Winter Break Plans?

Its currently winter break at Northwestern, so while most of the students have left the campus, a few remain.

Some of those men and women currently on campus include both the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams. While the women continue to play games over break (even starting their Big Ten season shortly before the New Year), the men have only three games scheduled over their three week break.

So you might ask, what would a 4-4 team do with so much time off? Well, based on the early season results, one would hope they would spend some time practicing. And at the top of the list of practice priorities needs to be defense.

For the season Northwestern is giving up 68 points per game. That number appears average and definitely doesn’t scream out improvement needed here ASAP. Unfortunately that number is not indicative of NU’s quality of defense, but more their style of play. The ‘Cats slow down Princeton offense can sometimes mask their defensive struggles.

Through the first 8 games of the season, Northwestern’s opponents are shooting a scorching 44.8% from behind the arch. That high percentage is a direct result of a team not suited to play the 1-3-1 zone. This defense has been the ‘Cats’ identity since Mohamed Hachad arrived on campus, but it just isn’t working for this Northwestern team. They currently don’t possess the personnel to run the defense effectively, and it’s turning an already bad rebounding team, into a historically inept rebounding team. The aggressive, pressure-oriented 1-3-1 works against weaker opponents, but against hot-shooting opponents with good ball handlers the ‘Cats poor rotations around the perimeter get them burned by outside shooting.

The ‘Cats need a fresh start on defense and should implement a new defense over their break, not necessarily to entirely replace the 1-3-1, but to give Coach Carmody an option in times of poor perimeter defense. The solution to that problem is the 2-3 zone defense. The positioning of players defensively will eliminate the corner 3’s, and put less pressure on Juice Thompson by moving him out to the top of the key; unlike in the 1-3-1 where he plays the “baseline” position and races back and forth along the baseline. The ‘Cats will still need to rotate around the perimeter to prevent the 3’s from the wings, but eliminating the constant threat of a 3 from the corner should help alleviate some of the pressure on the ‘Cats defensively. The rebounding should improve in the 2-3 zone by bringing players back to more traditional points on the court. This defense provides more stability around the perimeter while allowing the ‘Cats to still play aggressively if Carmody chooses.

Nonetheless the most important aspect of this defense or any zone defense is rotating by following the ball. The ‘Cats have struggled in this area since game 1 and must improve to have success in any zone defense they choose to play.

Thursday’s matchup against Howard would be a good time to try out a new defense.