Northwestern put on an offensive clinic last night in Bloomington, defeating Indiana 75-53 in 60 possessions. The Wildcats were red-hot from outside, hitting 9 of 16 on threes, but they also shot 57% from inside the arc and limited their turnovers to a reasonable 11. Put it all together and you’ve got Northwestern’s sixth best efficiency of the season – the only teams more permissive to the Wildcats have been Brown, Central Arkansas, UMKC, Wisconsin(!) and Ohio State(!).
Northwestern has a pretty consistent pattern going – they’re undefeated when they score more than 1.06 points per possession, and they’re just 2-11 when under that mark (with those wins coming against cupcakes Southern Methodist and UC Riverside). Northwestern’s defense is vastly improved over last season, but they’re still a team that must win with their offense.
It was another team effort for Northwestern, with 5 players in double figures and another with 8 points. Craig Moore bounced back from a rough Minnesota game to score 17 on 10 shots, but Michael Thompson may have bested him – 16 points on just 5 shots, 5 assists to 1 turnover, and 3 steals. Luka Mirkovic looked great off the bench, scoring 8 points on 7 shots, grabbing 7 rebounds, and blocking 2 shots. This Northwestern frontcourt could be awfully good next year.
For Indiana, Kyle Taber played very well when not saddled with foul trouble, finishing with 12 points (11 shots), 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks in just 18 minutes. Oh, and our idea of IU becoming a perimeter-oriented team? Let’s just say there’s a reason Tom Crean is a D1 coach and not us – IU shot just 3 for 21 from downtown and still managed to turn it over 17 times. Maybe taking more threes isn’t the answer for this young squad. Box score.
Northwestern wins their sixth Big Ten game, with a possible seventh win on-tap against Iowa – that’s progress for this program, but you can’t help but think about the ones that got away. Northwestern blew late leads against both Purdue and Illinois – flip those two games into wins and the Wildcats would be 17-9 (8-7), likely needing just 1-2 more wins to put themselves into the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever. Instead, Northwestern will probably get an NIT bid and build towards next year, when they look to have a great shot at making the field of 65.
In the other matchup of the night, Iowa hung tough at Michigan State before falling 62-54. Both teams struggled with turnovers and each posted an eFG% above 50 – the main difference was on the glass, where the Spartans dominated. Watching the game, it felt like it shouldn’t even be close, with Michigan State totally outclassing Iowa athletically, then the Hawkeyes would hit a three and suddenly be within 8 or 9. The Hawkeyes never truly threatened in this one, but Michigan State failed to put them away.
It’s amazing that Tom Izzo still has any hair on his head – Michigan State’s turnover woes are maddening. Iowa is most certainly not a team that forces turnovers; in fact, only three teams have posted a higher TO rate against Iowa this season – Texas San Antonio, The Citadel, and Kansas State – and those games were all in November when Iowa had their full complement of players. You’ve got to give the Hawkeyes a lot of credit for the way they hung tough on the road with a short bench – Jake Kelly, Matt Gatens, and Devan Bawinkel all played the full 40 minutes. Kelly made some really tough shots on his way to 20 points, but he did commit 6 turnovers against the MSU pressure.
Delvon Roe had a nice game for Michigan State, scoring 16 points on just 7 shots. Korie Lucious chipped in 12 points on 4 for 7 shooting, all from downtown. MSU's freshmen carried them in this one. Box score.
Tom Izzo admitted his disappointment in the postgame interview, and I can’t blame him – this Michigan State team is just wildly inconsistent. We Geeks haven’t mentioned the stat before, but kenpom.com keeps a Consistency number, which is simply the standard deviation of scoring difference by game. Michigan State ranks 293rd in the nation in Consistency. If you’re wondering, the Big Ten is chock-full of inconsistent teams – Wisconsin is the most Consistent, and they rank 165th nationally. Most of the other Big Ten teams are 200+. Now, inconsistency isn’t necessarily a bad thing come tournament time – by definition, you've got to play above your head if you're facing a better team. Inconsistency just makes it a bit tougher to win 6 straight for a National Title, but it's not a disqualifier.
Tonight, Illinois looks to avenge one of their ugly losses as Minnesota comes to town (6pm CT, Big Ten Network). Purdue hopes to stay in the Big Ten title hunt as they visit a cornered Michigan squad (8pm CT, ESPN).
Now make like a tree, and get outta here.
1 comments:
Best post title of the week, by far.
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