Game Thread: Northwestern vs. Butler
- Thread starter mshelton33
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And inside shooting. We had 7 steals (to 1) and only 5 TOs (to 15) and lost. Better shooters win.
Not sure his defense of Screen was something to praise but I didn’t see first half.
+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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yes. And it's the 1 way where college hoops really pales to the pro game. Continuation calls are stuck in like 1972.
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 know the game day thread is known for bad takes, (just read this thread) but this one takes the cake for negativity!
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.
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 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.
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
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.
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.
Not picking on you but this statement has been said for 6 games already. When is he going to turn it around?
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.
The unfortunate truth is that, other than the opening blowout of Lehigh, there is nothing in our final scores to support our general belief (hope?) that NU is a tournament team this year.
I don't mind Martinelli and Barnhizer backing defenders into the paint with an eye on scoring, but they have to pass better - and Nicholson and Hunger have to put themselves in scoring position. (I still say Martinelli can just flip it up for Nicholson to catch and dunk).
And at this point I'd rather see Mullins crashing the offensive boards instead of Berry waiting for kickouts.
There's a lot to get sorted out, but Nicholson can't be totally ignored.
I thought Mullins would get more time to guard Telfort, especially if Ty was struggling with his shot. I think Mullins can guard athletic wings as well as anyone.
We really need some creative mind to fix this offense. It doesn’t work right now.
I agree with you on the lack of impressive results so far. When I talked to someone on the staff last Saturday, he was noncommittal as to whether he thought this year’s team was a tournament team. Since that conversation we have seen them barely beat Montana State, beat a depleted Pepperdine team that the Cats should blow out even when the Waves are at full strength, and last night.
They have to improve quickly on offense or it will be a tough year.
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