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Game Thread: Northwestern vs. Butler

Everyone but Barney played like hot smoking garbage, and we probably didn’t deserve to win, but it is incredibly frustrating to get jobbed like we did by the refs all night.
+1

Refs were awful, but we just had a poor shooting night, missed a lot of open looks. 4-16 from three points isn’t going to cut it against good teams.
 
Basically, Ty cannot continue to shoot like this if the team has any shot at being good. Really tough loss. If we shoot even somewhat poorly from 3, we win. We obviously miss Boo. Schedule in Dec/Jan is tough, tough, tough.
 
I don't think that the Barnhizer shot necessarily should be officiated in the way it was, but that call is on the floor 10/10 times in college basketball and always has been.
 
Basically, Ty cannot continue to shoot like this if the team has any shot at being good. Really tough loss. If we shoot even somewhat poorly from 3, we win. We obviously miss Boo. Schedule in Dec/Jan is tough, tough, tough.
We miss Boo for sure but Berry becoming unplayable is the biggest problem with the team so far, because Collins couldn’t have accounted for it.
 
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I mean ..... I love that this team competes to the end, when we stick to our principles we defend well ...... but this was a bad loss for a team with tournament hopes. We're pretty dreadful offensively right now, aside from Barnhizer, who is so much fun to watch compete and an all-timer like Buie imo because of the incredible heart and leadership he brings.

But man ... that was a pretty average Butler team missing its best scorer and turning the ball over a ton. Really need to get better ..... like magically in the next 24 hours, but certainly by next week.
 
We miss Boo for sure but Berry becoming unplayable is the biggest problem with the team so far, because Collins couldn’t have accounted for it.
Yes, it's a shame, and I hope he plays back into how he was last year -- because that's what elevated the team. Right now, he's a shadow of that. And I know it's early and it's November ....... but gotta win tomorrow and Iowa awaits in 5 days.
 
We’ll see if this is just one bad game for Martinelli. We only go 1-1 with those two and they must be willing to kick it out to make it successful.
Who’s gonna hit the shots on the kick? Leach has been ok. KJ looks like a freshman. Berry is lost. Top priority has to be finding points from outside.
 
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Who’s gonna hit the shots on the kick? Leach has been ok. KJ looks like a freshman. Berry is lost. Top priority has to be finding points from outside.
So you’d rather have Barnhizer and Martinelli running off picks and shooting 3s? I’d rather play to our strengths inside and then give guys like you name open looks.
 
So you’d rather have Barnhizer and Martinelli running off picks and shooting 3s? I’d rather play to our strengths inside and then give guys like you name open looks.
I would definitely have them taking threes than going one on one for two and kicking to three guys who can’t shoot right now. Add Mullins to that list with his brick tonight. One issue is that teams don’t feel compelled to help on Bart and Mart so the kick isn’t even open. They’ll gladly give NU contested twos.

But I see your point. Gotta do what works. And those two in the lane is NU’s best offense right now. It just won’t get this team very far. Gonna lose a lot of conference games unless these shooters turn around.
 
I would definitely have them taking threes than going one on one for two and kicking to three guys who can’t shoot right now. Add Mullins to that list with his brick tonight. One issue is that teams don’t feel compelled to help on Bart and Mart so the kick isn’t even open. They’ll gladly give NU contested twos.

But I see your point. Gotta do what works. And those two in the lane is NU’s best offense right now. It just won’t get this team very far. Gonna lose a lot of conference games unless these shooters turn around.
Fair points. In the end, the ability to create disadvantages by beating one player off the dribble is the key to basketball. We do quite well despite largely being unable to do that (save Boo in the recent past and now Barnhizer and hopefully Martinelli). Other teams do it to us all the time. Makes it tough to win.
 
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Agree. That’s an NBA move.

Yes. And it's the 1 way where college hoops really pales to the pro game. Continuation calls are stuck in like 1972.
I don't think that we even need continuation in college, but like Barnhizer shot in the same motion he got fouled. It was called on the floor because O'Connell jumped the gun, but that play happens all the time and it's called on the floor every time *because* the foul was intentional.

Full disclosure, I went to Butler. I'm still very very closely tied to that program-there were no split loyalties from me on this one. But I agree that northwestern should be upset at that call, but also aware that them calling it that way is what happens every time.
 
I don't think that we even need continuation in college, but like Barnhizer shot in the same motion he got fouled. It was called on the floor because O'Connell jumped the gun, but that play happens all the time and it's called on the floor every time *because* the foul was intentional.

Full disclosure, I went to Butler. I'm still very very closely tied to that program-there were no split loyalties from me on this one. But I agree that northwestern should be upset at that call, but also aware that them calling it that way is what happens every time.
So if that happened at the end of the first half, when it was not intentional, would it have been called differently?
 
I don't think that we even need continuation in college, but like Barnhizer shot in the same motion he got fouled. It was called on the floor because O'Connell jumped the gun, but that play happens all the time and it's called on the floor every time *because* the foul was intentional.

Full disclosure, I went to Butler. I'm still very very closely tied to that program-there were no split loyalties from me on this one. But I agree that northwestern should be upset at that call, but also aware that them calling it that way is what happens every time.
I couldn't tell from the broadcast, but was that reviewed or even reviewable?
 
I know the game day thread is known for bad takes, (just read this thread) but this one takes the cake for negativity!
I don’t think this is exactly a hot or particularly negative take here.

NU went to OT with KenPom 342 Eastern Illinois. Fine… an outlier a la Chicago State last year. Then Montana State. Then the abysmal offense against Pepperdine.

This team is gritty and they give it their all, but they just aren’t that good without someone who can run the offense. I’d love to have egg on my face at the end of the year, but (obviously) I really don’t see that happening.

Honest question… what suggests to anyone that the 24-25 NU is above average based on their play thus far? This looks an awful lot like a NET/KenPom 100+ team.
 
I couldn't tell from the broadcast, but was that reviewed or even reviewable?
O'Connell signaled that they were going to review it and after talking with the other refs they went to the table but I believe they then determined it was unreviewable. Which is stupid
 
Fair points. In the end, the ability to create disadvantages by beating one player off the dribble is the key to basketball. We do quite well despite largely being unable to do that (save Boo in the recent past and now Barnhizer and hopefully Martinelli). Other teams do it to us all the time. Makes it tough to win.
You raise a good point I hadn’t appreciated. Barnhizer might be our only drive-and-kick guy. That’s a glaring weakness in how the game is played today. Yeah, gotta play to what strengths these players have.
 
I don’t think this is exactly a hot or particularly negative take here.

NU went to OT with KenPom 342 Eastern Illinois. Fine… an outlier a la Chicago State last year. Then Montana State. Then the abysmal offense against Pepperdine.

This team is gritty and they give it their all, but they just aren’t that good without someone who can run the offense. I’d love to have egg on my face at the end of the year, but (obviously) I really don’t see that happening.

Honest question… what suggests to anyone that the 24-25 NU is above average based on their play thus far? This looks an awful lot like a NET/KenPom 100+ team.
This was never going to be an elite team. I argued the loss of Boo would impact us more than most people wanted to admit.

A 20 loss team is dog crap. This team is not dog crap. Pretty much every team is decent in the B1G, but no one is the 96 Bulls. With the right breaks we should be able to get to 9-10 B1G wins.
 
I don’t think this is exactly a hot or particularly negative take here.

NU went to OT with KenPom 342 Eastern Illinois. Fine… an outlier a la Chicago State last year. Then Montana State. Then the abysmal offense against Pepperdine.

This team is gritty and they give it their all, but they just aren’t that good without someone who can run the offense. I’d love to have egg on my face at the end of the year, but (obviously) I really don’t see that happening.

Honest question… what suggests to anyone that the 24-25 NU is above average based on their play thus far? This looks an awful lot like a NET/KenPom 100+ team

Correct. They don't particularly fit well together on the offensive end yet. That's hurt them in two winnable games that really would have helped their profile. The game with Eastern was probably more concerning than the two losses in that respect. But ... they aren't cohesive enough YET to be better than what they are.
 
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