Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Western Michigan Primer
12/6/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 6, 2013
NUsports.com Special Contributor Skip Myslenski checks in with a Friday practice report for Northwestern men's basketball heading into the Wildcats' home game with Western Michigan on Saturday.
LAST WEDNESDAY, as their losing streak grew to three at North Carolina State, the `Cats shot just 25 percent from the field (13-of-52) and had only two players (Drew Crawford and Tre Demps) manage more than a single field goal. Still, the afternoon before their Saturday date at Welsh-Ryan with Western Michigan, Chris Collins avowed, "Looking at the tape, I actually thought we got real good shots. Alex (Olah) got eight shots right by the basket (and made one). You've got to finish. Drew had some shots around the basket. JerShon (Cobb) had some shots around the basket (and made none). Our threes were wide-open shots. It's always easy to say at the end, `Man, the offense wasn't working.' You get the same shots against UIC and you score 93 points because they go in. We have to make open shots and, when we do have opportunities, we have to finish."
"Our offense, with the exception of NC State, hasn't been bad at all," echoed point Dave Sobolewski. "It's our defense that's really struggling right now. We've got to really dig in on the defensive end if we want to dig out of this hole."
THAT MAY SOUND counter-intuitive coming off a game when the `Cats put up just 48 points. But here is the grist that supports Sobolewski's contention. The Wolfpack, on Wednesday, scored 69 in a runaway and shot 45.9 percent from the field. This came after UCLA scored 95 on 63.6 percent shooting in their win over the `Cats last Friday and after, a day earlier, Missouri scored 78 on 54.3 percent shooting in their own win. "We've lost a lot of our habits overall. That's something we've been harping on over the last few days, getting back to some of our defensive habits," said guard Tre Demps. "Our rotations. Ball-screen defense. Transition defense. It's been good to work on those things."
"Absolutely," agreed Sobolewski when asked about that. "If you watch us earlier in the year, maybe the opponents weren't as good, but still our defensive principles were much better, we were much sharper on the defensive end. Some of our principles and ideas on defense have been slipping. We've really got to improve on that end of the floor. We've got to defend if we want to win. That's our mindset right now. We're trying to improve on that end of the floor and get a win tomorrow."
THAT DEFENSE has been nicked most down low. N.C. State scored 38 of their 69 points in the paint. Missouri scored 40 of their 78 there, and UCLA got 36 of their 95 there even as they hit 13-of-their-17 three-point attempts. "Offensive rebounds and transition. Those are two weaknesses," said Collins. "We have to do a good job of getting back, being able to set our defense and then, when that initial shot goes up--we've done a pretty good job of defending team's offenses. It's been second-chance points that have really hurt us. It has to be a group effort. We're undersized. So we have to have guards down there getting rebounds. It has to be a collective effort for the group we have."
THE `CATS are especially undersized when Olah and Nikola Cerina, their two wide-bodies, are in foul trouble. That is one reason why they have often rolled out a two-three zone. The other reason, said Collins, is "I think it's important you show different looks. You have to play a little bit of man, a little bit of zone, maybe some different zones. As we progress, we have to add to that. We have to continue to work on our defense. It's something that's a work in progress."
"It's definitely worked for us at times," Sobolewski said of the two-three. "But our bread-and-butter has to be our man-to-man half-court defense and we haven't done a good enough job with that."
THIS IS WHERE we circle back to the `Cat offense, which still features a plethora of threes. Little comes easy for it, a truism buttressed by these stark stats: it had no fast break points against the Wolfpack, none against the Bruins as well and only two against Missouri. "Wow. I didn't know that," Sobolewski said when he heard those figures. "A big part of that, though, is when the other team's scoring a lot of baskets, it's hard to get out and go. When teams are taking tough shots and there are long rebounds, it's much easier to get out on the fast break. So, like I say, it really seems that everything now is coming back to our defense and our defensive rebounding, which has also been hurting us lately."
"Yeah. Yeah. In order to run, you've got to stop people," agreed Collins. "And the problem is, for us, we have a hard time forcing turnovers. We don't have guys out in passing lanes. Our defense is a little more compact. We're undersized and have to protect the paint. So we're not going to get those run-outs off of turnovers. That's part of it. But you guys know, I've talked about it all along. I want our guys to push the ball. We want to pass ahead. Part of that is a mentality we have to continue to get to...If you get easy baskets, it's going to really help your offensive efficiency. We have to continue to try to find ways to do that."
THE `CATS play at home for the first time in 11 days when they host Western Michigan on Saturday and then are busy with finals until facing Mississippi Valley State on Dec. 16. "Taking pride on the defensive end. We haven't done that the last three nights," Sobolewski will finally say when asked what he hopes to see against the Broncos. "We have a break coming up, so we really have to dig in on defense and take pride on each-and-every possession."
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