Takeaways: Wildcats overwhelm Lehigh in dominant season opener

[lou v]

What an opener! Here are @mshelton33's takeaways from NU's wire-to-wire demolition of Lehigh.

Wildcats overwhelm Lehigh in dominant season opener

Northwestern made a statement with a 90-46 win in their season opener vs. Lehigh.

northwestern.rivals.com

 

[mountaindrew]

What an opener! Here are @mshelton33's takeaways from NU's wire-to-wire demolition of Lehigh.

Wildcats overwhelm Lehigh in dominant season opener

Northwestern made a statement with a 90-46 win in their season opener vs. Lehigh.

northwestern.rivals.com

Great piece, Louie. Loved the Leach summary and video.

"Palindromic"?? I don't even know what the hell that means.

 

[SmellyCat]

"Palindromic"?? I don't even know what the hell that means.

It make more sense if you read it from right to left.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

We were so dominant, it even silenced the C on the game thread!

 

[NUCat320]

For me, Windham is the biggest story. Lightly recruited, limited offers, and relatively unimpressive stat lines for the two weeks I followed the Indiana tournament.

But he gets the game one call, has already earned the nominal sixth-man role, and is set to play meaningful backcourt minutes as a freshman. That bodes well for the short and long term.

Martinelli is obviously *the* story, but I’ve got very high expectations for him this season. My Windham expectations were…I hope he can play. One game is one game, and Lehigh is in the Patriot League or whatever, but that one game went about as well as it could.

 

[SmellyCat]

For me, Windham is the biggest story. Lightly recruited, limited offers, and relatively unimpressive stat lines for the two weeks I followed the Indiana tournament.

But he gets the game one call, has already earned the nominal sixth-man role, and is set to play meaningful backcourt minutes as a freshman. That bodes well for the short and long term.

Martinelli is obviously *the* story, but I’ve got very high expectations for him this season. My Windham expectations were…I hope he can play. One game is one game, and Lehigh is in the Patriot League or whatever, but that one game went about as well as it could.

Absolutely. For many of us, this is the first real look at Windham in purple, and let me just say: I was very impressed. Did he make some mistakes? Of course he did. However, he showed no fear/hesitation and always seemed to be in the middle of the action, sometimes by facilitating, sometimes just getting his hand in there on defense, sometimes taking shots that a lot of other people in his place would hesitate to take. In short, he still has work to do, but he looks like he belongs and will be a significant contributor this year.

To a lesser extent, I liked Jello too. I know he won't play as much against Big Ten opponents and/or when the team is fully healthy, but he was no shrinking violet either. I'm not saying I want our freshmen to take stupid shots or be sloppy, but I just love that a) Collins gave them lots of run and B) they didn't appear to be on any kind of leash or pitch clock - they were just free to do what they do, mistakes and all.

Doesn't mean Collins won't yell at them when they make mistakes, but that's how he teaches.

Saturday will of course be a bigger test, especially if Barnhizer is out and/or rusty, but for a first game, I liked what I saw out of these guys.