Flat Cats trounced by Penn State
Blame it on the short layover from Thursday's big win over Wisconsin or the expected letdown from such a win, but Northwestern (13-13, 5-9) came out flat Saturday in one of the most important games of the season, a 68-55 loss to Penn State.
Senior Evan Seacat hit six three-pointers and finally showed that much-ballyhooed shooting stroke fans have been talking about for four years now, but the Cats didn't have a double-figure scorer besides Vedran Vukusic and his 15 points. Mohammed Hachad, who scored 25 against Wisconsin, managed only six Saturday. Fifth-year senior Michael Jenkins, junior Vince Scott and freshman Craig Moore all went scoreless in the game.
Moore looks like he's hit a wall in his freshman year. He'll need to fight through it, but missing six shots total and five from three-point range is a concern.
The losses to Penn State this year have been very hurtful to NU's postseason chances and now a win in one of the final two conference games (both at home) is a must. Wednesday night's game against Ohio State is looking extremely important. A big crowd and energy from the Cats like the team had Thursday against Wisconsin is hugely important.
Otherwise, the NIT hopes will fall by the wayside.
Comments
Folks might remember that it was against PSU that Seacat was crunched by Jager [?] and never shot well again until last Saturday. I'm glad to see he's finally got his stroke back,we can use it Wednesday.
Posted by: coach Roy | February 28, 2006 10:20 AM
Will next season be Bill Carmody's last?
For three straight years the Cats have been the kids who just don't want to play in the postseason, self-destructing just enough times over the course of the season to clinch a sub .500 record.
We say goodbye to those guys -- Vedran, Mo, Evan, Mike -- and wish them luck.
But what of next year?
Does anyone really think any of NU's recruits will be able to step in and replace Vedran's points per game?
Does anyone really think any of NU's recruits will be able to replace the athleticism of Mo?
Even if the relatively unheralded Cobble, Ryan, Nash, Baran and, let's hope, Booker, are all solid recruits who are better than anyone expects them to be, as Moore has been this year, does anyone really think another four players of Moore's quality can make up for the loss of Vedran and Mo? Four Moores do not equal a Vedran and a Mo.
Meanwhile, formerly reliable losers Purdue and Penn State will be bringing back a lot more talent than Northwestern next year. So will everybody else in the league.
When Tim Doyle is your best returnee, you're in trouble.
Can even the most rabid supporter of Cat hoops blame anyone not wearing purple for picking the Cats for dead last next season?
And so what can we say about Carmody, a great coach who can teach but can't inspire and who sure as heck can't recruit.
It was upsetting this week to read in the Daily Herald that one of Carmody's assistants -- an inexperienced high school coach who never even attempted to recruit a high school athlete to a college in his life -- say that when Carmody's staff arrived in Evanston, they expected recruiting "to be easy."
Putting aside the incidental arrogance of anyone assuming that anyone else's job is easy, let's dwell on the galling lack of historical knowledge.
Tex Winter, Bill Foster, Kevin O'Neill were highly respected coaches when they arrived in Evanston, winners all, and they all failed to be able to recruit more than one or two high quality players during their time at NU (Tex had McKinney, Foster had Walters and Eschmeyer, O'Neill had Young).
Easy?
For three Ivy League-bred assistants -- two who had never recruited anyone at all and a third whose only recruiting experienced had been signing kids who made Columbia among the worst programs in the Ivy League -- to come to NU and think recruiting is going "to be easy" is the height of stupidity.
Carmody must have thought it would be easy, too, because why else would he not hire at least one guy with some proven recruiting ability in a major conference?
And so unless all four of his incoming recruits make the 2007 all-frosh team like Moore did this year, the Cats are going to finish last next year as they struggle to score 45 points a game with no proven scorers, proven rebounders or proven skilled athletes.
We die-hard NU hoops fans will have to suffer for another year watching Carmody's well-coached but unathletic and uninspired kids struggling to compete.
Then we're going to have to pray that there is someone out there who is the basketball version of Gary Barnett.
There just has to be. Right?
Posted by: Ivy Leaguer | March 9, 2006 08:44 PM
Will next season be Bill Carmody's last?
For three straight years the Cats have been the kids who just don't want to play in the postseason, self-destructing just enough times over the course of the season to clinch a sub .500 record.
We say goodbye to those guys -- Vedran, Mo, Evan, Mike -- and wish them luck.
But what of next year?
Does anyone really think any of NU's recruits will be able to step in and replace Vedran's points per game?
Does anyone really think any of NU's recruits will be able to replace the athleticism of Mo?
Even if the relatively unheralded Cobble, Ryan, Nash, Baran and, let's hope, Booker, are all solid recruits who are better than anyone expects them to be, as Moore has been this year, does anyone really think another four players of Moore's quality can make up for the loss of Vedran and Mo? Four Moores do not equal a Vedran and a Mo.
Meanwhile, formerly reliable losers Purdue and Penn State will be bringing back a lot more talent than Northwestern next year. So will everybody else in the league.
When Tim Doyle is your best returnee, you're in trouble.
Can even the most rabid supporter of Cat hoops blame anyone not wearing purple for picking the Cats for dead last next season?
And so what can we say about Carmody, a great coach who can teach but can't inspire and who sure as heck can't recruit.
It was upsetting this week to read in the Daily Herald that one of Carmody's assistants -- an inexperienced high school coach who never even attempted to recruit a high school athlete to a college in his life -- say that when Carmody's staff arrived in Evanston, they expected recruiting "to be easy."
Putting aside the incidental arrogance of anyone assuming that anyone else's job is easy, let's dwell on the galling lack of historical knowledge.
Tex Winter, Bill Foster, Kevin O'Neill were highly respected coaches when they arrived in Evanston, winners all, and they all failed to be able to recruit more than one or two high quality players during their time at NU (Tex had McKinney, Foster had Walters and Eschmeyer, O'Neill had Young).
Easy?
For three Ivy League-bred assistants -- two who had never recruited anyone at all and a third whose only recruiting experienced had been signing kids who made Columbia among the worst programs in the Ivy League -- to come to NU and think recruiting is going "to be easy" is the height of stupidity.
Carmody must have thought it would be easy, too, because why else would he not hire at least one guy with some proven recruiting ability in a major conference?
And so unless all four of his incoming recruits make the 2007 all-frosh team like Moore did this year, the Cats are going to finish last next year as they struggle to score 45 points a game with no proven scorers, proven rebounders or proven skilled athletes.
We die-hard NU hoops fans will have to suffer for another year watching Carmody's well-coached but unathletic and uninspired kids struggling to compete.
Then we're going to have to pray that there is someone out there who is the basketball version of Gary Barnett.
There just has to be. Right?
Posted by: Ivy Leaguer | March 9, 2006 09:13 PM