Northwestern University Athletics
Central Michigan In Review
12/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
His `Cats have just lost at home by 13 to Central Michigan and now Chris Collins is behind a microphone, ready to begin his post-game press conference. There is a protocol to follow here, and he dutifully respects that, and for a full 70 seconds he compliments the Chippewas on their preparation and performance. They deserve these accolades. They have, after all, just triumphed on the road.
But then, that obligatory bow to a victorious opponent offered, Collins turns his attention to own team and now comes this. "That being said," he says here, "I thought our effort was not up to standard, which I take very personally. I'm OK with wins and losses. But something that's unacceptable is not fighting."
There is no missing the disappointment in his voice. It here reflects the mystified parent discussing a wayward son. There is also a sadness to his visage and that recalls the famed description of Don Quixote, the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance. Now, his opening statement completed, he asks for questions, and the first one wonders what positives he takes out of a performance like the one his `Cats just offered.
"I don't take anything positive out of this game," he says here, fully capturing the nature of that performance. "I thought our energy was bad. I thought we were out-everythinged. That's a cliche. But we were out-everythinged tonight. They played harder. They fought more. They were more prepared. They were more disciplined. When they drove in and kicked, they made shots. When we did that, we didn't. We have to play much better on both ends and our defense, which for the most part has been pretty good, our defense was not there tonight."
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This game, like any game, can be parsed to death, and there were some cross currents that effected its outcome. The `Cats again started slow and so, with just over eight minutes gone, they were down seven and the Chippewas were seven-of-10 from the field. "When you let a team on the road come out and shoot 70 percent, they get confidence. They get confidence," Collins later reflected. "That's what our guys don't quite understand about the start of games. It's been a theme, especially here (at Welsh-Ryan). They get confidence. They were playing well. We didn't give them any resistance to start the game. That's got to change for us to be successful."
Guard Tre Demps, in turn, again struggled with his shot, going four-of-17 overall and 0-of-six on his threes while scoring just eight points. Point Bryant McIntosh, still a freshman, struggled as well, going five-of-14 overall and one-of-three on this threes while accumulating more turnovers (four) than assists (three). The `Cats were also out-rebounded by five, and only once held the lead (at 2-0 just 18 seconds in), and were continually laboring to escape that hole they fell into so early.
All of that contributed to their demise, yet their fatal flaw was a flaccid defense that lacked--as Collins noted--energy and fight. "We're not," he would say, "the defensive team right now that we were last year. A lot of that had to do, we had older guys last year that really bought in to that end of the floor. Although our guys are working hard and are trying, I don't think we've had a full investment. Part of that is a lot of the guys, they just don't know. They're young. That's where the guys who do know have to set the tone, and those other guys have to respond. We did not have that tonight."
That is why the `Cats were diced by the Chippewas, who entered Wednesday night shooting 42.6 percent from beyond the arc and averaging 11.9 threes-per-game.The `Cats, to counter that, extended their defense high, but here they could not control the Chippewa guards, who regularly found lanes to the basket.
That is why a trio of those guards combined for 44 points while going 15-of-28 from the field. "We couldn't," Collins later lamented, "keep the ball in front of us. Those three guards got wherever they wanted to go on the floor the whole night."
That is why the Chippewas, as a team, shot 58.3 percent overall (28-of-48) and 55.6 percent on their threes (10-of-18). "They put a lot of pressure on you," Collins later noted. "You have to be really locked in. You've got to keep the ball in front of you. You've got to help and recover. You've got to late close the shooters. I don't think we did any of those things."
That is why, finally, the Chippewas were able to maintain their early lead and were still up seven four minutes into the second half. But here the `Cats finally flurried and they got a jumper from McIntosh, got a stop, got a layup from Demps to trail by only three. The Chippewas called a time out now, but it did them no good. They immediately walked and then Vic Law had the ball in the right corner with an open look at a three. But he missed, and the Chippewas scored on their next four possessions, and the `Cats were down 11 at 11:17, and never again would they get closer than nine.
"Defense is something, if you want to do it well, you can do it well," Collins would later say. "You've just got to want to do it. Hopefully, with a night like tonight, we'll learn that we're going to have to want to do it if we're going to have any kind of success. . . . You've got to find a way. For me, I try to pride myself with teams that I'm on, let's find a way to win with what we have. It's going to take a mindset of guys to want to do that. We'll see if we have that. I can't answer that question right now. Our guys are going to have to respond."
