a lot. It seemed to me that we were almost trying to lose, based on the lineups we were putting on the floor.
Justin Mullins fell back into his shooting funk. I could take a guess as to why - he had played really well in the loss to Washington, whereas his teammate Clayton had played poorly and cost us the game. You wouldn't have known that based on the postgame accolades. Of course I could be wrong - its just really weird how Mullins' performance yo-yos. Personally, I'd make sure he felt appreciated.
As I have said since Jalen Leach went down with his ACL, the lineups that we should focus on are Nicholson/Martinelli and some combination of Mullins, Ciaravino, Berry and Windham.
Obviously, Fitzmorris or Hunger has to spell Nicholson as necessary.
Against Washington we used lineups featuring those players for about 5:30, and outscored Washington 12-2.
Last night, against Oregon, Collins used Nicholson/Martinelli/Ciaravino/Berry/Windham for 2:13 midway thru the first half. We got outscored 5-4.
Nicholson only played 8 minutes in the first half. Fitzmorris played 12. Nicholson was not in foul trouble. It made absolutely no sense whatsoever - like we were trying to lose.
Coming out of halftime, trailing 39-25, the Cats could never sustain any momentum until finally, with 8:34 to play trailing 64-51, Collins put Windham on the floor with Nicholson/Martinelli/Mullins/Berry. Finally! Come on guys! Lets go!
Martinelli missed a shot. Oregon's big guy (Bittle) tried to go the the basket and Nicholson stuffed him - loose ball to Oregon and a rattled Bittle misses a 3.
Windham swishes a 3 on a designed play where he threw it to Matt at top of key, Nicholson holds ball, sets screen, Windham runs around screen to far corner, Nicholson throws pass over the top and Windham buries open 3.
Oregon turns the ball over when Windham jumps a passing lane, steals it, then misses a contested layup, but Berry is fouled on the rebound. Berry makes two free throws. 64-56 Oregon.
Oregon makes a jumper.
Windham and Nicholson run the exact same play and Windham buries another 3. 66-59 Oregon.
Oregon misses a 3. Rebound Nicholson.
Martinelli misses a 2, Oregon rebounds.
Windham commits a foul. Oregon makes 2 free throws.
Windham buries another 3. 67-62. Timeout Oregon.
Oregon nails a 3 as shot clock is expiring.
Windham sees Nicholson with open space in the paint, lobs a pass over the top, Nicholson collects it and lays it in.
Oregon makes 1 of 2 free throws.
Mullins misses a 3. Oregon misses a 3.
Martinelli scores in the paint. 71-66 Oregon, with 2:52 to go.
Ultimately, NU put together a 19-11 run, but could never overcome the huge hole that had been dug earlier.
A few tidbits. When Mullins and Windham were on the court together, NU outscored Oregon 44-33 in about 21 minutes.
When Mullins and Clayton were on the court together, Oregon outscored us 32-20 in just over 12 minutes.
Nicholson and Windham? 29-22 in 13 minutes.
Nicholson and Clayton? 15-24 in 11 minutes.
Lastly, Evan Miyakawa, the stats wiz behind EvanMiya.com, has numeric rankings for every player on every team - both offense and defense.
In the Big Ten, there are 212 players who have played at least 25 possessions. Of those 212 players, Jordan Clayton is rated as the 211th best defender, with Luke Hunger at #200 and Keenan Fitzmorris at #206. Nicholson is rated #9.
| Player | Minutes | NU Pts | Ore Pts | Raw +/- | Player +/- | Net +/- | Box Pts | |
| Windham | 26 | 50 | 43 | +7 | +4.25 | +5.65 | 9.60 | |
| Berry | 37 | 67 | 67 | +0 | +4.86 | +4.86 | 11.90 | |
| Nicholson | 22 | 42 | 43 | -1 | +3.20 | +3.00 | 7.05 | |
| Ciaravino | 5 | 7 | 13 | -6 | +0.48 | -0.72 | 0.75 | |
| Fitzmorris | 17 | 28 | 32 | -4 | +0.57 | -0.23 | 2.15 | |
| Hunger | 2 | 0 | 4 | -4 | -0.90 | -1.70 | -1.70 | |
| Martinelli | 38 | 70 | 73 | -3 | -2.29 | -2.89 | 2.10 | |
| Mullins | 33 | 64 | 65 | -1 | -5.79 | -5.99 | 1.90 | |
| Clayton | 15 | 22 | 35 | -13 | -4.38 | -6.98 | -3.00 |
I threw out the last 70 seconds. Collins was swapping Ciaravino in for Nicholson defensively and we were fouling intentionally.
Ty Berry, KJ Windham and Matt Nicholson came to play. Unfortunately, it seemed like their coach was somewhat disengaged from the proceedings.
The Wildcats fell behind immediately 11-4, with Jordan Clayton getting the start at point guard.
There was a lot of loose talk before the game about how well Clayton had played in his debut, but a deeper look at the stats exposed that for misguided puffery.
Clayton had been a disaster on the defensive end against Washington, a reality conveniently ignored by some fans, coaches and random tv commentators.
That was somewhat excusable, I guess, as long as a major effort was made to get Clayton into the same general defensive zipcode as his teammates.
I'm not going to belabor it, Clayton played poorly against Oregon. I yelled at my tv a lot. It seemed to me that we were almost trying to lose, based on the lineups we were putting on the floor.
Justin Mullins fell back into his shooting funk. I could take a guess as to why - he had played really well in the loss to Washington, whereas his teammate Clayton had played poorly and cost us the game. You wouldn't have known that based on the postgame accolades. Of course I could be wrong - its just really weird how Mullins' performance yo-yos. Personally, I'd make sure he felt appreciated.
As I have said since Jalen Leach went down with his ACL, the lineups that we should focus on are Nicholson/Martinelli and some combination of Mullins, Ciaravino, Berry and Windham.
Obviously, Fitzmorris or Hunger has to spell Nicholson as necessary.
Against Washington we used lineups featuring those players for about 5:30, and outscored Washington 12-2.
Last night, against Oregon, Collins used Nicholson/Martinelli/Ciaravino/Berry/Windham for 2:13 midway thru the first half. We got outscored 5-4.
Nicholson only played 8 minutes in the first half. Fitzmorris played 12. Nicholson was not in foul trouble. It made absolutely no sense whatsoever - like we were trying to lose.
Coming out of halftime, trailing 39-25, the Cats could never sustain any momentum until finally, with 8:34 to play trailing 64-51, Collins put Windham on the floor with Nicholson/Martinelli/Mullins/Berry. Finally! Come on guys! Lets go!
Martinelli missed a shot. Oregon's big guy (Bittle) tried to go the the basket and Nicholson stuffed him - loose ball to Oregon and a rattled Bittle misses a 3.
Windham swishes a 3 on a designed play where he threw it to Matt at top of key, Nicholson holds ball, sets screen, Windham runs around screen to far corner, Nicholson throws pass over the top and Windham buries open 3.
Oregon turns the ball over when Windham jumps a passing lane, steals it, then misses a contested layup, but Berry is fouled on the rebound. Berry makes two free throws. 64-56 Oregon.
Oregon makes a jumper.
Windham and Nicholson run the exact same play and Windham buries another 3. 66-59 Oregon.
Oregon misses a 3. Rebound Nicholson.
Martinelli misses a 2, Oregon rebounds.
Windham commits a foul. Oregon makes 2 free throws.
Windham buries another 3. 67-62. Timeout Oregon.
Oregon nails a 3 as shot clock is expiring.
Windham sees Nicholson with open space in the paint, lobs a pass over the top, Nicholson collects it and lays it in.
Oregon makes 1 of 2 free throws.
Mullins misses a 3. Oregon misses a 3.
Martinelli scores in the paint. 71-66 Oregon, with 2:52 to go.
Ultimately, NU put together a 19-11 run, but could never overcome the huge hole that had been dug earlier.
A few tidbits. When Mullins and Windham were on the court together, NU outscored Oregon 44-33 in about 21 minutes.
When Mullins and Clayton were on the court together, Oregon outscored us 32-20 in just over 12 minutes.
Nicholson and Windham? 29-22 in 13 minutes.
Nicholson and Clayton? 15-24 in 11 minutes.
Lastly, Evan Miyakawa, the stats wiz behind EvanMiya.com, has numeric rankings for every player on every team - both offense and defense.
In the Big Ten, there are 212 players who have played at least 25 possessions. Of those 212 players, Jordan Clayton is rated as the 211th best defender, with Luke Hunger at #200 and Keenan Fitzmorris at #206. Nicholson is rated #9.
