Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Host Nittany Lions to Ring in the New Year
12/31/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 31, 2011
Northwestern (10-3, 0-1) vs. Penn State (8-6, 0-1)
Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012
Welsh-Ryan Arena (8,117))
Evanston, Ill. • 6 p.m.
TV: ESPNU (Adam Amin and Tim McCormick)
Audio: WGN 720 AM and wgnradio.com (Dave Eanet and Tim Doyle)
Gametracker: NUsports.com
In-game Twitter updates: @NU_SportsLIVE
Northwestern Game Notes (PDF)
Follow @NUMensBball Tweet #NUHoops
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern tips off its 2011-12 Big Ten home season Sunday with a New Year's Day matchup against Penn State. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
The Wildcats dropped a tight 65-62 decision to Michigan State in their first conference home game a year ago.
NU is looking to bounce back from an 87-54 loss at No. 2 Ohio State in its Big Ten opener on Wednesday. Drew Crawford led the Wildcats with 13 points. Northwestern shot just 32.1 percent from the field in the contest.
Northwestern enters Sunday's game leading the nation with a 1.77 assist-to-turnover ratio, paced by Dave Sobolewski. The freshman point guard ranks second individually in the category with a stellar 4.42 ratio, dishing out 53 assists with just 12 turnovers.
NU has a 45-3 home record against unranked opponents over the last four seasons, though two of those losses have come against Penn State.
Last Season: Penn State won both regular-season meetings a year ago. The Nittany Lions won 65-41 Feb. 13 in University Park and 66-52 Feb. 24 in Evanston.
SCOUTING PENN STATE
• The Nittany Lions (8-6, 0-1 Big Ten) are coming off a 71-53 loss at Michigan on Thursday in their league opener. Tim Frazier led Penn State with 20 points.
• Frazier averages a team-leading 17.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game for the Nittany Lions. He has led Penn State in scoring in 11 of its first 14 games.
• PSU ranks third in the Big Ten with a rebounding margin of +6.1.
• Patrick Chambers is in his first season as the head coach at Penn State. He was previously the head coach at Boston University.
SUNDAY'S HONORARY CAPTAIN
The honorary captain for Sunday's game is Northwestern graduate student and United States Army captain Kenny Doleac. A native of Portland, Ore., Doleac attended West Point where he played basketball for four years. He became a blackhawk helicopter pilot in the Army and served for seven years. He was deployed twice to Iraq with the 1st Calvary Division. He finished his service in May 2011 and is enrolled in NU's Kellogg School of Managment. He is the brother of Michael Doleac who played collegiate basketball at Utah and in the NBA for 10 seasons.
A CHALLENGING ROAD AHEAD
The Wildcats will have plenty of opportunities in their upcoming schedule to earn quality wins. Last Thursday's contest at Creighton began a stretch during which Northwestern plays five ranked teams over a seven-game span. A sixth team--Illinois--was ranked a week ago, but not in the Dec. 26 polls.
CRAWFORD NEARS 1,000-POINT CLUB
Junior forward Drew Crawford enters tonight's game with 981 career points. With 19 more points, he'll be the 31st Wildcat to reach the 1,000 career-point milestone. He'll also be the 17th Northwestern player to reach the mark in his first three seasons of action.
STARTING FAST
Northwestern started its season 10-1 for the third time in school history, matching the 1982-83 and 2009-10 teams. It's the best start for the Wildcats since beginning the 1930-31 season with a school-record 12 straight wins. Northwestern set a school record this year with six victories in the month of November after going a perfect 5-0 in the month last season. NU has won 16 of its 17 games in the month of November over the last three seasons.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
The Wildcats have some big shoes to fill in the backcourt with the graduation of Michael Thompson. A four-year starter, Thompson completed his career at NU's all-time leader in games played, games started, minutes played and assists, while ranking third all-time in scoring. Freshman Dave Sobolewski has stepped in valiantly in his stead. Through 13 games, all starts, Sobolewski is averaging 7.9 points and 4.1 assists per game and has committed just 12 turnovers in 433 minutes of action to go along with 53 assists. He scored a collegiate-best 16 points in a Nov. 25 victory vs. Stony Brook and hit five 3-pointers in a win over Texas Southern Dec. 15. Sobolewski posted a career-high eight assists with no turnovers Dec. 22 at No. 23/21 Creighton.
Nation's Assist-to-Turnover Ratio Leaders
(min. 3.0 assists/game; through 12/29)
1. Roy Devyn Marble--Iowa, So. - 4.50
2. Dave Sobolewski--NU, Fr. - 4.42
3. Kendall Marshall--N. Carolina, So. - 4.21
4. Randy Davis--Ball State, Sr. - 3.84
5. Andrew Rogers--Maine, Sr. - 3.77
HELPING HAND
Northwestern is well known for playing "team" offense and that's reflected in the statistics. The Wildcats lead the nation with a 1.77 assist-to-turnover ratio this season. NU ranked second in the nation to only Wisconsin with a 1.70 mark a year ago. NU ranks fifth in the nation with an avereage of just 9.9 turnovers per contest. The 'Cats finished third nationally with an average of only 9.9 turnovers per game during the 2010-11 season.
DYNAMIC DUO
We're not sure which one is Batman and which one is Robin, but senior John Shurna and junior Drew Crawford have already shown that they form a pretty formidable 1-2 punch. Shurna leads the Big Ten with an average of 18.8 points per game, while Crawford is the Big Ten's second-leading scorer with a norm of 17.7 points per contest. They join Ken Horton and Kyle Vinales of Central Connecticut State (Northeast Conference) as the only teammates in the nation to rank 1-2 in their league in scoring average.
SHOOTING FOR THE TOP
Northwestern's scoring record of 1,900 career points has stood since 1977 when Billy McKinney completed his collegiate eligibility. John Shurna is currently in fourth place on NU's career scoring list with 1,621 career points. He jumped up three spots with his 32-point performance against Eastern Illinois Dec. 18. Shurna scored a school single-season record 619 points as a sophomore and 531 points last season as a junior. He is the active Big Ten career leader with 32 games of scoring 20 or more points.
UP NEXT...
Northwestern returns to action at 6 p.m. Wednesday as it hosts Illinois at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
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