Say what you will about PSU…

[NJcatsfan_rivals139741]

…we steadfastly refuse to beat them in basketball. That game was virtually a carbon copy of the gut wrenching senior night loss. Eerily so. If you’d told me they’d shoot 41% and 35%, I’d say that’s gotta be a win for NU. But we were much worse at 32% and 25%. Excruciating. If we shoot poorly, as opposed to disastrously, we win somewhat comfortably. And yet…

The difference in both losses was this: With everything on the line, PSU always, always, always buried their shots. Just brutal daggers from 3, every single time.

Hope the Cats can build off of this & got their putrid postseason shooting performance out of the way…

 

[NU Houston]

…we steadfastly refuse to beat them in basketball. That game was virtually a carbon copy of the gut wrenching senior night loss. Eerily so. If you’d told me they’d shoot 41% and 35%, I’d say that’s gotta be a win for NU. But we were much worse at 32% and 25%. Excruciating. If we shoot poorly, as opposed to disastrously, we win somewhat comfortably. And yet…

The difference in both losses was this: With everything on the line, PSU always, always, always buried their shots. Just brutal daggers from 3, every single time.

Hope the Cats can build off of this & got their putrid postseason shooting performance out of the way…

Lundy hit clutch shots when it mattered. If he misses that shot towards the end of regulation or the 3 in OT, the Cats are shooting FTs for the win. Just couldn't put them away in either game. Frankly, that's the sign of a solid, experienced team (Penn State).

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Lundy hit clutch shots when it mattered. If he misses that shot towards the end of regulation or the 3 in OT, the Cats are shooting FTs for the win. Just couldn't put them away in either game. Frankly, that's the sign of a solid, experienced team (Penn State).

That Lundy 3 with a hand in his face was an absolute stone cold killer

 

[SDakaGordie]

This game was mostly reminiscent of the way it’s been for the last 3 years or so. We shoot poorly, virtually always. We (most of the time) keep the game close by playing good defense. We lose in the end because the other team has the guy who makes the big shot.

We won more games overall this year because we were quite a bit better on defense, we got some better spread of offensive production (Barnhizer recently), and on average, other BIG teams were not as strong offensively as in prior years.

 

[GECat2]

Give them credit. If they were a decent free throw shooting team it would have been over in regulation.

 

[wildcatpn]

Give them credit. If they were a decent free throw shooting team it would have been over in regulation.

And if we were just an average shooting team it would’ve been over long before the end of regulation.

 

[HawkCat]

And if we were just an average shooting team it would’ve been over long before the end of regulation.

This is true. Our defense is elite. Our effort is top-notch. Our our shooting is bottom-of-the-barrel. We get good shots. We miss them. Frustrating.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

This is true. Our defense is elite. Our effort is top-notch. Our our shooting is bottom-of-the-barrel. We get good shots. We miss them. Frustrating.

NU would have been up literally almost 20 at halftime if they simply made their dunks and layups!

 

[NJcatsfan_rivals139741]

NU would have been up literally almost 20 at halftime if they simply made their dunks and layups!

The blizzard of missed point blank shots/layups/dunks at the beginning of the game was very costly.

 

[NU Houston]

NU would have been up literally almost 20 at halftime if they simply made their dunks and layups!

And 3-pointers. Berry was throwing up brick after brick, and Boo air balled three of them. Yikes.

Here's hoping they get back on track in the NCAA tourney and make a nice run.

 

[Titanium999]

…we steadfastly refuse to beat them in basketball. That game was virtually a carbon copy of the gut wrenching senior night loss. Eerily so. If you’d told me they’d shoot 41% and 35%, I’d say that’s gotta be a win for NU. But we were much worse at 32% and 25%. Excruciating. If we shoot poorly, as opposed to disastrously, we win somewhat comfortably. And yet…

The difference in both losses was this: With everything on the line, PSU always, always, always buried their shots. Just brutal daggers from 3, every single time.

Hope the Cats can build off of this & got their putrid postseason shooting performance out of the way…

We missed our threes down the stretch

 

[olsh]

This is true. Our defense is elite. Our effort is top-notch. Our our shooting is bottom-of-the-barrel. We get good shots. We miss them. Frustrating.

This is, sadly, very true. We're not really much better offensively than we feared coming into the season when 13th place was the prediction. It's truly ALL on the defense.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Our big guys (Nicholson, Beran, Verhoeven and Martinelli) were a combined 7 of 12 from the floor.
The small guys (Buie, Audige, Berry) were 10 for 41.
Thats why we lost.

It was a combination of selfish, ineffective play by the guards and a bad offensive game plan by the coaches.

 

[Figrating]

I would give it an 8 on a scale of ten for Greek-Tragic NU losses. The first PSU loss was a 9.

As others have noted, PSU shoots 3's better than anybody. Too many times they were held to the deep perimeter of the court, ran out of time, had to shoot a desperation 3 and a lot of them swished. That's another level of talent that PSU has.

But who could imagine, after all the great basketball they've played, that this NU team would shoot so badly in the biggest game of the season? Even Nicholson missed his first slam, an omen of the relentless self-destruction to come.

The team seems to get into these ruts when they don't play well and have a hell of a time crawling out of them: first half of the first duh-OSU game, second half of the second IU game, second half of the second Ill game and the first half of the game yesterday.

Well, they're streaky. They CAN win, they CAN play great, but they can also get into a rut and lose.

Good news is there's still another chance to play great in NU's second NCAA tournament appearance ever. They CAN win. They CAN play great. We've seen it.

GO CATS!

 

[clarificationcat]

That’s easier said than done since none of the big guys can create for themselves. At all. I mean at all. I don’t count Martinelli as a big. It’s not like we can toss it down to any of them and let them go to work.

And they should shoot well. The guards got them layups and dunks and they still missed some of them.

I didn’t think the vast majority of Berry’s and Audige’s shots were bad shots. They just need to shoot 8 for 24 instead of 4 for 24 and we win the game. Not a lot to ask.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

That’s easier said than done since none of the big guys can create for themselves. At all. I mean at all. I don’t count Martinelli as a big. It’s not like we can toss it down to any of them and let them go to work.

And they should shoot well. The guards got them layups and dunks and they still missed some of them.

I didn’t think the vast majority of Berry’s and Audige’s shots were bad shots. They just need to shoot 8 for 24 instead of 4 for 24 and we win the game. Not a lot to ask.

I'm guessing you would acknowledge that Martinelli can create for himself? Not the "go-to" but it seems like he is very capable of creating - and he's 6'8" and plays mostly inside.

The lob to Nicholson was there the entire game. Michael Henn was standing 5-10 feet away from him. There was literally nothing he could do. But we never just tossed it up by the basket. Even if we only make 50% of those, which would be quite poor, we are still much better than jacking up 3's when nobody is making them.

And Verhoeven can score down there too when nobody is going to block his shot.

 

[ThatadultfromHolland]

I'm guessing you would acknowledge that Martinelli can create for himself? Not the "go-to" but it seems like he is very capable of creating - and he's 6'8" and plays mostly inside.

The lob to Nicholson was there the entire game. Michael Henn was standing 5-10 feet away from him. There was literally nothing he could do. But we never just tossed it up by the basket. Even if we only make 50% of those, which would be quite poor, we are still much better than jacking up 3's when nobody is making them.

And Verhoeven can score down there too when nobody is going to block his shot.

Call the dunk play!!!

 

[clarificationcat]

Call the dunk play!!!

That’s a good point. We should shoot more uncontested layups and dunks. That would increase our shooting percentage. I stand corrected. In the tourney, let’s set a goal of shooting no less than 20 uncontested dunks and layups.

 

[Sec_112]

Call the dunk play!!!

I'd love to say Nicholson has plenty of opportunities to establish himself and too often blows those easy chances. So why would you go back to him?

But God knows you can say the thing about Berry and Audige's maddening turn-around fade-away from the free throw line. So why not Nicholson?

For my taste, Barnhizer is the guy who didn't touch the ball enough down the stretch.

After 32 games, the simple fact on offense is this team is Boo and a roll of the dice. We're not three games into this season anymore, and you're foolish if you think all of these guys haven't had an opportunity to firmly establish themselves as a consistent second option.

 

[hdhntr1]

Give them credit. If they were a decent free throw shooting team it would have been over in regulation.

Reality is they are a team that for the most part attempted less that FTs per game and against us all of a sudden they are shooting 20. Early in second half they hit something like 7 in a row. Similar in the first game fouls called on 3 pt shots kept them in the game

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Call the dunk play!!!

I know you are trying to be funny, but with Njie sitting on the bench with 4 fouls, we had to go inside. Audige was being left with enough room to launch 3's. All he had to do was lob it. He refused.

 

[clarificationcat]

I'd love to say Nicholson has plenty of opportunities to establish himself and too often blows those easy chances. So why would you go back to him?

But God knows you can say the thing about Berry and Audige's maddening turn-around fade-away from the free throw line. So why not Nicholson?

For my taste, Barnhizer is the guy who didn't touch the ball enough down the stretch.

After 32 games, the simple fact on offense is this team is Boo and a roll of the dice. We're not three games into this season anymore, and you're foolish if you think all of these guys haven't had an opportunity to firmly establish themselves as a consistent second option.

We isolated Barnhizer on the 3rd to last possession, I believe, and he missed a shot. We then went to Buie on the 2nd to last possession and he got Beran the layup. We went to Buie on the last possession and he missed his shot. I think every team tries to put the ball in their best player’s hands at the end of the game. And Barnhizer was 4 for 13 so he wasn’t the hot hand.

 

[RhabdoWildcat]

We isolated Barnhizer on the 3rd to last possession, I believe, and he missed a shot. We then went to Buie on the 2nd to last possession and he got Beran the layup. We went to Buie on the last possession and he missed his shot. I think every team tries to put the ball in their best player’s hands at the end of the game. And Barnhizer was 4 for 13 so he wasn’t the hot hand.

Agreed.

I’m ok living with Buie and I’m okay dying at his hands too. We don’t have better options.

Audige is a complete liability now offensively. Not sure if he’s expending himself too much defensively but it’s horrendous.

 

[clarificationcat]

Agreed.

I’m ok living with Buie and I’m okay dying at his hands too. We don’t have better options.

Audige is a complete liability now offensively. Not sure if he’s expending himself too much defensively but it’s horrendous.

And our shooting guard can’t go 1 for 10.

 

[Sec_112]

... And Barnhizer was 4 for 13 so he wasn’t the hot hand.

Trust me that I'm not screaming up and down to get Barnhizer the ball. I had to squint and that's the best alternative to Buie I could come up with.

There were PLENTY of less-than-stellar performances that led to that outcome. There have been for a couple weeks now unfortunately.

 

[clarificationcat]

Trust me that I'm not screaming up and down to get Barnhizer the ball. I had to squint and that's the best alternative to Buie I could come up with.

There were PLENTY of less-than-stellar performances that led to that outcome. There have been for a couple weeks now unfortunately.

Understood. That was not vintage Buie last night at all but I think he's probably going to get the ball every time in that situation. Unfortunately, he not a physical freak so he's not going to be able to create a good shot for himself every time.

But if Berry and Audige just shoot poorly, we are probably not needing to worry about a last possession.