First half, you could see the guys were dragging. 3 games in 6 days is too many with a depleted roster. Tap not really a factor tonight meant NU went with 7 guys.
Gutty win. Move on to Big 10 play.
Gutty win. Move on to Big 10 play.
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- Thread starter NJCat
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We survived with probably the best-case scenario anyone would have expected in October -- three wins against quality competition (with apologies to DePaul) and no bad losses. We're in position to compete for a bid. But this team is too thin right now to inspire confidence that we'll get the 10 or 11 wins necessary to get in. The conference schedule will have quick turnarounds, though not three games in six days, against tougher teams. Last year's team was the ultimate "chalk" team, as Collins has said, but I think this one is going to lose a few more games that it shouldn't.
Actually, I think the conference schedule is more forgiving than the OOC schedule was. Teams never play more than 2 games in a week. NU starts with Tues/Fri, then Thurs/Sun for 2 weeks, an open date until the following Sunday (6 days of rest), Thurs/Sun, Wed, another 6 days off, etc. Will be a fresher team than down the OOC stretch, although probably more physically banged up because of the style of Big 10 play.
Just wish we had Pardon for these first two BIG games. Very winnable with him in there but without him, we will really have to shoot well to win either one.
I don't think they need 10 or 11 B1G wins to get in. The Butler and ND losses are "good losses" in the eyes of the committee. Wake and Dayton are looking like "quality wins" while Texas at least has name recognition.
Wake is looking like a real good win. The Deacs put up 110 points on a reasonably good LSU team last night.
We need 10-11 regular season conference wins and then at least 1 win in the BTT. Go to this site and play around with different combinations of wins and losses (and extra games for the BTT at the bottom):
http://www.rpiforecast.com/wizard/Northwestern.html
Depending on how conference tournaments and automatic bids play out, The Bubble generally bursts between around RPI 40.
The B1G is weak. This is good and bad for us.
OT/personal vendetta: I know that people like you and that you know your shit when it comes to football recruiting and so on...but you still pilfered my screen name.
Love,
The original "go cats go"
Yeah, sadly I've been on here since well before 2001. Original screen name was "gocatsgo" without spaces, then added 2003 when there was some kind of issue with my password.
Not buying it. I remember when you showed up. Anyway, Cheers and Merry Christmas!
I am not sure you can say that the BIG is weak. Top may not be a strong as last year but the bottom has gotten much tougher with improvements int Rutgers, PSU, MN
Going by the metrics, kenpom, Sagarin, RPI, etc. have the B1G as the 4th best conference...and that won't change once teams enter conference play. Last year, the B1G was 5th best. The year before, 4th best...
2013-14: #2
2012-13: #1
2011-12: #1
2010-11: #1
"Weak" was meant relatively. We are not the powerhouse league we were earlier this decade. Fair?
I believe the entire season rests on these first two B1G games. They are winnable road games. Win both "Lookin' good Billie Ray" Lose both -oh well
Yeah. Shots were not falling. We shot poorly from almost everywhere on the court. But the team really did play hard in the second half. I was really happy to see Law drive hard to the basket. He couldn't hit anything from distance yesterday but he had three really nice hoops around the basket. Two of which were and ones. The other one was on a put-back that could have been as well. He had a look in the second half like he was determined that we weren't going to lose. Lindsey made several big shots in the second half. He also just missed on a put-back slam that would have been on ESPN if the game were televised. He took off from 6 feet away from the basket on the baseline. It seem like Lindsey and Law are really athletic but not quite as athletic as the very top-tier players. They seem to just miss on a lot of alley-oops and put-backs. Sanjay played well again although he had some rare defensive breakdowns and he had Skelly had a bunch of odd fouls on jump shots. Collins spares no one. He was screaming at Sanjay to play defense after he gave up a layup with 15 seconds to go in the game.
I don't want to pile on Bryant but he missed a lot of shots, including some floaters and layups that he has to make if we are going to beat good teams. I think his outside shot is probably always going to be inconsistent, but he used to be much more accurate on his floaters and there is no excuse for missing layups. In fairness, he expends a lot of energy initiating the offense and his defense has improved significantly (which also requires more energy). I am guessing that most of it is confidence and trying too hard to be the guy on offense (with Demps leaving), but Collins may want to consider getting him more than a couple of minutes each half on the bench.
It's an athletic, well-coached team that has scorers at every position (now that Sanjay is being much more active offensively) and that plays excellent team defense. This is not a slam on BC, because he had some really competitive teams, but this team does not need to surprise people with their offensive or defensive schemes. They can play man-to-man defense and shut a lot of teams down. They are going to need to shoot well against the good teams to win, though. They will struggle to get to the basket if their outside shots are not falling. As others have said, Lindsey has expanded his offensive game considerably, but he's not yet a guy who can consistently create his own shot. I think Law will make the same improvement in his offensive game but I don't think it going to happen this season. So I think there will be games when they are just going to have to grind it out and hope the other team is not shooting well. It should be a great B1G season.
What concerns me about Mac is his turnovers. He has had a lot this year and his assist to turnover ratio seems to be way down.
With the D we can hang with a lot of teams (Until we get into foul trouble as we just do not have the depth). We have length we have not had in the past.
Last year, BMac was 2.8 Assists/turnovers.
This season he is 1.8.....
He's had 20% more turnovers/game, and assists are down
18%.
Last year the team averaged 16 APG and 10 TPG. This year it's 18 and 11. That's a better overall ratio, and more assists per game. BMac's assists are down while the teame are up. That tells me the team has broader talent, or at least broader involvement.
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BMac has been really careless with the ball at times this year. I've been really surprised at this area of his game, as his sloppy play seems to have come only this year. Prior to this season he made really good decisions.
Any chance that there is now enough film on him that "the book" on him has tipped teams off as to how they should disrupt his game? It would seem to me that most teams would realize that he is the spark plug for every possession so if they can short circuit him that sets the Cats back.
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