Northwestern shows signs of life in valiant effort against Ohio State

Posted by Philip Rossman-Reich on Thursday, February 28, 2013 · 22 Comments

Expectations for Northwestern are pretty low right now. After three straight lifeless 20-point blowouts, there is not a ton of confidence that Northwestern can do much to provide hope for the final few games of the season. At some point, the team had to show some life and some pride. A reason to feel good.

It may have been another loss — a heartbreaking one — but not all is lost this season after all the injuries and the trials this team has gone through. Northwestern showed signs of life. The team showed some grit and toughness. There was desire and confidence. Things that have been lacking the last three or four games. The next three games may not be completely painful to watch.

Not if the Wildcats play with the confidence and spunk they played with in a 63-53 loss to the Buckeyes at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Thursday.

	Score	Off. Rtg.	eFG%	O.Reb.%	TO%	FTR
Ohio State	63	112.3	51.0	26.5	9.2	46.9
Northwestern	53	82.9	44.9	12.1	22.1	18.4

Above are statistics known as the Four Factors and are regarded as indicative contributors to wins and losses. Please see the end of this post for an explanation.

Unlike previous games, Northwestern did not let an early barrage of 3-pointers take the team out of the game. It executed its offense with patience and precision for most of the night. The team adjusted its defense and controlled the pace of play. The Wildcats did exactly what they need to do to win games. It still was ultimately not enough.

Ohio State was poised down the stretch, not letting NU’s newfound confidence ruin the opportunity for the win. It was the Buckeyes shooting into passing lanes and harassing Wildcats ballhandlers down the stretch. It was Aaron Craft splitting the top of NU’s 2-3 zone and draining a free-throw line jumper to give Ohio State a four-point lead late. It was asking a lot for Northwestern to continue to execute and get stops. Not with the possessions mattering so much more and the need to play with some urgency.

In all, the Wildcats’ 15 turnovers, 13 coming from four players, were a lot to overcome against the Buckeyes. Ohio State was able at times to get the kind of open shots it wants beyond the arc and were able to score against NU’s transition defense. Lenzelle Smith, Jr. scored 24 points on 6-for-11 shooting from beyond the arc. Deshaun Thomas added 21. They were able to pace the Buckeyes throughout the game.

However, Northwestern settled the game down and played it at its pace for most of the contest. That meant Ohio State was setting up its half court offense against Northwestern’s 2-3 zone for most of the game. The Buckeyes took plenty of outside shots — 8 of 22 from beyond the arc — but they could not hit 3-pointers at a consistent enough rate to make the Cats pay. Certainly not enough to get them out of the 2-3 zone after torching the 1-3-1 early on.

The difference tonight from some of those other games was on offense. The Wildcats were able to work through their offense and generally get good shots. They made 41.9 percent of their shots, which is pretty good considering where Northwestern’s offense has been lately. There was the sense that eventually NU’s patience would get the team a good basket.

And when the Cats did that enough, there was confidence that the ball would fall on some crazy shots — like Kale Abrahamson’s miracle fling that gave NU its first lead of the game midway through the second half.

Tre Demps scored 14 points to lead Northwestern. Dave Sobolewski added 13 points and Kale Abrahamson and Alex Olah each added nine points. Everyone had their moments for sure.

The problem came down to execution when the pressure was on. And as much confidence as you could have in Northwestern working patiently through its offense midway through the second half, that confidence seemed to disappear as time ran down. Northwestern committed turnovers on three consecutive possessions with less than three minutes to go in the game and the pressure was only increasing with each missed opportunity.

Northwestern had the opportunity for sure. But in the end, it was Ohio State taking the game. Much like the team did in Columbus two weeks ago.

It was great to see the Wildcats put together such an encouraging effort after the last three games. Hopefully it continues to roll over into the next game.

Offensive Rating measures points scored per 100 possessions.
Effective field goal percentage measures field goal percentage taking into account the added value of a 3-point shot.
Offensive rebound percentage measures the percentage of offensive rebounds over total rebounds.
Turnover percentage estimates what percentage of a team’s possessions end in a turnover.
Free throw rate measures the rate of free throw attempts over field goal attempts.

Category: Hoops, Ohio State · Tags: Ohio State Buckeyes

Chasmo

Can anyone ever remember a Northwestern team making clutch plays down the stretch to knock off a highly ranked team in the Bill Carmody? Perhaps the win at MSU qualifies but that was so long ago it was hard to remember it final minutes. When NU knocks off top teams under Carmody, it gets a big lead and hangs on. It’s extremely rare — even during the Shurna-Crawford-Thompson era — for an NU to play with composure and make big plays down the stretch against top rated team or in big games.
Ohio State is obviously better than NU but the fact remains that OSU might have been beaten if NU had hit shots and had no turnovers in the final four minutes.
Isn’t it sad to see how far Marcotullio’s play has declined over the last two years? He was a pretty good player his first two years and gave every indication he would be a reliable scorer as an upperclassman but he regressed last year and now he’s almost worthless as a scorer.
At least Olah and Abrahamson gave us a glimmer of hope vs. OSU that they someday might be adequate Big Ten role players.
Let’s hope for the best vs. Penn State.
- Noah
  
  Agreed on Marcotullio–I feel bad as it must be killing him (since it’s injury related)
  
  Olah finally got some confidence to play as the biggest man on the court. His inside game needs work, he needs to be more agressive, more reliable, and not go down for the dribble when he can go straight up to the basket. But last night was probably the best we’ve seen him in awhile, and maybe a sign of things to come if Carmody knows how to coach a big man.
  
  Abrahamson made some bad turnovers, but also some clutch shots. He shows promise as a freshman, but we need him to really step up and play beyond his year.
- http://www.facebook.com/prossmanreich Philip Rossman-Reich
  
  I think that is the biggest criticism you can have of Carmody (outside of recruiting). It always seemed to me that the team holds to the system to a fault that there is no room to improvise.
  
  The Princeton Offense undoubtedly keeps Northwestern in games against more talented teams. But the players don’t have the confidence, or maybe even the ability, to create for themselves. The Princeton Offense when it is run at a high level is supposed to allow for both running through the set and some improvisation.
  
  I honestly don’t know what the solution is. I fear the “grass isn’t greener” argument because I don’t think some of the teams we have had the last few years would have gotten as far without Carmody’s Princeton. But at the same time, I do feel it holds the team back sometimes.
- ctya
  
  No, but really . . . can anybody remember one besides the Coble MSU game?
H George

I agree with the comments written by Chasmo below, but have to add that this all points to the fact that NU baskeball is a bad product. Carmody and his high school offense (a.k.a. Princeton Offense) has gotten this team nowhere in the past 13 years. Not one single trip to the NCAA tournament, and never made it past the second round of the NIT.
I watched the second half of the game on TV and heard louder cheers from the OSU fans than I did the NU fans. It sounded like a repeat of the Feb 17th game against Illinois, where there was about 60% Illini fans in the crowd. Cats fans know that Carmody’s team is just an exercise in futility and are staying away this year.
I hope that NU cuts its losses and all those “glass half full” do-gooders who keep running to Carmody’s defense wake up and smell the coffee!
- http://twitter.com/Joe_TOC Joe Lucia
  
  Two years ago, they got to the quarterfinals and lost in OT to Washington State in one of the more heartbreaking games I can remember. Marco getting two solid looks from behind the arc and just missing both…painful.
BT

We can sit here and continue to write about NU’s good effort and near victory for the umpteenth time or point out that this result is a product of this terrible system…once again for some of us. There is no injury excuse. Or experience excuse. It is simply a flawed system which is continuously given a pass because of low expectations and the fact that Carmody is a nice guy. The Princeton offense slows the game down as does the zone defense. Therefore, we are able to keep some of our more talented opponents close for parts or most of a game. However, think about how many times these close games end on 12-2 or 15-4 scoring runs. The reason is pretty simple. Passing and cutting for 34 seconds against defenses that are locked in during crunch time is only leading to a contested, fade-away 3-pointer. That well runs dry and more athletic teams are off and running with those long rebounds.

This is not a new thing. This year has been worse than most recent examples because of some injures, but the problem has been around for too long. In the best years (by NU bball standards), we were just lucky enough to have a John Shurna or Juice Thompson to catch fire a few times and make some of those miraculous shots. Still it is just inefficient enough to do zero for our postseason record. It is time to move on. Carmody has had more time than any professional or collegiate coach/general manager would have been allotted to turn things around. Even Cowboys GM Jerry Jones laughs at the many lives that Carmody has had at NU…at least Jerry owns his team so there is a reason he is still in power. NU’s athletic brand has been on quite an upswing. It is time to capitalize on that with a new coach, new system, and hopefully tapping into quality Chicago-area recruiting as a result.
- theranchlives!
  
  I get so tired of hearing about tapping into Chicago recruits. Why would a serious Chicago area basketball recruit consider NU given the wonderful PR the program receives and it’s legacy of futility? Remember the cliche, “familiarity breeds contempt”? I love local guys like Sobo but is his game and other local guys with games like his -enough to get NU basketball on a path to respectability? Oh…right, the education. Well guess what? A top 50 recruit probably values a positive, winning 4 year career a lot more than getting a diploma from the “Harvard of the Midwest”. Here’s a crazy, out of the box idea for Jim Phillips. Go get an experienced Euro coach who can attract a slew of skilled, tough Euro players because there are not enough Shurna’s, Thompson’s, Sobo’s etc, in and around the Chicago area with the academic credentials to turn the tide in a short period of time.
  - BT
    
    I think your view of what people are referencing with “Chicago talent” is a little off. Sobo is a mid-major recruit at best, yet that is the top end talent this pitiful system will draw in. The kid tries hard, but he would struggle to start for most tourney-bound MVC teams. Just look at the schools recruiting him out of high school. No, you do not just recruit a top player like Jabari Parker overnight with NU’s track record. No basketball player that has even the faintest NBA dreams would consider the current NU program. The Euro solution is a mess, too. Have you seen the battles yearly with the NCAA about getting most talented Euro players eligible? NU has done the Euro player path for years with terrible returns. How about a young coach from a respectable program that can play an up tempo and entertaining brand of basketball? Chris Collins has been mentioned because of his local ties. It is not going to be a quick process which is even more reason why 13 years with Carmody has been too much. A couple years ago with Thompson, Shurna, and Crawford you had three athletic/skilled guys that easily could have translated to a better system. Unfortunately, we have now regressed talent-wise so the process will take longer. Take notes from the football program. Recruit hotbeds (TX, OH, FL for football) where you can find some under the radar talent. It will then compound and you have a nice pipeline. NU football plays an exciting brand of football. They did not have a history of success, but built one. Some recruits like the challenge of building something. It takes a coach they believe in and an intriguing style of play though.
- bd005
  
  Uhm, how many Chicago Public League recruits have the academics to get into NU and of the ones that do, they have better options (other academic schools that actually spend $$ on the BB program)?
  
  For that matter, how many CPL recruits has FItz and the FB program gotten?
  
  And discounting the injury situation is simply ASININE.
  
  Look at McKeown who has an easier time w/ recruiting (more BB recruits who can pass NU admissions and WBB having a history of NCAA Tournament appearances) – still no NCAA bid due to injuries and transfers.
  
  Heck, look at what an injury to ONE player, Persa, did to the FB program a couple of years ago.
  
  If Colter/Sieman, Mark, Campbell, Scott, etc had been injured, we would be looking at a .500 record at best in FB and that’s in a B1G that has been much weaker in CFB than in CBB.
  
  Try to THINK when you post.
kinsella316

Ohio State gets a win by actually focusing for about the last six minutes. I’m tired of “close, but at least they tried hard.” Thirteen years is too damn long to have moral victories.
- Noah
  
  definitelygot the sense that OSU was doing bare minimum to lead for most of the game, and as usual, as we got tired, they turned it up down the stretch
Mark

Again, I think this is one of those games between a clearly superior team, OSU, and a team clearly not as good, NU. The clearly superior team does what it needs to do so that its lead is not surmountable in the last 2 or so minutes. While I think the injuries are very relevant to what the top end for this Cats’ team could have been, I think the history of this coaching regime is clear. By that I mean Carmody came into a horrible situation and vastly improved the product but after 13 years has not shown he can – in the most talent rich portion of the country – build a first division team even occasionally. No guarantee that moving on to a different coach will mean improvement if the wrong person is hired – and very few AD/search committees believe they’re hiring the wrong person. But I think the current AD has shown some ability to make good decisions and the administration is supportive. I think this whole comparative score thing is an inaccurate way to judge whether the Cats are good or bad in individual games. Only the final result counts.
TheTruthComesOut

For the second straight game, I feel I have to just post something positive about this team because the rest of you just complain, but offer no solutions to any of our problems except “let’s find a new coach.”

Look at who we just started against an Ohio State team loaded with 4 and 5-star [bigger and more athletic] recruits…

Reggie Hearn 6’4″ – SENIOR – Former walk-on, plays his heart out and has turned into arguably our best player

Alex Marcotullio 6’1″ – SENIOR – Probably should be playing in Division II but plays hard to try and make up for talent deficiency. Yes, his turnovers are maddening, but still gives us life. Oh, by the way, he would barely see the floor if our injury situation wasn’t so dire.

Kale Abrahamson 6’6″ – FRESHMAN – Terrific open shooter, but can’t do a whole lot else. Luckily his defensive deficiencies were masked because we played a zone the whole night. Bright future if we can develop him into a Shurna-esque type player. Probably will not turn into the type of all-around offensive player Shurna turned into though.

Dave Sobolewski 5’10″ – SOPHOMORE – We get a lot out of this kid considering he wouldn’t even play in any system that required constant ball screens. His output is generated only because of the Princeton Offense. Although he’s in a funk right now it looks like he’s trying to become a good leader on the floor.

Alex Olah 7’0″ – FRESHMAN – This kid has a long way to go to getting out of the Mirkovic shadow, but has shown that he can dunk and has some terrific post moves. I know for a fact he works on that mid-range and 3pt shot and it’s something he wants to showcase heading into next season. All of you who complain that we don’t get the ball in the post should note that our wings looked into the post at least 30-40 times last night and most of the time the longer, more athletic Amir Williams was high-siding him so we couldn’t throw it down. Hopefully you all noticed when Thomas was put on him we threw it down and had some nice output. OUR GUYS DO LOOK INTO THE POST. Hell, we have a play called LOW POST PLAY…I hear Carmody call it out all the time!!! He, Chier, and Turner will all get better at establishing post position in the future.

BENCH PLAYERS
Tre Demps 6’2″ – REDSHIRT FRESHMAN – One of our best players in terms of shooting and creating for himself. Will most likely start every game his last two years at NU.

Mike Turner 6’9″ – REDSHIRT FRESHMAN – Let’s be honest, we’ve gotten a lot more out of Turner than we ever thought this season. Is he a rock solid backup center in our league? Maybe not, but you have to look at this kid and appreciate what he’s given us considering he probably wouldn’t be playing at all had Cerina, Chier, or maybe even Lieberman been healthy this season. He still has a ways to go, but if he is able develop at the rate he has been he could be a very good player for us in 12-24 months.

Nikola Cerina 6’7″ – REDSHIRT JUNIOR – Missed half the season with a nagging (and I guess really bad) ankle injury. Since he’s semi-returned, he’s given us decent minutes the few times he’s been in. Not exactly sure why we haven’t seen more of him unless his ankle is still really bugging him, but he’s not the solution to our problems. He’ll finish out his career at NU as a role player, coming off the bench for spot minutes.

James Montgomery III 6’3″ – JUNIOR WALK-ON – This kid has averaged like 12 minutes each of the last 3 games. You can’t ask a whole lot out of a walk-on, but he can defend man-to-man with some of the league’s best and he’ more athletic than people give him credit for. I hear he’s not a great offensive player and that’s probably why Carmody hasn’t played him more, but I like the effort I see out of this kid every time he touches the floor.

Now…we had a lead at 41-40 with Kale hitting that ridiculous off-balance shot and then went on to lose by 10 again to a much, much more talented Ohio State team that plays the same amount of players we do. Comparison/Evaluation time here.

Aaron Craft vs Dave Sobolewski – One of the top 2 defenders in the league and a kid that just torched Michigan State on ball screens against our mid-major point guard who benefits from our system? I’m taking Craft…and he wouldn’t have come to NU no matter how hard we recruited him.

Lenzelle Smith, Jr. vs Alex Marcotullio – Kid scored 25 points last night…enough said. We did recruit him, but when Ohio State came calling with their NBA arena/facilities we weren’t getting him either.

Sam Thompson vs Reggie Hearn – Reggie plays harder than the disgustingly athletic Thompson and is probably a slightly better overall player RIGHT NOW, but in the long run I think I’m still taking Thompson. Not sure how involved we were with the kid in high school, but we weren’t getting him.

DeShaun Thomas vs Kale Abrahamson – Oh boy, I’m not even getting into this one either. Thomas was a high 4* or 5* recruit…Weren’t getting him either (noticing a pattern yet?)

Amir Williams vs Alex Olah – Surprisingly this is a tough one if only for the fact that Olah is more skilled right now in the low post than Williams. For everything else I’m taking Williams, who was another prized recruit. He can turn into something special if they develop him on the block. We need to go the other route and develop Olah more on the perimeter while also feeding him some low post touches as well. And YES OUR PLAYERS DO LOOK FOR HIM…HE’S JUST NOT GOOD AT GETTING OPEN RIGHT NOW!

Shannon Scott vs Tre Demps – Scott is much better defensively and Demps is a better offensive player right now so I’ll make this one a wash. Scott probably has more upside potential in the long run though since he’s more athletic. We recruited Scott with the other Georgia Peaches and wish we had him, but as soon as Ohio State entered the picture he committed right away!

LaQuinton Ross/Trey MacDonald vs Nikola Cerina/James Montgomery – No need to say anything here either…

Evan Ravenel vs Mike Turner – Another surprise in that I would take Ravenel over Turner more for his size and ability to rebound. Turner is a better shooter though and is almost as athletic. Ravenel is a dumb-and-dunk type player and doesn’t play a whole lot. Turner could turn into a better player though in the long run. I’ll call this one a wash.

So as you can see above…there should have been ZERO reason for us to be hanging around with these guys let alone having a lead with 8-9 minutes to go. We started 2 true freshmen (Olah, Kale), a sophomore (Sobo), and 2 seniors (former walk-on Hearn and DII hustle guy Marcotullio). Our bench players were 2 RS Freshmen (Turner, Demps), a RS Junior who has yet to play healthy in his career at NU (Cerina), and a true Junior WALK-ON (Montgomery).

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE COMPLAINING ABOUT? Looks to me like our coach and his [slow-down] offense kept us in this game!!!! Wow, just ask yourself…Why am I such an idiot as to think that our problems this season or the past 4 seasons begin and end with our head coach? And don’t say any bullshit about 13 seasons either, because it’s the more current ones that matter. Had we gone to 4 straight NIT’s his first four years and then tailed off then I could see your point, but you all want to fire the guy that’s leading this program in the right direction????? Unbelievable!
- ctya
  
  Uhhh, nope.
- ctya
  
  I’m complaining about 69-146, 0/13 winning Big Ten seasons, and 0/13 NCAA tournament appearances. It’s pretty simple.
- BT
  
  Why am I such an idiot to think a coach that had one winning season in his first 8 years should be fired? Why am I such an idiot to think a coach that has never finished .500+ in the Big Ten should be fired? The only reason the overall record has not been just as poor over the last few years is the fast start thanks to a cupcake schedule…one of the worst non-conference SOS in the country (non conference SOS last 4 years 229, 274, 287,214). Glad we slipped by Texas St this year…too bad we couldn’t do the same with UIC when there were zero injury excuses!
  
  TheTruthComesOut – you may be the idiot here for feeding the complacency which NU athletics has been trying overcome. It took 9 years for a postseason appearance of any kind. A couple one and dones in the NIT, one run deep in the NIT, and now we are regressing which you yourself said should be a fireable offense. The Princeton offense is designed to be run by inferior talent against better teams. It may be successful when teams are not use to seeing it (Princeton v UCLA in NCAA tourney), but is not a system that consistently produces. Why build a program on that logic? Even Carmody’s record at Princeton is proof…after 2 tourney years to start, his record dropped each year in the IVY league! A declining record in 4 years sounds like he was piggy backing on Pete Carril’s record and players those first couple years.
  - TheTruthComesOut
    
    I mean there’s really not much to say against your point, because you obviously have just one view of everything. “Let’s blame the Coach for not getting it done!” I have to stick up for this guy, because people like you want to fire a guy that has improved this program dramatically over the last four years by NU standards and yet you’d rather sacrifice next years solid roster to try and go get a new coach who may or may not be better than what we have. I know your counter here…”well it can’t get a whole lot worse.” Oh how wrong you are, 0-18 my friend. Even if we end up with only 4 or 5 B10 wins this season, injuries decimated this season. Yes we lost to UIC with a healthy roster, minus Cobb don’t forget. This will be the first time in like 4 or 5 years that we’ll have lost to a non-conference team not in the RPI top 100! How can you complain about that? We used to lose to Mississippi Valley State types all the time!
    
    Carmody has the best winning % among all NU coaches the past 50 years (or something like that)! With the exception of this season, we’ve been much more successful, reaching 17+ wins in 4 seasons. You can say it was an easy non-conf schedule all you want, but did we ever reach that many wins prior to the last four years?! NO!
    
    I understand everyone’s frustration, I really do. But you’re all blaming the wrong person/entity…blame NU! Everyone complains that we don’t have good enough players and that Carmody can’t recruit. Well I’ll admit that while he definitely isn’t the best recruiter he gets decent guys who can play in our system and WHO ARE WILLING TO COME TO NORTHWESTERN and ARE ABLE TO GET IN!
    
    - Kohl Center, Mackey, both Assembly Halls, Carver-Hawkeye, Bryce Jordan, Schottenstein, Breslin, Crisler, Nebraska’s TWO ARENAS!, and finally the only place that can remotely compare to ours…the Barn (Although at least the Barn has a brand new scoreboard and suites). I’m not even going to ask you how you expect us to compete with the schools that have these gorgeous arenas and grand practice facilities when we have neither, because there is no argument to be had. Until new basketball facilities are at least talked about we will not be able to get the most elite talent. Supposedly we can’t even get a new scoreboard because of a warranty issue with a USED board we were supposed to get (saw this tidbit on another message board).
    
    - Our admission standards are high and I’m not saying we need to change that, although it would definitely help. The only thing here is that we can’t get anyone we want into school. You think Michigan (which is a good school), Illinois, or Ohio State has to deal with this issue? NO!
    
    - How about the fact that our Conference schedule is basically 9 Home games and 9 Neutral games, but with our N-cat on the court? This season has been worse than normal it seems, but every year our stadium is more than half full of Orange, red, green, and every other color but ours. When our staff has recruits come to these games and they hear Iowa fans drowning out the 100 students we have at the game, what kind of impression does that leave? Not to mention the fact that they’re sitting on bleachers for 2 hours, just like at their high school. No fan support at this school among students or alumni for that matter.
    
    Take your 69-146, 0/13 and 0/13 and put it somewhere else…And stop using the “let’s just keep up with mediocrity” argument. We are no longer mediocre and we’re getting better. For years everyone was pretty patient with the program and now that we’ve made four NIT’s in a row it seems to give everyone the right to demand much, much more from a program that simply can’t compete for kids like any other program in our league. You’ve been patient for like 100 years, what’s another couple? Instead, let’s fire our coach, get a couple kids to transfer (I guarantee Sina isn’t coming and who knows on Nate if he’s fired), and move backward. I know I want to be the one that says “I told you so” if this is the case. And if a new coach comes in next season and leads us to the tourney then I’ll only slightly eat my words, because he’ll do it with Carmody’s guys!
PurpleHayes

This feels like we’re having the same argument over and over again. The last time I found myself in this dilemma, I was still with my first wife! To illustrate my point, look at how little of the content of these comments is about last night’s game–even those who started there branch out to make the same old points. (Noah, kudos for being a notable exception.) As for me, I’ve already spoken my piece about Coach Carmoday, so I’ll try to stick with the OSU game. I thought we started out lacking energy yet again for some reason, only this time–maybe because OSU couldn’t put us away early like others had–we seemed to find our mojo and then really competed. Yes we hit the wall and I was as frustrated as anyone in the building wondering why (again). One thing was painfully clear last night–Reggie Hearn is no longer some walk-on who can sneak up and lay 20 on an opponent. OSU targeted him, and although Reggie played hard and squeaked out 8 points, he was blanketed most of the time and I think our slow starts (including last night) reflect the attention Hearn is getting. OK thanks for that interlude about the OSU game; we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming….
Bucko

Like him or hate him, you have to admit that Bill Carmody took NU basketball from Point C to Point B. But as Jerry Reinsdorf said in replacing Doug Collins with Phil Jackson as coach of the Bulls, “We need someone who can take us from Point B to Point A”.
Maybe there is no coach alive who can take NU basketball to even Point B+ but we can’t go on like this any longer and we will never know if a change isn’t made! Thank Bill and move forward. He won’t be in any bread lines and will find another job if he wants one.
We need a young assistant coach (No more retreads) who won’t care that are worse than most Indiana high schools. It will take a young coach to be on the recruiting trail for days on end. One who looks at the NU job as a great opportunity even if it is to get a better job. NU fans have to stop thinking that every coach has to stay in Evanston for life (Or should I say life sentence).
Besides all of the above, I don’t think that I can take hearing, let alone watching, the Princeton Offense for another season.
JimGoCats93

Last night in Section 113 we got Olah to the free throw line, a lane violation called on OSU, and damn near got a technical call. We could of used some help trying to get home court advantage!

GoCatsGo!
Lu-O-Meter

It’s obvious that Carmody should be fired. Injuries aren’t a good excuse for futility. If your program can’t have a respectable season due to injuries, then you didn’t have enough depth to begin with. Hire a new head coach now. Give him a chance at success right out of the box with some decent, experienced talent next year, and that might turn into recruiting success for the future. Preserving the “Princeton offense” and the 1-3-1 zone is not a good reason for keeping Carmody. Other coaches can run those schemes if appropriate. It’s not rocket science. I’m not anti-Carmody, but his time is over.

2013 NU Football Schedule

Date	Opponent	Result
08/31/2013	at California - TBA TBA	-
09/07/2013	Syracuse - BTN 5:00PM	-
09/14/2013	Western Michigan - BTN 8:00PM	-
09/21/2013	Maine (FCS) - TBA TBA	-
10/05/2013	Ohio State - ABC/ESPN OR ESPN2 7:00PM	-
10/12/2013	at Wisconsin - TBA TBA	-
10/19/2013	Minnesota - TBA TBA	-
10/26/2013	at Iowa - TBA TBA	-
11/02/2013	at Nebraska - TBA TBA	-
11/16/2013	Michigan - TBA TBA	-
11/23/2013	Michigan State - TBA TBA	-
11/30/2013	at Illinois - TBA TBA	-

2012 NU Football Schedule

Date	Opponent	Result
09/01/2012	at Syracuse - ESPN2 11:00AM - Highlights	42 - 41
09/08/2012	Vanderbilt - BTN 7:00PM - Highlights	23 - 13
09/15/2012	Boston College - BTN 2:30PM - Highlights	22 - 13
09/22/2012	South Dakota (FCS) - BTN 2:30PM - Highlights	38 - 7
09/29/2012	Indiana - BTN 11:00AM - Highlights	44 - 29
10/06/2012	at Penn State - ESPN 11:00AM	28 - 39
10/13/2012	at Minnesota - ESPN2 11:00AM - Highlights	21 - 13
10/20/2012	Nebraska - ABC 2:30PM	28 - 29
10/27/2012	Iowa - ESPN2 11:00AM - Highlights	28 - 17
11/10/2012	at Michigan - ESPN 11:00AM	31 - 38
11/17/2012	at Michigan State - ESPN2 11:00AM - Highlights	23 - 20
11/24/2012	Illinois - BTN 11:00AM - Highlights	50 - 14
01/01/2013	Mississippi State - ESPN2 Gator Bowl 11:00AM - Highlights	34 - 20

Northwestern shows signs of life in valiant effort against Ohio State

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