Could Be A Long Season
- Thread starter NJCat
- Start date
Actually, we won but the overreactions by some on this board are truly hilarious. It's the first damn game of the year.
A lot like the Chicago State game last year. we did not play well and couldn't hit 3's and they played well and hit 3's.
Supposedly No. 5 Kentucky struggled to beat something called Utah Valley tonight. These things happen.
Kentucky played like 8 guys who have never played a college game before. NU has a veteran team (fitting for Veterans Day) and looked like they never played a college game.
Defense was the calling card the last few years, and that was the issue tonight. Gave up 51 (!!) points in the second half. Ugh.
Or Indiana? We shot 23% from 3, has more turnovers than assists, missed 13 free throws and they didn't miss a 3 the second half. Decent teams, sometimes even good teams, lose games with those type of stats. But we found a way to win. We'll be fine.
Agreed. Loyola played out of their minds with the shooting. The refs calling lots of fouls never allowed NU to gather a rhythm. Of course they under performed but with the high expectations and playing at all state for the first time its not unexpected. Its not like this team was an offensive juggernaut last year. RELAX.
First game. College kids. I'm always hearing about Pollyannas on the Northwestern boards, but we also have way more than our share of Cassandras. And first college game or no, do you think Utah Valley's talent is in the same zip code as Kentucky's, or even with Loyola, Md., for that matter.
I agree, it will be a long season if the refs call 55 fouls every stinking game. That was laughable. For both teams.
We won. I miss W-R. I'll never make fun of DePaul's attendance in that mausoleum again. Glad this is temporary.
Other thoughts: The traffic wasn't as bad as I imagined on a Friday. Open the doors earlier; they were only opened an hour before tip. Take cards for parking (it's cash only, folks! $15.) And put the damn box score up on the big screen! Those of us in the upper deck are blocked out by the center console and can't see the boards on the sides, so we have no idea how many timeouts are left, who's got points and fouls, etc. Need to fix that one somehow.
And I'm glad we're not Indiana tonight.
We won. I miss W-R. I'll never make fun of DePaul's attendance in that mausoleum again. Glad this is temporary.
Other thoughts: The traffic wasn't as bad as I imagined on a Friday. Open the doors earlier; they were only opened an hour before tip. Take cards for parking (it's cash only, folks! $15.) And put the damn box score up on the big screen! Those of us in the upper deck are blocked out by the center console and can't see the boards on the sides, so we have no idea how many timeouts are left, who's got points and fouls, etc. Need to fix that one somehow.
And I'm glad we're not Indiana tonight.
The only thing about this board that is surprising is that I haven’t seen someone calling for CCC’s Head. RELAX. We are not a final four team but we are better than this result.
How did skelly look? Why didnt 4 stars rap or falzon play? Did brown improve?
Sucks that these games arent ok n tv.
Sucks that these games arent ok n tv.
The one thing I learned from last night is that NU will really need Falzon's outside shooting to stretch the floor and provide more driving lanes. They say its a hip flexor injury. Hope its not too serious.
You bet your *** it's gonna be a long season, probably going to end sometime in early to mid april after beating a 1 seed and making a deeeeeeeep run in the dance
It's Rosemont. Someone connected owns the parking lot. No credit cards = no records. I understand that not more than 50 cars have ever parked in that lot for any single event.
Where was Rap? I know Falzon was hurt, but all the buzz last year was about what a beast Rap would be. Kinda like the buzz this year about Gaines. Is he hurt or really could not break the rotation with Skelly as off as he was last night. And 38 frickin minutes for Mac? He will be out of gas before NYE!!!
I am not yet concerned about this team - but I am curious about what last night said about Rap, Gaines, Brown and Ash.
I am not yet concerned about this team - but I am curious about what last night said about Rap, Gaines, Brown and Ash.
Yep - announced at halftime of the Wisconsin game, the first BigTen game of that season. Wisconsin was ranked in the top 5 at the time and eventually made it to the Final Four. Epic over-reaction
Not sure about what all the fuss is for? We won and we overcame some great shooting by the other team (It's ok to give the other team credit). I went to the game and a few things are noticeable.
1. As I said earlier, Gaines needs work. I know everyone got excited when they went to the scrimmage and he scored 23 pts driving to the hoop against our defense who intentionally weren't hacking or playing tough, but as I noted, he isn't as athletic to really pull that off in a real game. Enter last night. Everytime he drove, he got the ball swatted away or came up empty. Not the quickest guy. That said, he is about where Sanjay was as a freshman and I say that in a good way. He belongs. He just has to find his groove.
2. Skelly deserves more credit than what he is getting on this board. True, he isn't going to light up the points but he is solid.
3. Rap and Falzon need work. Hopefully, Rap/Falzon will eventually be able to give us a combined 15-20 minutes per game. Everyone thinks just because they are 4 stars that they should start but from what I have seen, Skelly is far ahead of what Falzon or Rap can give. In the scrimmage, Rap looked pretty slow but did have a more versatile game than Falzon so I'll guess that Rap will get the bulk of the minutes.
4. Brown looks too hesitant at times. He had some open looks that he passed on and he shouldn't have. If he can't take the open looks then why have him out there? He has to learn that shooting is what he does and have confidence.
At the end of the day, this was a team win against a team that was hell bent on upset and shot lights out. The fact that we won, imo, was impressive. Collins coaching towards the end, especially the last inbounds was phenomenal.
We are fine and it's going to be a fun year although AllState sucks balls.
1. As I said earlier, Gaines needs work. I know everyone got excited when they went to the scrimmage and he scored 23 pts driving to the hoop against our defense who intentionally weren't hacking or playing tough, but as I noted, he isn't as athletic to really pull that off in a real game. Enter last night. Everytime he drove, he got the ball swatted away or came up empty. Not the quickest guy. That said, he is about where Sanjay was as a freshman and I say that in a good way. He belongs. He just has to find his groove.
2. Skelly deserves more credit than what he is getting on this board. True, he isn't going to light up the points but he is solid.
3. Rap and Falzon need work. Hopefully, Rap/Falzon will eventually be able to give us a combined 15-20 minutes per game. Everyone thinks just because they are 4 stars that they should start but from what I have seen, Skelly is far ahead of what Falzon or Rap can give. In the scrimmage, Rap looked pretty slow but did have a more versatile game than Falzon so I'll guess that Rap will get the bulk of the minutes.
4. Brown looks too hesitant at times. He had some open looks that he passed on and he shouldn't have. If he can't take the open looks then why have him out there? He has to learn that shooting is what he does and have confidence.
At the end of the day, this was a team win against a team that was hell bent on upset and shot lights out. The fact that we won, imo, was impressive. Collins coaching towards the end, especially the last inbounds was phenomenal.
We are fine and it's going to be a fun year although AllState sucks balls.
It may be that it is only possible for us to see another 1 seed in the Final Four. But, yes, otherwise, I agree.
Want to preface this by saying it's one game and there were a # of times when the 'Cats didn't look that great last season (against lesser competition), but managed to eek out a win.
However, there is a pretty major concern which not only dates back to last season, but for several seasons.
The 'Cats have not been a good team when it comes to O efficiency (last season was towards the bottom), but made up for it with tough D.
But the D isn't going to be as good w/o Lumpkin (btw, Sanjay was the most efficient player on O last season), so the 'Cats will need to improve upon O efficiency.
BMac and Law are streaky shooters (most consistent shooter has been Lindsey) and the 'Cats no longer have Tap with his .470 shooting % from the arc.
The 'Cats are going to need Falzon (not expecting him to shoot .470 from 3; would be happy with somwhere close to .400) and need him to stay healthy.
What this team is missing right now is another consistent/reliable shooter.
However, there is a pretty major concern which not only dates back to last season, but for several seasons.
The 'Cats have not been a good team when it comes to O efficiency (last season was towards the bottom), but made up for it with tough D.
But the D isn't going to be as good w/o Lumpkin (btw, Sanjay was the most efficient player on O last season), so the 'Cats will need to improve upon O efficiency.
BMac and Law are streaky shooters (most consistent shooter has been Lindsey) and the 'Cats no longer have Tap with his .470 shooting % from the arc.
The 'Cats are going to need Falzon (not expecting him to shoot .470 from 3; would be happy with somwhere close to .400) and need him to stay healthy.
What this team is missing right now is another consistent/reliable shooter.
In a perfect world, I agree they need a reliable shooter. However, I think you also need to ask yourself who the reliable shooter was last year. We're not really going to call Taphorn a consistent go-to shooter with less than one 3-pt basket every conference game, are we?
I think this team could do very well with just tad better shooting from Lindsey and Law. Hopefully, someone else emerges. It won't take much.
I think this team could do very well with just tad better shooting from Lindsey and Law. Hopefully, someone else emerges. It won't take much.
In all the excitement of last season's ultimate success, I don't think most fans realized how poor we were shooting the ball. We were 204th in the country in 3-point percentage and 206th in effective FG percentage.
Last season, we won with great defense, great ball control (few turnovers), very good free throw shooting and good team rebounding.
If we are going to take the next step with the same guys, those guys are simply going to have to take better shots and shoot a higher percentage. We cannot expect better results (or even the same results) as last season unless we improve our shooting considerably.
A tad better shooting from Lindsey and Law make may make up for what Tap brought last season, but wouldn't make up for that and greater efficiency on O needed to make up for the loss of Lumpkin on D.
As for Tap, yeah, there were games when CC went more with D than extra O (esp. if the Big 3 were shooting well), but there were times when Tap's shooting came in handy (like when 1-2 of the Big 3 were having an off night shooting).
Even tho it ended up as a loss, Tap had 12 pts against the Domers (4 of 5 from downtown) and 11 in the win against Dayton (3 of 4 from the arc).
Tap also hit big 3's in the tight wins against Wisky, Rutgers and Michigan.
And that near comeback against Gonzaga wouldn't have been as close if Tap hadn't hit those 2 shots down the stretch.
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