Purdue shines light on Northwestern's flaws in 79-61 defeat

[mshelton33]

Purdue shines light on Northwestern's flaws in 79-61 defeat

Purdue laid out the rubric on how to beat Northwestern in the Wildcats' fourth straight road loss this season.

northwestern.rivals.com

Here are my takeaways from Northwestern's 79-61 loss at Purdue.

 

[Hungry Jack]

"I was playing the guys that I thought were competing," Collins said. "I was trying to find a group that was going to fight."

I think he is damning Ty, Big Matt and Luke with this comment. Very unusual for CCC to call out his experienced players like this.

Good.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

"I was playing the guys that I thought were competing," Collins said. "I was trying to find a group that was going to fight."

I think he is damning Ty, Big Matt and Luke with this comment. Very unusual for CCC to call out his experienced players like this.

Good.

I re-watched the game and I saw effort and confusion from the players.

I also saw a lack of preparation, a lack of useful adjustments and a lot of frustrated looks from the head coach.

The inability of anyone on our team to defend Braden Smith is cause for concern - because it is clear that Leach and Berry aren't quick enough to defend quick point guards. We saw the exact same situation against Dayton. From a defensive perspective, thats why we lost so badly - it wasn't due to lack of effort.

 

[Figrating]

Where the hell is the team that beat Illinois?

 

[Hungry Jack]

I re-watched the game and I saw effort and confusion from the players.

I also saw a lack of preparation, a lack of useful adjustments and a lot of frustrated looks from the head coach.

The inability of anyone on our team to defend Braden Smith is cause for concern - because it is clear that Leach and Berry aren't quick enough to defend quick point guards. We saw the exact same situation against Dayton. From a defensive perspective, thats why we lost so badly - it wasn't due to lack of effort.

There is no try. Only do.

I am sure there was effort. But the execution was abysmal.

 

[GatoLouco]

There is no try. Only do.

I am sure there was effort. But the execution was abysmal.

I did not see a whole lot of Purdue specific tactics. I did not see the help defenders do anything different when Smith had the ball. I saw mistakes like going under the pick and roll on Smith.

On the other hand I did see the "Purdue is guarding Barnelli with 3 players". They executed this very well. Their players were very aware of what they had to do. Rarely we made them pay. Leach did briefly in the beginning of the game. The first or second posession of the second half exemplified this very well: the Purdue players were sagging and Leach (I believe) hits a wide open 3 pt shot.

I am not saying with all this we did not prep the game. Just, like you say, that the execution was atrocious. Players looked confused, lacking confidence. It's easy to see good prep and execution on the Purdue side when they are killing us and not seeing it on our when we are stinking so badly.

 

[SDakaGordie]

I did not see a whole lot of Purdue specific tactics. I did not see the help defenders do anything different when Smith had the ball. I saw mistakes like going under the pick and roll on Smith.

On the other hand I did see the "Purdue is guarding Barnelli with 3 players". They executed this very well. Their players were very aware of what they had to do. Rarely we made them pay. Leach did briefly in the beginning of the game. The first or second posession of the second half exemplified this very well: the Purdue players were sagging and Leach (I believe) hits a wide open 3 pt shot.

I am not saying with all this we did not prep the game. Just, like you say, that the execution was atrocious. Players looked confused, lacking confidence. It's easy to see good prep and execution on the Purdue side when they are killing us and not seeing it on our when we are stinking so badly.

Speed kills, as do good shooters. We have always struggled against speedy point guards (who can also shoot, of course; at the P5 level, that is a given except for NU). Purdue has both of these; no weak spots. We don’t quite have great speed or great shooters this year, and we certainly have weak spots. We are typically toast if we can’t play defense. While we have other options on offense, we certainly were not likely to score as much as we did at PSU. So this was a bad matchup on a day we were more likely to have a rough outing.

Collins has two five-year guys (with him) who he’s not going to just drop quickly in favor of freshmen. He will eventually drop them as starters if things keep going as they are, but he will want to avoid this. Maybe the second half was a warning sign.

 

[clarificationcat]

I did not see a whole lot of Purdue specific tactics. I did not see the help defenders do anything different when Smith had the ball. I saw mistakes like going under the pick and roll on Smith.

On the other hand I did see the "Purdue is guarding Barnelli with 3 players". They executed this very well. Their players were very aware of what they had to do. Rarely we made them pay. Leach did briefly in the beginning of the game. The first or second posession of the second half exemplified this very well: the Purdue players were sagging and Leach (I believe) hits a wide open 3 pt shot.

I am not saying with all this we did not prep the game. Just, like you say, that the execution was atrocious. Players looked confused, lacking confidence. It's easy to see good prep and execution on the Purdue side when they are killing us and not seeing it on our when we are stinking so badly.

One day of prep between games did not help.