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
It make more sense if you read it from right to left."Palindromic"?? I don't even know what the hell that means.
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.
Your comments from months ago are the primary reason I thought Windham could be pretty good as a freshman.
Perhaps the biggest impression KJ left with me last night was a non-impression. I can't recall him doing anything egregiously dumb. I am sure if I watch the tape I will find some defensive lapses, and I think he had an ill-advised drive, but if he made bad mistakes, I did not see them. He just seems like a player who understands how to play, and has a game to back it up.
I think defense is what is going to limit Ciaravino at least this year. His foot speed was a notch below a lot of the other guys we had out there. You could see in the second half that he was getting beat off the dribble a fair amount which opened things up for Lehigh. I think he'll get better, but it might limit his minutes in the beginning of the BIG season.
One of my favorite plays of the night is when he airballed a three-pointer but didn't give up - after we got the rebound, he broke to the basket and got the pass for an easy layup. So he scored two instead of three? Lose the battle, win the war. That was great stuff.
So so many hustle plays won by NU all night, even as their lead got stretched. Great focus, CCC’s culture is really taking off.
Believed they belonged and were hungry to prove it definitively and step in the opponents throat and give them no hope.
There's good chemistry on the staff, led by Collins with Brian James and Lowery being the senior guys, and BMac and Shane Southwell being the younger coaches not too far removed from their playing days.
I agree - its hard to dispute that. But we were lost with James and the prior staff - Collins' resurrection coincided with his hiring of Lowery.
He looked really impressive in the European games, and his defense will come along. He's not quite as ready as KJ, but I think his ceiling is higher. Regardless, 2 freshmen that can contribute bodes well for complementing the big time recruiting class coming in next season.
No argument about the impact of Lowery, he’s been invaluable on this staff. But can’t blame James, he was instrumental in the First Dance and the development of the bigs like Pardon, Ryan Young and Nicholson. The staff seems to be a good mix of experience and energy.
Not blaming James. I just think people give him credit where it isn't due. Seems like a nice guy, though.
