March Madness Game Thread: Northwestern vs. FAU

[mshelton33]

No. 9 Northwestern (21-11, 12-8 Big Ten) plays No. 8 Florida Atlantic (25-8, 14-4 AAC) in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament at 11:15 am CT, airing on CBS.

The Wildcats are in the East Region and today's game will be played at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

 

[IMC Cat]

At Barclay's. LOTS of purple. Probably 5:1 over FAU fans

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Just gonna throw this out there because the game starts in 10 minutes.
Since Nicholson got hurt, here are the primary lineups we have used in the last 3 games...

Center	PF	SF	SG	PG	Mins	NU Pts	Opp Pts	NU Pace	Opp Pace
Preston	Mart	Barney	Langborg	Buie	29	45	41	62	56
Hunger	Mart	Barney	Langborg	Buie	35	57	56	65	64
Mart	Barney	Smith	Langborg	Buie	14	19	20	53	56
Hunger	Barney	Smith	Langborg	Buie	5	22	8	182	66
Preston	Mart	Barney	Smith	Buie	7	19	15	108	86
Hunger	Mart	Barney	Mullins	Buie	5	7	7	57	57
Hunger	Mart	Barney	Smith	Buie	11	8	22	30	83

Martinelli has played better with Preston...

 

[Figrating]

Sure hope ECAT tunes in for tip off.

GO CATS!

 

[EagerFan]

Hey, look at this - it's streaming on the ncaa website.

 

[NUCat320]

Just happy to see the Cats getting their misses out of the way now.

Defense has been excellent.

 

[GatoLouco]

At the first media timeout:

Positive - very active on defense. Amazing level of intensity and concentration

Negative - jitters, lots of jitters

 

[NUinIowafan]

Cant see it live. In mexico. Just following this thread plus a score update. Go cats!

 

[NUCat320]

At the first media timeout:

Positive - very active on defense. Amazing level of intensity and concentration

Negative - jitters, lots of jitters

Northwestern had missed open shots and FAU has missed contested or rushed shots. NU looks battle-tested.

 

[Pete Purple]

Pls tell Hunger to stop talking 3s early in the clock.

 

[TejasCat]

Whoever makes their threes wins this game. And I don't want Hunger and Martinelli shooting them. Barney and Langbord need to step up on O, Langborg can get to the hoop.

 

[PURPLECAT88]

Not pretty so far. Playing tough defense. I’m nervous but confident in this squad.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Too many of our attempts are outside by Martinelli and Hunger.

 

[Figrating]

NU D is all over FAU

 

[NUCat320]

Great minutes for Blake today. He’s already given significant rest to Boo and now Langborg.

Defensive and rebounding presence.

 

[BosCat]

First team to 30 wins....

 

[GatoLouco]

Thank F*** we are not the only ones with jitters

Not much has changed, still incredibly intense and concentrated on defense.

 

[NUCat320]

Mart and Borg are combined 1-7. Borg has missed two straight threes in the flow, including one on a set play.

I contend that two from Mart, Borg, Brooks need to shoot well to win. Boo will get his soon, I hope.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Blake Preston brought his concrete hands today

 

[AdamOnFirst]

What the actual ****

 

[SmellyCat]

MAKE SHOTS.

 

[NUCat320]

Let’s see if NU can get a few freebies at the line now that they’re in the bonus the final four mins.

I’m happy that C-State had their 11-point (?) first half yesterday.


Smith is awesome. Offensive board and a one-on-one stop in transition. He’s the best Cat so far.

 

[TejasCat]

Embarassing performance, missing wide open threes, throwing ball away, and missing wide open bunnies.

 

[BosCat]

That should have been a flagrant 10!

 

[NUCat320]

At Barclay's. LOTS of purple. Probably 5:1 over FAU fans

Cats fans just waiting to blow the roof off the joint, yeah?

 

[GatoLouco]

I'd be freeing up Barnhizer and Martinelli to get the ball in the post.

 

[PURPLECAT88]

I don’t think we could play any worse offensively. Still believe, but this is frustrating.

 

[Jonny2TheP]

I'd be freeing up Barnhizer and Martinelli to get the ball in the post.

Agree. Isolate Barnhizer in the post a couple times

 

[EvanstonCat]

Boy we miss Nicholson. There would be a few Nicholbombs by now, instead of missed bunnies.

 

[NUCat320]

Embarassing performance, missing wide open threes, throwing ball away, and missing wide open bunnies.

I really disagree with this. Defending like crazy, missing some shots, over-dribbling some. It’s a two-way game.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Brooks is hustling his ****ing ass off

 

[GatoLouco]

I don’t think we could play any worse offensively. Still believe, but this is frustrating.

I feel the frustration but just tell myself we could not wish for better on defense either. Were we down 42-40 right now would we somehow feel better?

 

[EvanstonCat]

I don’t think we could play any worse offensively. Still believe, but this is frustrating.

You must have missed the Aron Molnar years. Oh, you meant this team.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Boo is getting his preferred looks and even they aren’t going

 

[Just Gary]

I feel the frustration but just tell myself we could not wish for better on defense either. Were we down 42-40 right now would we somehow feel better?

The way I look at it, that feels like the worse offensive half this year…and we are down only 1. Feeling good about the second half.

 

[jensberg]

Marty can't make any shot even those really close ones that he makes all the time. We just need one guy to get hot the way things are going now. Six field goals on 30 attempts that is amazingly bad.

 

[NUCat320]

My favorite number is 8 steals for Northwestern in the first half. This 20-point first half performance has not been “careless with the ball as they’ve turned it over 12 times.” The story is “FAU has had no open space in the court, and of course they’re missing or losing the ball.”

If Martinelli can’t shoot better, Smith’s gotta get his minutes. Hunger has to accept that the shops aren’t falling and think like a facilitator. NU’s only got six turnovers. It’s been misses — that’s jitters.

Maybe playing hard defense, letting Brooks cook, and a few floaters that fall in instead of out for Boo will be enough.

NU looks like a better team to my purple-shaded eyes.

 

[Southport Cat]

Missed bunnies and open threes will fall. That was the best defensive half I think I have ever seen from any Northwestern team. Optimistic

 

[Figrating]

Both teams with season lows for the first half!

Hope CCC has some magic words to get the team to make their shots. Worse than against UW.

 

[Eurocat]

If we made layups and close in shots and snagged a few rebounds we'd be up by 20.

We should win this one, but have to start getting rebounds and sinking the easy one's.