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.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

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.

As a fan, I will very rarely question effort and won’t do it in this game. As a disclaimer, I will admit i tuned out after the first half. The game was over at the half. Teams have good and bad games, they happen every year. Purdue isn’t the first team that tried to double Barnelli. We’ve seen it plenty, so no idea why we were so inept Sunday. Pretty much the entire unit looked out of sync but confusion can often be attributed to lack of execution versus suddenly being unprepared for something that was hardly a novelty.

As far as sitting Berry and Big Matt, good for CCC. He had to do something. I would have been fine if he sat Martinelli and Leach to make his point that the starters need to be better, but IMO he picked the right guys. Why? Berry was doing nothing to alleviate the doubles and we know what we have with Big Matt. Neither were helping the offense and neither was playing well. We needed offense and the Freshman do have the potential to bring that. The Freshman’s lack of defensive prowess but that isn’t much of a problem when you are already chasing 25. I don’t see it as CCC “blaming” Ty and Big Matt, he just realized he couldn’t sit in his hands and do nothing so he made what to me was a logical change.

It’s becoming pretty apparent that in these B1G games we need Berry to contribute. Generally, If Ty plays well we win, if he plays poorly we lose.

 

[GatoLouco]

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.

I don't agree this was a bad matchup. Loyer is not quick at all. Smith is considerably faster but not faster than several other guards in the league (though he is considerably more skilled). On top of that, they are not physical dudes, not the kind that used to bump Boo out of his lane. If we struggle to contain guards, which we do, with the Purdue backcourt, unlike let's say the Dayton backcout, there is the advantage they don't pose as many problems on the defense as others do.

I just think it was a terrible day overall. Deflated by the officiating and a second "could have definitely won" loss on the road? Getting used to life on the road? No idea, it happens. Like I said, I don't think it was necessarly lack of prep.

Crucial is to win the next one. At home, weekend, students need to be as rucous as if we were playing Purdue the last couple of years. If we lose we put a ton of pressure on every subsequent game.

 

[GatoLouco]

Purdue isn’t the first team that tried to double Barnelli.

This is an important point. There's lots of panic here around "teams have figured out how to guard us and we are in deep doo doo".

It is true that as the season progresses every team knows their opponent bettter. There's more tape, players have shown how much they developed, coaches have shown more of their game. I don't have numbers but it always feels the deeper we get into conference the harder it becomes to score.

But go back to the Dayton game, I was there, seeing it live. The positioning of the Dayton team when Martinelli had the ball was clearly adjusted. They already saw him as the biggest threat. And, yet, he kept scoring.

Point is I am not a part of the panic of OMG they will guard Barnelli with 3 players. It was expected, everyone adjusts positioning to the strong points on the other side.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Barnelli needs to grow a third head. Maybe it’s Gelohead.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Point is I am not a part of the panic of OMG they will guard Barnelli with 3 players. It was expected, everyone adjusts positioning to the strong points on the other side.

I don't think Barnhizer and Martinelli were ready for what Purdue was doing - and the turnovers reflected that.
It looked to me that Barnhizer became the primary ballhandler and Purdue was bringing help much earlier than previous opponents, so that Barnhizer had to give up the ball or shoot midrange jumpers against pressure.

Martinelli only managed 8 shots in 35 minutes - making 2.

To me that is cause for concern. Doesn't mean we're doomed because Purdue is really well coached and we couldn't guard Smith with our rotation. We'll see how upcoming opponents attempt to defend us.

Windham at the point for 15 minutes a game is one possibility. In that scenario either Leach or Berry is the shooting guard and the other is getting a rest. They are somewhat redundant as Leach finds it more difficult to penetrate against BigTen defenses. Windham could take much of the ballhandling burden off Barnhizer.

Another option is Ciaravino in for Berry or Leach to provide more size and athleticism. Maybe he takes minutes from Mullins when Hunger is out there as well - although we could get shredded defensively as Ciaravino learns.

We need to find some combinations that work - and if that means taking minutes from Berry, Leach and/or Mullins, so be it.

 

[Gatabowl]

It’s becoming pretty apparent that in these B1G games we need Berry to contribute. Generally, If Ty plays well we win, if he plays poorly we lose.

Beyond apparent. To illustrate how bad he has been, here are Ty’s numbers against teams that are NOT:
Lehigh (Kenpom 258)
UIC (173)
Eastern Illinois (333)
Montana State (188)
Pepperdine (200)
Northeastern (195)

11-39 from 3 (28%)
2 rebounds per game
1.1 assist per game
1.3 steals per game
5 points per game
24 minutes per game

That’s just bad against the non cupcakes. If you remove the Iowa outlier he’s 6-30 from 3. And he was bad against a bunch of the cupcakes too.

Not sure what else can be said at this point: he needs to be better.

 

[EagerFan]

I'd be more interested in playing Angelo over Hunger rather than Leach/Berry/Mullins. Run smaller - Angelo can jump and his defense can't be much worse than Luke's.