OT: Northwestern beats Minnesota

[Aggs]

Northwestern followed up its dramatic victory against Iowa over the weekend with a victory tonight at Minnesota.

The Wildcats improved to 12-14 overall and 3-10 in the B1G.

Like Rutgers, Northwestern hired its current coach in 2013.

Like Rutgers, its 2013 recruiting class featured one player, same size and position: 6-foot-7 Nathan Taphorn, who averages 4.2 points in 9.4 minutes a game.

Like Rutgers, they had a five-player class in 2014: four-star forward Victor Law and the rest were three-stars. Law averages 6.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 23.3 minutes a game.

Perhaps their most impressive player is freshman Bryant McIntosh, a 6-foot-3 point guard who averages 12.2 points, 2.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists. Fran Fracshilla calls him "a gem" with a great future in the B1G.

Their upperclassman are junior Tre Demps, who leads the team in points, and junior big man Alex Olah, who averages 11 points and a team-leading 6.5 rebounds.

Their 2016 class is headlined by Aaron Falzon, a sharpshooting four-star big man, and two three stars Jordan Ash and rugged Ohio big man Dererk Pardon.


Chris Collins didn't take over a program in turmoil. He didn't re-recruit his players and assistants in order to field a competitive team, and the "veterans" in his first year at NW were sophomores as opposed to juniors (Mack and Jack) and they were recruited to play in the B1G, not the old Big East.


Good wins for Northwestern: vs. Rutgers, vs. Iowa, at Minnesota
Bad losses: vs. Georgia Tech; maybe Central Michigan because it's the MAC, but they're (19-5).

Good wins for Rutgers: vs. Vanderbilt, at Clemson, vs. Penn State, vs. Wisconsin
Bad losses: vs. St. Peter's, St. Francis (PA)


The Wildcats had suffered a 10-game losing streak before Saturday's overtime win over Iowa.
This post was edited on 2/19 12:15 AM by Aggs

This post was edited on 2/19 1:21 AM by Aggs

 

[ruman]

All of their 2014 class qualified
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[bac2therac]

Also note many of their losses were very very close and they are getting better and showing progress at the end of the season

 

[shields]

Northwestern game is where Jack got benched at start of game. Like to have that one back with Jack playing 35 minutes.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Originally posted by shields:
Northwestern game is where Jack got benched at start of game. Like to have that one back with Jack playing 35 minutes.

I am not certain that Jack on the floor actually helps us....especially the way that game went.

 

[Sideline20]

Northwestern was beating Maryland at Comcast for 39 minutes, 59.5 seconds. Dez Wells on a putback at the buzzer. Nobody is going to want to play the Wildcats in the B1G tournament. They could be a tough out.

 

[higgins3]

This season i was looking to win about 13-15 games. Hopefully they can pull some wins somewhere. The big is a different league and we need to recruit in a different manner.

Little bit of a dissapointment but I've seen some things to stay hopeful about. Lots of games were close and competitive, and it wasn't like our opponents were throwing in their backups. Also, during some games the RAC got loud during late parts of the game. One thing i didn't see was our team giving up a lot of games. For the most part, i felt like they grinded 8/10 games till the near end,

Losing Mack will hurt us more than losing Jack next year. Jack is still a great player but it won't be as big of a hit as Mack.

 

[bac2therac]

some of Northwestern's losses during their 10 game losing streak.

7 to Michigan State in OT
2 to Michigan
2 to Ohio State
5 to Illinois
1 to Maryland

they probably will be faves at home vs Penn State and Michigan and could get to 5 wins in league play which might be good enough for 12th.

 

[RUJMM78]

Northwestern is showing player development by first playing close games and now winning games even on the road.In contrast Rutgers still battles to score 60 points and there is very little evidence of player development.The losing streak continues which has to wear on the players and coaches psyche.

 

[PatrickRU92]

Northwestern has better players than we do.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Originally posted by PatrickRU92:
Northwestern has better players than we do.

they are better coached, we have more talent. Do they have anyone with the ability of Jack or Daniels?

 

[ruman]

Demps is a better player than both of them

 

[PatrickRU92]

Originally posted by Greene Rice FIG:

Originally posted by PatrickRU92:
Northwestern has better players than we do.

they are better coached, we have more talent. Do they have anyone with the ability of Jack or Daniels?

I couldn't disagree more.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

How about Collins has a system and a vision of what type of players he needs to fill spots on the court...Eddie not sure yet.

I get that eddie got dealt a bad hand, a real real bad hand.

 

[Aggs]

The problem for Jordan is he inherited two players Mack and Jack who don't quite fit his vision, at least that's what I assume. Not quite the best fits for the B1G.

But it's discouraging to see a freshman guard who's 6-foot-3 play so well for Northwestern when the jury is out on all of our guys. Northwestern has a good 2015 class and they still have one or two ships available. Falzon was on our radar and he's a great shooter.

Also, as some have mentioned, Northwestern is battling in every game with one or two exceptions.

It's not a race between us and Rutgers but it's definitely interesting comparing to two programs and their trajectories.

 

[PatrickRU92]

It's all about the players.

 

[shields]

Northwestern can shoot better.

 

[Local Shill]

A lot of low majors shoot better.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

What you get from Chris Collins is his Dad, former NBA Coach of the Year, Doug Collins, who matured as a coach after starting his career with the Bulls and Michael Jordan in the 80's and has his best coaching job a couple of years ago with Philly, where they were a 7 or 8 seed and gave the Heat a good series that ended in 5 games....4 of those games were close with an inferior roster vs Lebron, Wade, Bosh....

Doug Collins and Chris Collins understand defense and principles and more importantly, understand how to take away what a coaching staff wants to do with their offense. When watching NW, they are severely limited offensively, but they have recruited a specific type of player now for the last decade under another very good head coach in former Princeton coach, Bill Carmody.

You have players designed to play a specific system (Princeton style offense) that have been refined to a T....Collins isn't running the Princeton offense, but you have one shot at NW to beat Michigan State, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and you are not going to out jump, run a bigger faster team....you have to box out and then have shooters that occassionally knock down shots that are makeable and hit a couple of shots that are probably 24 to 25 feet out, when teams play zone....

It's a formula that allows a rebuilding program to stay in games, ala, Mike Rice.....It's not pretty, but it's what it takes to stick around and it fits the motto of the B1G, where you are not playing Louisville, Syracuse or North Carolina size, speed up front that would kill a Northwestern....if you are active defensively and have front line quickness, you beat NW 9 out of 10 meetings....

If you are guard oriented and you miss shots, then you have a problem.....Ohio State and teams that are super athletic in the front court don't lose to NW.....Michigan, Iowa, Minny and others that are guard reliant or lack elite athletes up front, will struggle to pull away, unless they are hitting shots.

RU with normal talent recruited that isn't subpar or at least at a B1G level athletically or a subpar shooter will be better than NW.....but it starts on defense and requires all 5 players on the same page defensively....not 3 or 4 with one person not doing whatever it takes.