Depressing loss to Penn State
This has to be the low-point of the season. Northwestern's performance during a 65-62 loss to Penn State on Saturday may have been the worst since the Kevin O'Neill era. (Chicago Tribune recap)
The Cats were outrebounded as a team by Penn State center -- and former walk-on -- Aaron Johnson. Johnson's 21 rebounds bested NU's 15 as a team.
Vedran Vukusic hurt his left shoulder late in the game. Tim Doyle didn't score -- again. T.J. Parker managed only one assist in 37 minutes of play. Not easy for a point guard, but he managed.
Coach Bill Carmody was thoroughly outcoached. He didn't make the right substitutions and failed to put the press on until extremely late in the game. The players played without passion, but he coached like he thought they deserved to lose. The players clearly followed his lead.
Vince Scott (14 points) was the only bright spot and when Scott is your bright spot, it's pretty bleak.
Carmody sounded completely in the depths of despair on the postgame show. He answered a question about this being a crisis for the team with a "You have to beat Penn State and if you can't beat Penn State, I don't know how you can beat a team like Iowa."
Carmody also talked about the futility of mixing up the lineup since the whole team is playing poorly. "Doyle, Mohammed (Hachad) and T.J. (Parker) really didn't do anything out there today."
The most frustrating part of watching the loss to Penn State, besides the total lack of passion by the team, was the numerous open three-pointers from the Nittany Lions. The Cats gave a clinic on how not to play help-side defense. Penn State shot 14-of-26 from three-point land on the game.
Yet, while the season is clearly over, there doesn't seem to be a lot of hope for the future. Besides Brandon Lee, if he ever returns from suspension, there are not a lot of players to develop for the future. The only hope for the rest of the season is the improvement of Parker, Hachad and Thompson, who will need to be the lynchpins of any success next year.
In light of Thompson's suspension and the continued poor play of Parker and Hachad, that doesn't give a lot of hope for the next two months.
Comments
I do give the Cats credit for hanging tough with Thompson missing the game and Vukusic unavailable down the stretch.
So far, to me, the biggest disappointment of the season has been T.J. Parker. I heard during one of the ESPN games early this year that he had worked out with his brother and other Spurs players this summer and how that would really help his game. We've yet to see the improvement. He's averaging 2.4 assists per game.
Posted by: Matt | January 23, 2005 10:11 PM
Yeah, Parker has been terrible. At certain points of recent games I've been wishing to see Brandon Lee take over the point. Early in the season, he ran the point well and didn't seem afraid to take a shot. Parker can't shoot from the outside and hasn't been a factor on the fast break.
Posted by: Greg | January 24, 2005 06:03 AM