Northwestern game thread

[akronad]

If the lay that was drawn up wasn't there, that means NU had a good defense. At that point, either yo have a back up play or you scramble. With the limited amount time, it came down to a scramble. I am very unhappy this morning that we lost. But, I saw a lot of poisitive out of the game. Let the team rest & relax for awhile and then let's get ready for next season.

[mivid12]

If the lay that was drawn up wasn't there, that means NU had a good defense. At that point, either yo have a back up play or you scramble. With the limited amount time, it came down to a scramble. I am very unhappy this morning that we lost. But, I saw a lot of poisitive out of the game. Let the team rest & relax for awhile and then let's get ready for next season.

my gosh the dearth of apologists on this board is outrageous.....this team, this program will never rise above what they currently are until they win games like these....this backslapping about 'playing them better than mich st did" is laughable...

WIN THE GD GAME

[Captain Kangaroo]

I remain astounded that people debate the final play. How did it come to the last play? LUCK! Diggs was at the FT line shooting two because we didn't call a time out once he crossed center court.

We got lucky that we had a chance at the end. But we blew the game when we decided to let Diggs get a 2-shot foul when we were down 3-points. I can't believe we botched that identical situation in consecutive games. And NW is a team that choked-away close games all season. We gave it to them.

[johnnyzip84]

I remain astounded that people debate the final play. How did it come to the last play? LUCK! Diggs was at the FT line shooting two because we didn't call a time out once he crossed center court.

We got lucky that we had a chance at the end. But we blew the game when we decided to let Diggs get a 2-shot foul when we were down 3-points. I can't believe we botched that identical situation in consecutive games. And NW is a team that choked-away close games all season. We gave it to them.

Just because you advance the ball past half court and call a timeout doesn't mean they can't use the same fouling strategy on the ensuing inbounds. They can always choose to foul away from the ball and send that guy to the line.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Just because you advance the ball past half court and call a timeout doesn't mean they can't use the same fouling strategy on the inbounds. They can always choose to foul away from the ball and send that guy to the line.

But you give yourself a chance to dictate the situation if you take it out of bounds.

If you let Diggs hold the ball until he gets foul with <4 seconds remaining, you didn't give yourself a chance.

AND- we had PLENTY of additional time. Diggs held the ball in excess of 10 seconds before he was fouled!

Horrible clock management in consecutive tight games.

Unless you want to go back to the K.e.n.t. game, where we nearly blew an insurmountable lead with <1 minute on the clock. Then ithe consecutive streak is 3.

First and foremost, this team needs poise if it is to win anything in 2012-13.

We can beat crappy MAC teams at the buzzer, like WMU and BG. But we can't beat the likes of VCU, CSU, ORU, OU, NW, etc if we aren't capable of closing out tight games. Or being strategically creative when the chips are stacked against us.

[johnnyzip84]

But you give yourself a chance to dictate the situation if you take it out of bounds.

If you let Diggs hold the ball until he gets foul with <4 seconds remaining, you didn't give yourself a chance.

AND- we had PLENTY of additional time. Diggs held the ball in excess of 10 seconds before he was fouled!

Horrible clock management in consecutive tight games.

Unless you want to go back to the K.e.n.t. game, where we nearly blew an insurmountable lead with <1 minute on the clock. Then ithe consecutive streak is 3.

First and foremost, this team needs poise if it is to win anything in 2012-13.

We can beat crappy MAC teams at the buzzer, like WMU and BG. But we can't beat the likes of VCU, CSU, ORU, OU, NW, etc if we aren't capable of closing out tight games. Or being strategically creative when the chips are stacked against us.

I believe it’s actually easier to commit an “intentional, but not really intentional” foul off of an inbounds as opposed to the running action. A smart coach/player simply can always plant a seed in a referee’s ear during the timeout.

But I completely agree with you that precious seconds were wasted when Q had the ball. Certainly a few more seconds opens up a lot more possibilities for that last second inbounds play. And I’ll grant you that late game clock management was poor over the last few games.

[xu9697]

My thoughts:

I wanted them to go for the 3 to win on the road. Play was not perfect, but it was a good look. If KD really was looking for 2, that actually disappoints me.

Northwestern is a very good team. I watched CSU and Stanford. Stanford took it to CSU as CSU went cold in 2nd half. But Northwestern and Stanford are similar teams, and, IMHO, Northwestern is MUCH better than Stanford.

It was a clean, well played (overall) game for 2 teams that went at it. Tough, tough loss. Sickened me, b/c I think getting that one would have lead to a trip to MSG.

Side note for any Cavs fans: wouldn't you love to see the Cavs take Shurna with one of their 2nd round picks (preferably the latter) instead of throwing that pick away on some International player that never comes over. I would love to see if Shurna could be a "Korver/Kapono" type player.

[zen]

I couldn't speak last night because of how aggrevated I was. Not at the zips though. :X

First off, I've seen a few digs taken at Dambrot in this thread.

You will NOT catch me doing that.

I will take 20+ win seasons until the end of time.

The football program is a good example of how much worst things could be.

Secondly, I want to say that those players are better human beings than I am.

I felt like our guys were getting hung on, hand battered, and mugged going to the basket, both for shots and for rebounds, and those refs are neither blind or stupid so WTF???.... and I'll just leave it at that. Personally, I don't think I could continue to work through it with a positive attitude, so again I just want to compliment the guys (players and staff) for putting their heart talent on the basketball floor as Zips

[mes102]

But you give yourself a chance to dictate the situation if you take it out of bounds.

If you let Diggs hold the ball until he gets foul with <4 seconds remaining, you didn't give yourself a chance.

AND- we had PLENTY of additional time. Diggs held the ball in excess of 10 seconds before he was fouled!

Horrible clock management in consecutive tight games.

Unless you want to go back to the K.e.n.t. game, where we nearly blew an insurmountable lead with <1 minute on the clock. Then ithe consecutive streak is 3.

First and foremost, this team needs poise if it is to win anything in 2012-13.

We can beat crappy MAC teams at the buzzer, like WMU and BG. But we can't beat the likes of VCU, CSU, ORU, OU, NW, etc if we aren't capable of closing out tight games. Or being strategically creative when the chips are stacked against us.

They will..you have to remember, and i feel like im hitting my own dead horse about this, but we're one of the top 20 youngest teams in the NATION...out of the 320 DI college basketball schools...just saying..

This team against last year's Akron team wouldn't even be close. This year's team would blow them out...

[zippy5]

I'd argue that a team would be less likely to foul without a timeout. Obviously it happened both times regardless, but in the 10 seconds that go by, it's probably more likely that none of the players would realize to foul than a coach calling a timeout and telling his players to foul. Water under the bridge now, we blew it both times.

Side note, I feel for Brian Walsh. #1 shooter in the MAC and missed the game winning shot in each of these games. That's gotta be rough.