+/- for the wistfulness against Wisconsin

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

When Brooks Barnhizer was sidelined for the rest of the season, the Wildcats reverted to the roster we had for the first handful of games.
Here are the numbers...

Player	Minutes	NU Pts	Wis Pts	Raw +/-	Player +/-	Net +/-	Box Pts
Leach	37	69	67	+2	+8.42	+8.82	16.70
Nicholson	29	55	48	+7	+3.34	+4.74	10.10
Berry	27	49	54	-5	+1.24	+0.24	6.90
Smith	1	0	4	-4	+0.14	-0.66	0.00
Fitzmorris	11	14	25	-11	+0.99	-1.21	2.25
Windham	9	13	12	+1	-1.76	-1.56	0.10
Mullins	25	42	57	-15	-1.03	-4.03	3.50
Martinelli	40	69	75	-6	-4.02	-5.22	5.20
Ciaravino	21	34	33	+1	-7.32	-7.12	-3.05

First the good news. Jalen Leach played his best game at Northwestern and took home the game ball for the 2nd time in a week. Matt Nicholson also played well in defeat.
On the other side of the ledger, Angelo Ciaravino really struggled from the field, going 0 for 6 and he held back the lineups he was playing with - although he was +1 - it should have been more.
This suggests that he was able to do his job defensively and thats about it.
Unfortunately Nick Martinelli played 40 minutes, went 6 of 18 from the floor and thats just too many missed shots.
Justin Mullins was given plenty of run by Coach Collins, who seems to trust him, but the results were grim. We got outscored 57-42 when Mullins was on the court.
KJ Windham only got 9+ minutes of action, but we held our own when he was playing, outscoring the Badgers 13-12.
Windham needs to play more - simply to help run the offense.
Keenan Fitzmorris made a turnaround jumpshot, but we got abused 25-14 when he was in the game. He had difficulty switching on the perimeter, leading to at least 2 wide open 3 pointers for Wisconsin.

The new starting lineup Nicholson/Martinelli/Ciaravino/Leach/Berry managed to defeat the Badgers 18-10 in 8:14. That's encouraging.
When Nicholson and Ciaravino were teamed up, we outscored Wisconsin 32-21 in 15:30.
When Nicholson and Mullins were teamed up, we got outscored by Wisconsin 36-35 in about 19 minutes.
When Fitzmorris and Mullins played together we got annihilated 19-7 in 6:08.

NU was leading 12-7 at the 7:49 stoppage in the first half. Fitzmorris replaced Nicholson again and Wisconsin scored 11 points in 2 minutes to take an 18-15 lead.
Collins got the starters back in and NU responded with an 11-5 segment to reclaim the lead at 26-23.
To close out the half, Collins used Fitzmorris and Martinelli with the 3 guards (Windham, Berry, Leach) and NU posted a 5-0 segment. We didn't see that lineup again.

The game really turned when we had a 46-38 lead with 12:45 left.
Nicholson and Leach left the floor and Fitzmorris/Martinelli/Mullins/Berry/Windham got smoked 8-0 in one minute to tie the score.
Later, a 10-3 run against Nicholson/Martinelli/Mullins/Leach/Berry put the Badgers in command 64-55 with 5:34 left.

Mullins and Martinelli played about 17 consecutive minutes in the 2nd half and we went from leading 35-30 to trailing 75-69.

Wisconsin outrebounded NU 38-29.

 

[Hungry Jack]

No one could stop Tonje

 

[EagerFan]

Keenan did some good stuff, but he doesn't have the mass to stop the bigger guys and he got pushed around fairly easily in pretty much any contact contest. That a tough place to be in for a center.

 

[GatoLouco]

I did not watch the game and this is all based on perception anyway, no number analysis here:

• It seems like most games (almost every game), if Nicholson is out, we suffer quite a bit
• Mullins had great +/- early in the season. Until other teams figured out they could slack on him, and reduce lane space as a result. His +/- has looked terrible for a while. And there's your explanation on why he got benched

 

[Hungry Jack]

Justin has a lot of work to do this offseason

 

[ThatkidfromHolland]

Gelo’s is improving defensively, but he’s still the weak link on that end, alongside KJ and Hunger. It’s not close to a good level yet. That being said, I’m not concerned about either freshman in the long run. Both have shown more defensive potential than Martinelli did as a freshman, and he ultimately developed into a decent defender. For Gelo, it’s primarily about refining his ability to navigate switches and his positioning, though his foot speed and hands are promising and give him a strong foundation to build on.

Defensive development is always a steep curve, especially when you’re stepping up to D1. That’s why freshmen often struggle with things like positioning, strength, and adjusting to the speed of the game. NU’s defensive scheme is one that relies on switching, doubling, and help defense while not overly complex, it is not easy. The challenge is that all those defensive decisions need to be instinctual. At this level, hesitation equals failure. You don’t have time to think; defense has to be second nature, which only comes with repeated practice and time in the program. You can’t think on help D, you just gotta be there.

 

[GatoLouco]

NU’s defensive scheme is one that relies on switching, doubling, and help defense while not overly complex, it is not easy.

Today's defensive schemes are way more complex than when I played. They require a lot more coordination. A lot more time practicing it. Freshmen can easily need a year to be on the level of execution they need to be.

Before this all swicthing everywhere, or 1-4, don't switch on pick and rolls but go over, under, etc, etc, zone was the scheme that was kind of like that and why Syracuse made it work while others did not. They practiced it so much that the non fresmen were very coordinated doing it after spending years perfecting it.

I just went to Marquette @ Butler and was observing Marquette starting in what looked like a zone, but was not. They just did not pick up specific man to man assignments, they just positioned as a zone and as the Butler players moved into the offense picked up man to man according to who was in different areas. Of course Marquette was not playing a traditional 5, all more very athletic wings on the floor.

 

[ThatkidfromHolland]

Today's defensive schemes are way more complex than when I played. They require a lot more coordination. A lot more time practicing it. Freshmen can easily need a year to be on the level of execution they need to be.

Before this all swicthing everywhere, or 1-4, don't switch on pick and rolls but go over, under, etc, etc, zone was the scheme that was kind of like that and why Syracuse made it work while others did not. They practiced it so much that the non fresmen were very coordinated doing it after spending years perfecting it.

I just went to Marquette @ Butler and was observing Marquette starting in what looked like a zone, but was not. They just did not pick up specific man to man assignments, they just positioned as a zone and as the Butler players moved into the offense picked up man to man according to who was in different areas. Of course Marquette was not playing a traditional 5, all more very athletic wings on the floor.

I’m not arguing that basketball isn’t more complex today, it definitely is. Maybe it’s the age gap I have with what I am considering complex. I will say NU’s defensive system isn’t particularly complicated compared to many other D1 programs. That said, lack of complexity does not equal easy. The core concepts of NU’s defense are straightforward, but translating that understanding into effective game performance is much more challenging. The real difficulty lies in being able to implement those concepts instinctively during live action.

Sure, there are minor adjustments from game to game, how you help or switch against specific players, for example. These adjustments add some complexity and require time studying. However, the overall principles are easy enough to grasp. The true challenge comes in getting players so comfortable with the system that they no longer have to think about it. At that point, it just becomes automatic. That’s the steep learning curve, and it’s a level of comfort and instinct that takes time and repetition to reach. Comfort not just within the defense but your teammates around you. You can teach, on paper, NU’s defense in one practice. It takes at least a season to get it running efficiently live. I bet new players could identify on tape/verbally what should be done in most situations defensively. The execution part is where it’s hard.

 

[GatoLouco]

I’m not arguing that basketball isn’t more complex today, it definitely is. Maybe it’s the age gap I have with what I am considering complex. I will say NU’s defensive system isn’t particularly complicated compared to many other D1 programs. That said, lack of complexity does not equal easy. The core concepts of NU’s defense are straightforward, but translating that understanding into effective game performance is much more challenging. The real difficulty lies in being able to implement those concepts instinctively during live action.

Sure, there are minor adjustments from game to game, how you help or switch against specific players, for example. These adjustments add some complexity and require time studying. However, the overall principles are easy enough to grasp. The true challenge comes in getting players so comfortable with the system that they no longer have to think about it. At that point, it just becomes automatic. That’s the steep learning curve, and it’s a level of comfort and instinct that takes time and repetition to reach. Comfort not just within the defense but your teammates around you. You can teach, on paper, NU’s defense in one practice. It takes at least a season to get it running efficiently live. I bet new players could identify on tape/verbally what should be done in most situations defensively. The execution part is where it’s hard.

I was agreeing with you. And agree that the problem is not understanding, it's executing it. Just because I understand what's on a white board does not mean my brain is ready to react in a split second to what's happening on the court.