Disappointing Loss #1

Dismay, shock, disappointment…all words that can be used to describe the emotions most Northwestern fans are feeling following this crushing loss to Brown at home.

The Bears came into Welsh-Ryan Arena and exploited nearly every one of the ‘Cats’ flaws. It seemed that Craig Robinson knew Bill Carmody’s offense a little too well from his days as an assistant in Evanston, as the Bears picked apart NU all day long on offense.

Brown hit a scorching 52.2% from behind the arch. Yes, they had some good shooters, but is the Wildcats’ perimeter defense really bad enough to give up that high of a percentage? Game after game the ‘Cats are unable to stop 3-point shooters from behind the arch. I love the 1-3-1 defense as much as anyone else, but there are definitely alternative defenses that would help NU defend the weakside 3-pointer. In games against Stanford, Benedictine, and Brown, NU has failed to stop 3-point shooters. They’ve been lethargic and late on their rotations on the perimeter. Is the risk of giving up an open three-pointer, worth the reward of getting a steal a few times a game? This defense needs to be tweaked to avoid such open 3-point attempts.

Another reason to tweak the defense is to help out the rebounding. If the ‘Cats tweak the defense, the rebounding is bound to impr…wait, who am I kidding, this rebounding problem is not going away.

Something that should go away is the 7-man rotation Coach Carmody continues to use. He has never been a man who trusts his bench, but with his reluctance to give big minutes to Mike Capocci and Nikola Baran, will Moore, Okrzesik, Ryan, Thompson, and Williams break down because of too many minutes? This problem will go away when Nash and Coble return, but in the meantime this short rotation could cause fatigue late in games.

On the brightside, it looks like the ‘Cats got their disappointing non-conference loss out of the way early in the season, so everything should be smooth sailing from here. (Ehh…if it only were that simple).