Northwestern University Athletics
Mississippi Valley State Primer
12/12/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
THE `CATS ENTERED THIS WEEK, exam week at the school, off a nine-point loss at No. 23 Butler, where they trailed by only three with 3:10 remaining. "We felt like we finally played high-level basketball," Tre Demps said of that game. "It was a tough loss. But we gave ourselves a chance to win. At the end of the day, especially on the road, that's all you can ask for."
THAT LOSS FOLLOWED OTHERS to Northern Iowa and Georgia Tech and dropped their record to 5-3. But now, on Sunday, they get an apparent breather when Mississippi Valley State visits Welsh-Ryan, and then they finish up their non-conference schedule with games against Central Michigan and Western Michigan, UIC and Northern Kentucky. Each appears eminently winnable, yet two recent results serve to remind that there is no such thing as a gimmee. First there was Michigan falling to New Jersey Institute of Technology, which doesn't even have a conference, and then there was Nebraska falling to Incarnate Word, which is in just its second year in Division I.
"I think everybody's seeing in college basketball, you see scores daily and you say, 'Man, how did that happen?'" Chris Collins said with a bow to those results. "I think that's where college basketball is at and all the smaller schools have now seen enough examples where it can be done. So they come into games thinking they can win. It's up to the team with the bigger reputation to come out and impose their will on the floor right away when it starts."
STARTS HAD BEEN A PROBLEM FOR THE 'CATS, who early on had trailed Houston Baptist by nine and Elon by 10 and Georgia Tech by 18. That is why Collins juggled his opening lineup at Butler, where senior Dave Sobolewski and the junior Demps replaced freshmen Vic Law and Bryant McIntosh. "I wanted to put the emphasis on the older guys to set the tone," he explained.
What tone?
"You can't work your way into a game," he said. "You've got to come in and, on the jump ball, you've got to be ready to play at a high level. You can't have breakdowns where you give teams three or four layups. You've got to start a game with a better sense of urgency. I felt putting five veterans on the floor would hopefully accomplish that and I think they did a good job."
"We felt teams didn't feel us early on in games. They didn't have any resistance when they were playing offensively," echoed Demps when asked about that tone. "We wanted to give the other teams resistance and let them know that we're here and we're going to fight and you're going to have to work your butt off to score on us. We made some mistakes early on. But we took a step in the right direction in making teams feel us and have that type of resistance so they can't score easily early on."
THE WILDCATS' LARGEST DEFICIT through the first half at Butler was the six points they were down at the break. So that starting lineup of Demps and Sobolewski, Sanjay Lumpkin and JerShon Cobb and Alex Olah did successfully set a tone. But, notably, both Demps and Cobb again struggled to score.
They were viewed, at season's start, as the linchpins of the `Cat offense. But Demps went one-for-eight against the Bulldogs while totaling just four points, and enters Sunday's affair averaging a mere 10 ppg while shooting 33.7 percent from the field. Cobb, in turn, went two-for-eight against the Bulldogs while totaling just five points, and enters Sunday's affair averaging 5.1 ppg while shooting 28.9 percent from the field. "We count on those guys to be good," Collins said of them.
"I don't want to put it all on them. It's not all on them. But obviously, when you have young guys, the young guys are going to be up-and-down. This is all new to them. So we need to rely on the guys who have been in a lot of games. We need those guys to set the tone for our team and to play well. That's a big point of emphasis for our staff, trying to get them playing well. That can help the younger guys."
ONLY ONCE THIS SEASON has Cobb, whose career has been mottled by injuries, managed to total more than two field goals in a game. Collins, asked about him, said he was not slowed by anything new. But, he added, "He's got an old body. He's battling, which I appreciate. But he's not moving the way he was able to. Now he just has to adjust and try to figure out how to be successful. Obviously, it's frustrating for him. But his attitude is great and he wants to do more, and he's trying to find that balance with what he can do physically."
Might he shut him down?
"It's a possibility," admitted Collins. "It's something ongoing with the doctors. Obviously, his long-term health is something (we're concerned about) and we want to have him for the whole year. We're going to do what we feel is best for him and our team, and follow the lead of what he wants to do. If he feels he can go out there and help us, and wants to be out there, then obviously he deserves that opportunity."
Demps, in contrast, has twice hit game-winning shots this season and totaled double-figures on five occasions. But more recently he has been in a funk, shooting just 28.9 percent (11-of-38) in the last four. "Tre has had some good moments for us," Collins said of him. "Obviously, a big key for us is getting him going. We need him to be a scorer. At time, obviously, he gets excited to want to score and may force the issue sometimes. But even when he's had good shots, he's just in one of those grooves where he hasn't shot it so well. You try to keep his spirits up. But the good thing about Tre is he's got pretty good scorer's amnesia. He goes into every game feeling pretty confident that he's going to play well."
"I don't let misses and bad games define who I am. I don't let it have a carryover effect," Demps himself soon agreed. "You just have a short-term mentality and just enjoy the game you grew up playing."
But, as Collins suggested, does he try too hard on occasion?
"Obviously, with me, I sometimes put pressure on myself," he said. "But it's one of those things, at this point, you try not to over think it. `Am I trying too hard? Am I not doing this, not doing that?' You get in the gym, you reevaluate the Xs and Os, and you move forward. There's no magic formula. You just work. That's what I've been doing this week. Working hard. Getting extra shots. Getting extra work in."
THE HARD WORK FOR ALL THE `CATS begins in just over two weeks when they open their Big Ten season at Rutgers. But right now, admitted Collins, "We're still figuring each other out, trying to find that rotation and who's going to carve what spots out."
That is why, he would soon conclude, "I'm hoping we can use these next couple weeks with these five games to continue to find ourselves as a team and go into the Big Ten with confidence. To do that, you gotta get wins. It starts Sunday. We have to be hungry for Sunday's game. We've lost three in a row. We can't start looking ahead.
"We've got to get back on the winning track Sunday."
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