Takeaways: Northwestern 66, Liberty 52
Northwestern's undefeated start continued with a win over Liberty in the Cancun Challenge.
Takeaways: NU 66 LIB 52
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
Gee. nice cherry sentiment for 5-0 start with the lame duck coaching reference and enjoy it while it lasts summation.
This statement is way too negative...
"The center position looks incredibly shallow with neither Verhoeven or Nicholson making the scoring or defensive impact that will likely be required to survive Big Ten play. "
I think that assessment of Nicholson, based on essentially his first 5 college games, is ludicrous.
Verhoeven is what many of us thought he was - okay but quite limited on offense.
For all we know, Hunger is better than Verhoeven.
With Roper hurt, we are actually thin everywhere other than center. We have 5 guys to play 4 positions. Thats thin.
We'll probably see Hunger against Auburn because Auburn can't shoot threes and just pounds it inside and hits the offensive boards. They're pretty big and physical. Also deep. Guessing there will be a lot of fouls. That will work against us, especially with Roper injured.
"The center position looks incredibly shallow with neither Verhoeven or Nicholson making the scoring or defensive impact that will likely be required to survive Big Ten play. "
I think that assessment of Nicholson, based on essentially his first 5 college games, is ludicrous.
Verhoeven is what many of us thought he was - okay but quite limited on offense.
For all we know, Hunger is better than Verhoeven.
With Roper hurt, we are actually thin everywhere other than center. We have 5 guys to play 4 positions. Thats thin.
We'll probably see Hunger against Auburn because Auburn can't shoot threes and just pounds it inside and hits the offensive boards. They're pretty big and physical. Also deep. Guessing there will be a lot of fouls. That will work against us, especially with Roper injured.
I think we’re fine with center position. We got 10 and 10 combine out of the two big guys. Nicholson looks good coming off those pick and rolls from the key. He is big and jams up the middle. All he needs is experience
We are thin with Roper hurt and basically down to a seven man rotation. I think tonight you’re going to see Martinelli gettin five to 10 minutes. It seems as if the staff thinks he is getting more prepared for more minutes. Martinelli was a very good big man over here at GBS the last two years and in my opinion he will be a very serviceable Big Ten player in time. Again it’s experience and strength.
I really don’t know anything about Hunger but everyone says this prep school league he played in makes him better prepared for this type of ball than someone who who went to a high school in his hometown. I have my doubts. He will probably see action tonight because frankly we are short on bodies.
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“For all we know, Hunger is better than Verhoeven.”…. I don’t have words for this statement.
The 5 is the weakest position on this team. Especially offensively. Nicholson at times struggles to catch the ball and hold on to it. He got yanked and coached up and did much better. Verhooven misses so many bunnies. Neither can stretch the floor or score from a post up position. This team relies on cutting/driving guards to create for offense. Nicholson needs free throw help. Defensively they show more but they have room for improvement. They didn’t dominate against smaller opponents and were exposed at times. Will need to improve here against true post threats they will see in the B1G.
I have to say that I thought that Nicholson was much less of a stiff than I had recalled. He's very big. Sure wish he could shoot free throws tho -- a skill which is able to be improved with practice.
He looked better at FTs earlier in the year. Verhoeven looks scary at the line too. His first FT this year could have broken the backboard.
I thought Big Matt’s two early turnovers last night were textbook examples of why big guys should not hold the ball down low.
I've been meaning to look at those turnovers, if I can find a replay of the game, because when the entry pass is low, there's not much you can do.
If I remember right, Beran threw Nicholson a pass about thigh high from the corner. Ball should be 8 feet off the ground.
Your comment is odd. You appear to have a huge problem with my statement that Hunger might be better than Verhoeven, but then go out of your way to say how bad Verhoeven is. So are you saying Hunger is terrible? I prefer to look at the positives.
I'm sure you were among the pessimists who kept calling Nicholson a foul machine, won't be able to stay in the game, can't run, no quickness, out of position, blah blah blah, wrong wrong wrong. The team is trying to adjust to a style that actually suits the guys we have on the court. It takes time because Collins doesn't want to play that way.
We're down to "Nicholson can't shoot free throws and doesn't have a jump shot." So far, that is glaringly obvious. Everybody knew that Verhoeven was not a prolific scorer or outside threat. However, I will continue to root for NU and hope our inexperienced players continue to improve.
I thought you were going to clamp down on personal attacks.
And we've just had a thread of smug "wannabees" bashing our players.
After a win. With Roper injured.
I'm trying to counter the negativity.
They were low feeds, and he had a hard time getting a handle. He’s so big and long, it’s ludicrous we can’t get him the ball against a 6’9” guy.
