Northwestern University Athletics
Men's Hoopsters Rebound to Beat Oakland
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
November 25, 1998
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern earned its first victory of the season last Saturday with a 68-30 victory over Oakland. The 'Cats, after suffering a disappointing loss in the opener to Maine, came out hot against Oakland. NU scored the first 18 points of the contest and did not allow the Golden Grizzlies to score until a free throw at the 13:21 mark. Oakland's first field goal of the game would not come until the 9:29 mark, cutting the Wildcat lead to 26-3. The lead steadily increased, with NU's largest margin not occurring until Sean Wink's three-pointer with 1:26 left in the game made the score 68-30, the eventual final score. The 30 points scored by Oakland was the fewest ever scored by a team in Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Golden Grizzlies' 13 first-half points tied the arena record for fewest points in a half, set four times previously.
Northwestern-St. Francis
The Series This is the first-ever meeting on the basketball court between Northwestern and St. Francis.
Head Coach Kevin O'Neill (McGill, 1979) is in his second season at the helm of the Wildcat basketball program. This is his 11th season as head coach at the Division I level and 13th overall as a collegiate head coach. He also has served as head coach at North Country CC (1980-82), Marycrest (1982-83), Marquette (1989-94) and Tennessee (1994-97). O'Neill owns an 11-18 record at NU and 151-138 record as a Division I head coach. Known as one of the best recruiters in the nation, O'Neill resurrected the Marquette and Tennessee programs, taking two teams which had not enjoyed recent success to postseason play.
More from the Oakland Game
Eschmeyer Leads Big Ten Rebounders
Sixth-year center Evan Eschmeyer has started the 1998-99 campaign hitting the boards hard.
He currently leads the Big Ten in overall rebounds (11.5 rpg) and offensive boards (5.5
orpg), while also ranking among the top 10 in scoring, blocks, steals and field goal
percentage. Last year, Eschmeyer led the Big Ten in rebounds, averaging 10.7 per contest.
He enters the St. Francis game with 32 career double-doubles, accomplishing the feat in
eight of his last 10 games dating back to last season. See the attached flyer for more
information.
Eschmeyer Preseason Honors
The following are some of the preseason honors gained by Wildcat center Evan Eschmeyer:
Big Ten Stat Leaders
Here's where the Wildcats ranked in the Big Ten stats as of November 24:
Individual
Scoring: Evan Eschmeyer - t8th (17.0 ppg)
Tavaras Hardy - t8th (17.0 ppg)
Rebounds: Evan Eschmeyer - 1st (11.5 rpg)
Tavaras Hardy - t7th (7.0 rpg)
Steve Lepore - 15th (6.5 rpg)
FG Pct.: Evan Eschmeyer - 10th (.636)
Assists: David Newman - t2nd (6.0 apg)
Steve Lepore - t13th (3.5 apg)
Blocks: Evan Eschmeyer - 5th (2.5 bpg)
3pt made: Sean Wink - 2nd (3.5 tpg)
Steve Lepore - t8th (2.5 tpg)
Asst/TO ratio: David Newman - 7th (2.4-to-1)
Sean Wink - t9th (2.0-to-1)
Steve Lepore - 12th (1.75-to-1)
Steals: Steve Lepore - t4th - (2.0 spg)
Evan Eschmeyer - t4th (2.0 spg)
Offensive Rebs: Evan Eschmeyer - 1st (5.5 orpg)
Tavaras Hardy - 4th (3.5 orpg)
Steve Lepore - t6th (3.0 orpg)
Defensive Rebs: Evan Eschmeyer - t2nd (6.0 drpg)
TeamScoring Defense: 1st - 49.5 ppg FG Pct. Defense: 1st - .306 Asst/TO ratio: 1st - 1.33-to-1 3pt made: t2nd - 7.5 tpg 3pt% Defense: 3rd - .243 Assists: 3rd - 20.0 apg Steals: t3rd - 9.0 spg Rebound Margin: t5th (+5.0 rpg)
Wildcat Freshmen Stepping Up
They may not be flashy, but the Wildcats freshmen trio of Tavaras Hardy, Steve Lepore and
David Newman certainly give NU fans definite hope for
the future. Hardy is establishing himself as a nice counter-option for Evan Eschmeyer. He
is currently tied with Eschmeyer for the team lead in scoring and also ranks among the Big
Ten leaders in offensive rebounds and total rebounds. Lepore is one of those players who
you appreciate the more you watch him play. His stats appear modest at first glance (9.5
ppg, 6.5 rpg), but take a closer look and you'll find Steve Lepore's name among the Big
Ten leaders in six different statistical categories (total rebounds, offensive rebounds,
assists, steals, three pointers and assist-to-turnover ratio). Newman has been thrust into
the role of a freshman point guard having to learn the college game on the fly. And,
after two games, he ranks second in the Big Ten assists (trailing only MSU's Mateen
Cleaves) and has a 2.40-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Home Court Advantage
In Kevin O'Neill's first season as head coach, the Wildcats made
Welsh-Ryan Arena a tough place to play. The 'Cats went 10-6 at home, the first time in a
decade that NU had won 10 games in their own arena. That mark included a seven-game home
winning streak.
Three other home contests could have easily gone the Wildcats' way. NU dropped the season-opener at home to Siena, 86-84, and lost in overtime to both Big Ten co-champion Michigan State and NIT runner-up Penn State.
Nationalism
Freshman guard Steve Lepore spent part of this past summer representing the
United States at the Junior World Championship qualifying tournament in the Dominican
Republic. He started all six games during the tournament, leading the USA to a perfect
6-0 record and the gold medal. Lepore paced the team in three-point shooting, hitting
13-of-29 (.448) from beyond the arc, and was tied for the team lead with 11 steals.
Lepore finished third on the team in scoring, averaging 12.8 points (in only 21 minutes)
per game.
The Brothers Esch
For the second-straight season, the Wildcats will have two Eschmeyers on
the team (Evan and Jeff). Last year was the first time that the duo was able to play
together on the same team due to the fact they are four years apart in age. In fact,
Jeffs first collegiate field goal (last year vs. Minnesota) came on an assist from Evan.
Letter-of-Intent Signees
During the November early signing period, the Wildcats signed
five players to National Letters of Intent to begin playing basketball at NU next season:
Johnson (No. 60) and Blake (No. 95) are each ranked among the top 100 players in the country by Bob Gibbons. Deren was "Southwest Iowa Player of the Year" as a junior, while Jennings and Robinson were both named All-Americans this season by various publications.
Wildcats on the Air
Once again this season, WGN-AM 720 will be the radio home of Wildcat basketball. Dave
Eanet handles the play-by-play chores while Joey Meyer will handle the color analysis.
Every Wildcat game this season will be aired by WGN.
Wildcats on the Web
Complete statistics and releases on Wildcat basketball will be available throughout the
season on Northwestern's official internet site. The web address is WWW.NUSPORTS.COM.
Information on the Big Ten Conference is available on the conference web site at
www.bigten.org.
