Thoughts From the Game

[catfans5]

I just arrived home from the game and it was a great experience, despite the outcome. My thoughts are as follows:

1. The arena with the sight lines, intimate feel and the noise was tremendous;

2. John Beilein is a stud coach. His offense is beautiful to watch. His team plays incredible defense with excellent help by off ball defenders. I am in the balcony and you can see the movement by Michigan. I have had tix since 2005. I would put his team in the top five over all those years that have visited Welsh Ryan;

3. We played great defense. I think that goes to coaching by our staff(

4. As to Turner and Taylor, they played some tough defense. I think on the offensive side, they just have to get used to the defensive intensity of the B10. This is not the MVC. Turner played much better offensively in the 2nd half by going to the hoop. I think we will see significant improvement from each of them;

5. Koop and Nance both will get used to the intensity, physicality and speed of the game, especially on defense. Their offense will follow;

6. I am thrilled with Coach Collins despite what naysayers on this board spew; and,

7. That was one heck of a night of entertainment! Go Cats!

 

[Turk]

I just arrived home from the game and it was a great experience, despite the outcome. My thoughts are as follows:

1. The arena with the sight lines, intimate feel and the noise was tremendous;

2. John Beilein is a stud coach. His offense is beautiful to watch. His team plays incredible defense with excellent help by off ball defenders. I am in the balcony and you can see the movement by Michigan. I have had tix since 2005. I would put his team in the top five over all those years that have visited Welsh Ryan;

3. We played great defense. I think that goes to coaching by our staff(

4. As to Turner and Taylor, they played some tough defense. I think on the offensive side, they just have to get used to the defensive intensity of the B10. This is not the MVC. Turner played much better offensively in the 2nd half by going to the hoop. I think we will see significant improvement from each of them;

5. Koop and Nance both will get used to the intensity, physicality and speed of the game, especially on defense. Their offense will follow;

6. I am thrilled with Coach Collins despite what naysayers on this board spew; and,

7. That was one heck of a night of entertainment! Go Cats!

Turner had to be pulled for Greer after a few serious meltdowns on offense. The same ones that has plagued him since the beginning of the season. Let's be honest. That said, he is not a point guard but he played his best half of basketball after Greer spelled him. I watched Turner drill like 12 shots in a row in pregame so I know he has a nice pure shot but he is a step behind Taylor as far as confidence goes. I think Taylor is loosening up and I think it's only a matter of time for Turner to loosen up and take that damn shot he is suppose to take instead of passing on it.

I think he is one or two games away. And when he does realize that "He da man" in some situations, look out.

 

[Alan Smithee]

I just arrived home from the game and it was a great experience, despite the outcome. My thoughts are as follows:

1. The arena with the sight lines, intimate feel and the noise was tremendous;

2. John Beilein is a stud coach. His offense is beautiful to watch. His team plays incredible defense with excellent help by off ball defenders. I am in the balcony and you can see the movement by Michigan. I have had tix since 2005. I would put his team in the top five over all those years that have visited Welsh Ryan;

3. We played great defense. I think that goes to coaching by our staff(

4. As to Turner and Taylor, they played some tough defense. I think on the offensive side, they just have to get used to the defensive intensity of the B10. This is not the MVC. Turner played much better offensively in the 2nd half by going to the hoop. I think we will see significant improvement from each of them;

5. Koop and Nance both will get used to the intensity, physicality and speed of the game, especially on defense. Their offense will follow;

6. I am thrilled with Coach Collins despite what naysayers on this board spew; and,

7. That was one heck of a night of entertainment! Go Cats!

Jon Crispin correctly noted this was a high-level close game. This wasn't a game where we dragged them down to ugly play. Both teams turned the ball over a reasonable 9 times; we actually held them to a lower FG% than ours. Taylor's 2 bad fouls on 3-point shots put him in foul trouble early, and Law's 3 in the first half meant he had to be overcautious for much of the second half, and I think both played a big role in the game.

 

[nucatnap]

I went to the game tonight. I arrived early to check the building out. We had great seats in the second row on the main floor and the view was great. I do not think there is a bad seat in the house. Even the balcony seats had a beautiful view. When NU went on their runs in the first and second half it was loud, real loud. Never heard the old WR quite like that. This was with the attendance 35-40% blue. I can imagine how loud it could be with a 90% NU audience.

The game was great, I thought they would pull it out. This team is improving but we are already in a hole with an 0-2 conference record.

 

[DaCat]

The crowd noise was impressive to hear on TV. The students seemed really passionate.

We had several really good chances to win the game.

One series that haunts me is when we were awarded 2 shots and the ball for the flagrant foul on Teske. Pardon missed both foul shots, then we couldn't score on the possession. That series cost us 4 points.

And Taylor's last second shot could've turned this game into one of the all-time wins in program history but it wasn't meant to be.

 

[Medill90]

Free throws may have cost the win. NU superb everywhere else.

This is a game in which excellent coaching and senior leadership evened out a fairly significant talent gap.

 

[Walker Fan]

Great effort. Need contributions from Gaines, Kopp, Benson, Nance and Greer off the bench. Taylor did not do much in the first half and that hurt the team. Pardon is playing like the MVP and all Big 10 performer. Law hit some clutch shots and played with great effort and determination. Has an all around game and expends a lot of energy chasing the PG..

The failure of having a PG hurt the set up of the last play and all throughout the night. Will be tough to beat teams in the top half of the Big 10 without a PG. Need to get Greer more involved.

 

[go cats go]

Need to get Greer more involved.

Check out the following link and scroll to the bottom for our tempo-free player stats. Green squares indicate above average; Neutral squares indicate average; Red squares indicate below average.

http://barttorvik.com/team.php?team=Northwestern

People keep calling for more Ash and Greer (to solidify the offense and ball handling), yet they have the worst TO% and Offensive Ratings on the team.

Collins is using his talent as effectively as possible.

 

[TheC]

And Taylor's last second shot could've turned this game into one of the all-time wins in program history but it wasn't meant to be.

I think we may have used up a lot of our buzzer-beater-against-Michigan karma already and so we were due for one not to work out.

 

[DaCat]

I think we may have used up a lot of our buzzer-beater-against-Michigan karma already and so we were due for one not to work out.

We've lost too many close ones to Michigan recently. The next game is ours!

 

[willycat]

Jon Crispin correctly noted this was a high-level close game. This wasn't a game where we dragged them down to ugly play. Both teams turned the ball over a 9 times; we actually held them to a lower FG% than ours. Taylor's 2 bad fouls on 3-point shots put him in foul trouble early, and Law's 3 in the first half meant he had to be overcautious for much of the second half, and I think both played a big role in the game.

Think that is right. Law's early foul trouble is troubling and Collins mentioned during an interview about a week ago. Was he always foul prone or is he just trying to take to much of teams defense on his shoulders?

 

[willycat]

I went to the game tonight. I arrived early to check the building out. We had great seats in the second row on the main floor and the view was great. I do not think there is a bad seat in the house. Even the balcony seats had a beautiful view. When NU went on their runs in the first and second half it was loud, real loud. Never heard the old WR quite like that. This was with the attendance 35-40% blue. I can imagine how loud it could be with a 90% NU audience.

The game was great, I thought they would pull it out. This team is improving but we are already in a hole with an 0-2 conference record.

How is it possible that the new W-R was 40% Blue? Thought Nu had around 4,000 ST holders and add in 1,000 students that should leave just 2,000 available. Now all walk-ups couldn't possibly be Michigan fans , can they? Then there's that possibility that NU "fans" were selling their tickets. Think?

 

[DaCat]

How is it possible that the new W-R was 40% Blue? Thought Nu had around 4,000 ST holders and add in 1,000 students that should leave just 2,000 available. Now all walk-ups couldn't possibly be Michigan fans , can they? Then there's that possibility that NU "fans" were selling their tickets. Think?

Now if the arena seated 10,000 there would be more purple, right?

 

[ubercat]

From my vantage point in Section 220, second row, I would estimate the N:M fan ratio to have been closer to 80:20. In the old WR there would have been significantly more Blue presence. In that regard, the new seating has worked to our favor. There will always be STH's who bring friends from opponent schools, or give tickets to clients. There might even be a precious few who scalp their tickets on the secondary market, although I'm sure that wouldn't apply to anyone on this board.

One thing that stood out last night was the improved acoustics, amplifying our purple crowd noise a lot. It's like the new WR has a built-in reverb feature. But the students need to show up and be vocal, like they were last night.

 

[Alan Smithee]

I agree with the 80-20 estimate. Also agree that the students were there and did a GREAT job.

It's always natural that the crowds will be larger and more amped for "big" games. That's true everywhere. But I'm hoping for the day where we are closer to the point that people come to see OUR guys play no matter the opponent, not to see our guys play big bad team X. Again, we'll never get there completely. But we can get closer. Then those tickets will be harder to get for opposing fans - and we'll have better crowds for some of the "little" games.

 

[PurpWildCatNation]

You know what else was great? When the crowd is engaged throughout the game we aren't graced with the glorious vocals of the screamer on T.V.

 

[pschatz25]

From my vantage point in Section 220, second row, I would estimate the N:M fan ratio to have been closer to 80:20. In the old WR there would have been significantly more Blue presence. In that regard, the new seating has worked to our favor.

I'm in 206 and while I wouldn't put the ratio quite that far in our favor I do agree it was better than it was in the old WRA. I was curious to hear how loud it would get for a big game and I was not disappointed. I do think the crowds at old WRA were more raucous. There were a lot of people sitting in their comfy seats during big moments last night, but at least they were cheering too.

 

[ParisCat]

You know what else was great? When the crowd is engaged throughout the game we aren't graced with the glorious vocals of the screamer on T.V.

The Screamer was dressed in a Left Shark costume last night. That might have helped mute her shrieking.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

The Screamer was dressed in a Left Shark costume last night. That might have helped mute her shrieking.

She saw plenty of air on the big screen scoreboard.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

I'm in 206 and while I wouldn't put the ratio quite that far in our favor I do agree it was better than it was in the old WRA. I was curious to hear how loud it would get for a big game and I was not disappointed. I do think the crowds at old WRA were more raucous. There were a lot of people sitting in their comfy seats during big moments last night, but at least they were cheering too.

A lot of the comfy seats were vacant purple but at least they weren’t blue. A little disappointed that it seemed 10-15% no shows.

 

[ubercat]

A lot of the comfy seats were vacant purple but at least they weren’t blue. A little disappointed that it seemed 10-15% no shows.

They were probably close to capacity at the High Roller Seats. Maybe the 10 to 15% you speak of remained in 'The Club' watching on TV.

 

[spartcat]

As a TV viewer I couldn't hear Revson (a loss) or Crispin (a big plus) during the run. Keep it up fans!

 

[NJCat]

As a TV viewer I couldn't hear Revson (a loss) or Crispin (a big plus) during the run. Keep it up fans!

I like Crispin.....

 

[Noah121]

She saw plenty of air on the big screen scoreboard.

Costumed fans often get a lot of air time.

Though, would you consider my hard hat to be a partial costume?

 

[NJCat]

Though, would you consider my hard hat to be a partial costume?

No, you have to show up in a Speedo with that hard hat........

 

[ThatkidfromHolland]

Turner had to be pulled for Greer after a few serious meltdowns on offense. The same ones that has plagued him since the beginning of the season. Let's be honest. That said, he is not a point guard but he played his best half of basketball after Greer spelled him. I watched Turner drill like 12 shots in a row in pregame so I know he has a nice pure shot but he is a step behind Taylor as far as confidence goes. I think Taylor is loosening up and I think it's only a matter of time for Turner to loosen up and take that damn shot he is suppose to take instead of passing on it.

I think he is one or two games away. And when he does realize that "He da man" in some situations, look out.

As of now Turner is head and shoulders above Greer.

 

[NUCat320]

I like Crispin.....

So does he.