The start of Big Ten season
Taking a quick look at the state of the Cats as they head into the Big Ten schedule against Indiana on Wednesday.
Due to the disappointing early season, Northwestern will need to finish at least 8-8 in the Big Ten to even think about the NCAAs. If Northwestern wins its other non-conference game and eight games in conference, the Cats would be 16-13 heading into the Big Ten tournament. That would be NIT-worthy, but won't make it to the next level. Even the NITs, at this point, will be a tall task.
It's clear that NU really misses Jitim Young. The team no longer has a player that can score on his own outside of the offensive set. Vedran Vukusic is the most dependable scorer, but really relies on getting open jump shots and not creating off the dribble. Mohammed Hachad has been inconsistent in the preseason and needs to be a viable scoring threat. T.J. Parker's outside shooting is a major hindrance and makes it difficult for him to be a scoring threat. Mike Thompson is still not sure of himself in the offense, but has shown some flashes as a scorer in the post.
The Cats struggle with the two hallmarks of a Princeton-style team - controlling turnovers and outside shooting.
Last year, NU averaged just over 11 turnovers per game, but are averaging 12.3 already this season before the Big Ten season starts. That average will go up as the competition gets tougher.
The Cats are also a woefully poor shooting team. They are averaging only 60 percent from the free throw line and 31% from three-point land. Vukusic is the best three-point shooter on the team and the only player that can be depended on from the outside.
In fact, Carmody has clearly been stressing not shooting the three in the last few games. It's hard to say if Carmody wants the offense to focus more on getting the ball to Thompson down low or if he just doesn't know the strengths of his team yet.
Evan Seacat was clearly being counted on to be the zone-breaker on this team. He appears to be falling out of favor with Carmody and his playing time has been limited in the last few games. "He's had his chances," Carmody said of Seacat in early December -- and his playing time has been non-existent since.
Seacat's problems early in the season highlight another major problem for the Cats -- the lack of bench depth. There are six players averaging more than 20 minutes per game and then a major dropoff. Brandon Lee was averaging just over 10 minutes per game before his injury (broken facial bone) and Seacat is playing just under 10 minutes a game.
And how desperate is Carmody to finding some bench players to fill some minutes? Walk-on Michael Jenkins played 20 minutes against Robert Morris and 14 minutes against Texas-Pan American.
Lee's return will be key to the guard play. He has looked completely at ease when playing and can knock down some big shots when given the chance. Yet, outside of Lee , no other freshman has played a minute this year. It appears that Carmody is hoping he can redshirt freshmen Gary Lee and Sterling Williams. We can't come up with any other reason why they wouldn't have seen any time yet.
It'll be interesting to see if there are more changes in the lineup for Wednesday's opener against Indiana. The Hoosiers are 4-6 on the season, a season that would appear to be coach Mike Davis' last.