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The Cats started freshmen Sterling Williams and Craig Moore in a sign of things to come for this season, but still fell to Virginia, 72-57.

Vedran Vukusic continued to play excepionally well, finishing with 21 points, but received little help from the rest of the lineup. The rest of the team only managed 36 points.

Michael Thompson (flu) and Bernard Cote (bad back) did not make the trip, but the short-handed Cats missed early and often from three-point range. Northwestern finished the evening 3-for-21 from behind the arc.

"I saw the stat sheet and I saw we had a lot of layups and we made most of them and we had more than 20 threes and I don't remember making any of them until the game was almost over," coach Bill Carmody told WGN's Dave Eanet after the game.

The Cats (3-3) return home Saturday for an 8 p.m. game against Delaware State.

Posted by Greg Shea at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

In response to the post on the loss to DePaul, IvyLeaguer wrote in about the talent level on the current Northwestern roster.

IvyLeaguer wrote:

Isn't it time Bill Carmody realize that he and his staff are unable to recruit a Top 100 player to come to Evanston and that it's time to make some changes so that a better quality of player comes to NU?

Carmody is a great coach. But he is an indifferent recruiter and his three assistants have no experience recruiting Top 100 players. Paul Lee's only other recruiting experience was for the worst hoops program in the Ivy League -- Columbia -- and the other two guys had no college coaching experience until Carmody hired them at NU.

No NU fan should want Carmody to be fired. But no NU fan should think that the players Carmody has brought to NU will EVER get the Cats to the NCAA tournament.

So what the solution? The obvious one is to pony up the money and hire a bonafide top flight recruiter away from a big time program. Sure it will cost a little money -- the Cats will have to improve upon his salary quite a bit to attract someone from a winning program to a loser -- but it's a lot cheaper than hiring a new head coach.

As Gary Barnett showed, it takes a coach with a bigger than life personality to convince kids that a losing program can be turned into a winner. As Bill Foster showed, Top 100 kids like Evan Eschmeyer and Rex Walters can be convinced to sign with NU.

So because Carmody can not get a personality transplant himself, he's going to have to hire an assistant to do the job for him.

But the Cats won't ever play in the NCAA tourney with the type of talent Carmody is bringing in -- and that includes the three kids he signed for next year. None of them are program turners.

AD Mark Murphy has to pressure Carmody to shake up his staff. Or else when Carmody contract runs out he must go so the Cats can hire a go-getter, bigger-than-life personality driven coach who can turn NU hoops around the way Gary Barnett did to football.

All NU fans know that it's easier to turn around a hoops program with just two star recruits than it is to turn around a football team with just two star recruits.

A great and thought-provoking post. I believe Carmody must be going through some soul-searching right now about the state of the program. He said last year that he was surprised the program hadn't won 20 games yet during his tenure. And now he's clearly losing sleep about his backcourt.

I'm concerned about the talent level right now and, with it, the lack of athleticism. The lineup features a bunch of great role players, but no stars. We had expected that Cote could be a viable scoring option this year, but it hasn't happened. So, instead the Cats just have no players who can create their own shot off the dribble or create any mismatches for the defense.

It does only take one or two players to turn the program into an NCAA team, but it doesn't appear those players have arrived yet.

Posted by Greg Shea at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Coach Bill Carmody brought a Princeton-style offense to Northwestern, but we finally saw an Ivy League lineup on the floor Saturday in a 69-59 loss to DePaul. Unfortunately, the talent level seemed more like Cornell than Princeton.

At the end of the game, NU put a lineup of Tim Doyle, Evan Seacat, Craig Moore, Vince Scott and Vedran Vukusic on the floor. That's the whitest lineup in NU history. And is that a good thing?

Carmody fiddled with the playing rotation again and greatly reduced the playing time of Michael Jenkins and Mohammed Hachad to nine and 11 minutes, respectively. Moore played 33 minutes and is looking like the starting point guard of the future -- and present.

Bernard Coté was missing in action again with only five minutes of PT. We still don't know what he is capable of so far this year.

Tim Doyle has played well so far this year, but he's hardly worthy of 35 minutes in a game. His line for the night: 35 minutes, five points, three assists and three rebounds. But it's hard to fault Carmody for playing Doyle when it doesn't seem he has many other worthy options at guard this year.

The Cats still are desperately looking for a second scorer to Vukusic, who had 29 points on the day. What other options could develop on the year? Michael Thompson? Down with the flu, but you'd hope he could be a factor on the offensive glass this year. Coté? We don't know. Hachad? He doesn't have Carmody's confidence right now. Moore? He's shown the ability to hit shots, but he's really a spot-up shooter at this point. He has confidence and that's saying more than most on the team.

If only the search for a second scoring option was the only search ongoing. Northwestern is in need of an identity, too. This team is not nearly as athletic as last year and lacks the ability to create any scoring opportunities off the fast break. It's a half-court team and the reduction in playing time of Hachad at the expense of Moore may be reflective of NU going away from Hachad's athletidcism in favor of Moore's shooting ability in a half-court setting.

Northwestern plays Virginia in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Posted by Greg Shea at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Northwesterndefeated Florida Atlantic in its home opener Monday, 69-59.

Let's try really hard to look at the positves.

Coach Bill Carmody commented on the negatives in his postgame radio segment on WGN radio.

"I was really disappointed in our backcourt," Carmody told WGN's Dave Eanet. "Especially the older guys."

Carmody talked about a lack of leadership and how the team looked like it needed the departed T.J. Parker. Fifth-year senior Michael Jenkins turned the ball over five times and fellow senior Tim Doyle had six assists but also five turnovers. Overall, the backcourt seemed to struggle against mediocre ball pressure and was lackadaisical with the ball.

The team also had a remarkable lack of athletic ability on the floor for extended periods of the game. The loss of Parker's speed and ability to push the ball up the floor was evident.

Center Michael Thompson did not play and sat at the end of the bench with the team's trainers for most of the game. No word on his status, but we hope it is just a flu bug. Thompson's rebounding presence was missed.

Carmody has begun to work his bench more into the regular rotation. Freshman Craig Moore showed no hesitancy with shooting open shots and looked comfortable in 24 minutes of playing time. Redshirt freshman Sterling Williams played a heady game and is poised for a larger role in future games. Kentucky transfer Bernard Cote knocked down a three and grabbed three rebounds. It only took one shot to know that Cote has one of the sweetest looking jump shots on the team.

Want another negative on this game? It was about as exciting as C-Span. The Cats are slower than last year, do not create turnovers and do not push the ball up the court on fast-break situations. The team seems content to play a half-court game.

This is only the fourth game of the year and the team does not have the chemistry as a team yet, so it's hard to fault them for sloppy play. Let's just be happy that the team has won three of its first four.

Posted by Greg Shea at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An update: Apparently, the answer to the question is 4:08 p.m. Friday.

Hello, section 202. Thank you, UPS!

Posted by Greg Shea at 04:11 PM | Permalink

Two package slips came from UPS this week. Neither was my season tickets.

It's Friday and the home opener is Monday. Not good times.

Posted by Greg Shea at 09:45 AM | Permalink

Mohammed Hachad said all the right things to Associated Press reporter Andrew Seligman after the loss to UNC-Wilmington.

"To be honest," Hachad said, "I'm kind of disappointed."

It's refreshing to hear. A 2-1 start is nice, but let's not go crazy just yet. Hachad agrees.

"I'd say it's positive that we're 2-1, but we could do a lot better."

Amen, brother.

Posted by Greg Shea at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thank you, Chad Ford, for not listing Vedran Vukusic in your top 100 draft prospects for 2006. (Subscription link)

Charlotte's Curtis Withers, who played poorly against NU in the BCA Invitational, is at No. 99. Ford lists Withers as having late second-round or undrafted potential. You telling me that Vukusic doesn't have that type of potential? Puh-leeze.

It's safe to say that Vedran can use lists of this type as motivation for his senior season. He may not make the pros, but he deserves to at least be on a list of pro prospects!

Posted by Greg Shea at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

UNC-Wilmington halted the Cats' march to the BCA Invitational championship with a 56-48 victory over NU Tuesday night.

Overall, the loss to UNC-Wilmington is less damaging than it appears. The Seahawks won 19 games last season and have made the tournament three times this decade. A 2-1 start to the season is still impressive as NU works out the kinks in its lineup.

And there are plenty of kinks -- and surprises early in the season. Consider:

• Michael Thompson averaging only 13 minutes per game, while Tim Doyle is averaging 32.
• Sterling Williams and Bernard Coté are non-factors so far this season at 5-6 minutes per game
• Vedran Vukusic is averaging 25 points per game, but is the only scorer averaging double figures

Thompson's lack of playing time appears to be a continuation of the playing time received at the end of the season. Coach Bill Carmody seems to favor Vince Scott's passing and shooting ability and how he runs the Princeton offense from the high post.

At this point in the season, we have to chalk up Williams and Coté's lack of playing time to being new in the system and Carmody working them into the lineup more frequently. We expect their playing time to increase dramatically.

Vukusic has the hot hand on offense, but he seems to be the one and only offensive option currently. Other scoring options like Mohammed Hachad and a player like Williams or Coté need to develop into alternative scoring options.

Posted by Greg Shea at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

UNC-Wilmington defeated Wyoming in the semifinals of the BCA tournament Monday night for the right to play Northwestern in tonight's championship at 9 p.m. CST.

The game will be broadcast only on campus radio station, WNUR. The station is available at 89.3 FM or wnur.org. Pregame show begins at 8:45 p.m.

Kudos to play-by-play man Guy Benson and color commentator Ray Garcia for being the only media team to make the trip to Wyoming for this tournament. They are the only ones who thought this tournament was worth covering in person.

If wnur.org is overwhelmed with users, stop by NUsports.com for a pay version of the game online.

Posted by Greg Shea at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yes, it's too early to call the second game of the season a huge win. But, let's face it, it was.

Not only did the Cats defeat Charlotte, 61-47, to advance to the Black Coaches Association finals Tuesday night, but they did it with ease. And did we mention that Charlotte was an NCAA tournament team last year?

But the bigger news than the win and the 2-0 start to the season may be the fact that NU appeared to show that the major deficiencies of last year's team may be in the past.

Poor free throw shooting? The Cats shot 77 percent from the line Monday night, (17-for-22) including 10-of-12 in the closing minutes.

Can't hit a three if their life depended on it? NU hit 8-of-18 trifectas in the contest (44 percent).

Trouble maintaining intensity on defense? The Cats held Charlotte to 31 percent shooting on the night. (16-of-52)

Can't stop a legitimate big man from dominating inside? Charlotte's Curtis Withers only managed 12 points on the night.

No depth on the bench? Well, ok, we can't ask for everything, can we? Coach Bill Carmody stuck to a small playing rotation with Vedran Vukusic, Michael Jenkins, Mohammed Hachad and Vince Scott getting the majority of playing time. Bernard Coté and Sterling Williams played only eight and seven minutes apiece, respectively.

Starting center Michael Thompson played only 13 minutes and scored only two points (albeit on a monster dunk) while giving way to Scott off the bench. Thompson picked up his fourth foul very early in the second half.

Northwestern faces the winner of the UNC-Wilmington-Wyoming game at 9 p.m. CST on Tuesday night for the championship of the BCA Invitational.

Posted by Greg Shea at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This was the type of game that Northwestern didn't win in last year's early games. The Cats rallied from a 12-point deficit to defeat Lehigh, 61-59, in the Black Coaches Association tournament in Wyoming.

Vedran Vukusic scored 25 points for the Cats and had the game-winner with 12 seconds remaining.

Despite having to come back in the game, there were a number of positives. Tim Doyle, who arrived at practice this Fall in great shape for the season, scored 14 points and had six assists. Doyle, a transfer from St. John's two years ago, is looking like a pleasant surprise thus far.

Playing time in the game was a bit of a surprise as Michael Thompson played a sparse 14 minutes while "backup" Vince Scott notched 26 minutes. Thompson's playing time was restricted late last season and this season appears to be more of the game.

Tranfer Bernard Cote and redshirt freshman Sterling Williams also played sparingly, playing three minutes apiece. That's a disappointing amount for two players who are counted on as key contributers this season.

Another positive from the game was the three-point shooting. Northwestern shot 8-for-21 from behind the arc or 38%.

Northwestern plays Charlotte on Monday niight at 7 p.m. CST.

Posted by Greg Shea at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)