Northwestern University Athletics
Georgia Tech Primer
12/2/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
His team was raw and unformed and mottled with freshman, and early last Wednesday evening it was also 5-0. But now their coach, Chris Collins, had what he desired when he and his `Cats flew south for the final two games of the Cancun Challenge. "Going into it," he recalled Tuesday, "my goal was to have a chance to play for a championship and then play a really good team and see where we stood."
This night they would indeed play for that tourney's title and opposite them would be a really good team, Northern Iowa out of the Missouri Valley. The Panthers had returned all of their starters from a season ago, had returned 91.2 percent of their scoring and 91.4 percent of their rebounding, and this night they would use their experience to school the `Cats while winning by 19. "It was a great learning experience for us," Collins reflected.
"They're the kind of team at both ends that punishes you for mistakes. You see that a lot. That's what a team like Wisconsin does. A lot of veteran guys and, when you have a breakdown, they make you pay for it. I think what our guys learned is the discipline you have to have on every possession. I thought their physicality, too, knocked us back. They were men. They were hitting us on cuts. They were hurting us on the boards. They were physical. Again, it was a great learning experience.
"But playing a game like Northern Iowa, it's only a learning experience if you learn from it, and you embrace it, and you change. We're going to have to play a lot tougher. We're going to have to play stronger. We're going to have to be more physical. And we're going to have to function offensively. You've got to screen a little bit better. You've got to cut a little bit harder. The guys are finding out. At this level, everybody's good. Sometimes, when you're a young player, it takes getting in games like that to figure that out. I think that's what happened for our group."
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On Wednesday night at Welsh-Ryan, as part of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, the `Cats will face Georgia Tech, and here is why that game will be an apt test of how well they've learned their lessons. The Yellow Jackets are coached by Chicago-native Brian Gregory, who once assisted Kevin O'Neill on the `Cat bench and--more significantly--also did the same for Tom Izzo at Michigan State. "A lot of what they do," said Collins, "tries to pattern Michigan State's style.
"The way they play offense, the way they play defense, their commitment to rebounding. They mirror a Michigan State team, which you guys know is a tough team, a physical team. We're going to have to be ready to have that mindset from the beginning of the game."
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Vic Law, one of the two freshmen in the `Cats starting lineup, was asked what he has learned through six games of his college career. "It's a process. It's a process," he said. "Things aren't going to come overnight. If you want some things to happen, you've really got to push it and you've really got to put the time in. Things aren't just going to come by themselves. One game you're not just going to play unbelievable. You've got to work each day in the week to try and do that."
He was now asked about this comment from Collins, who just before his team departed from Cancun had said, "Some of these guys, they don't quite fully believe me when I tell them how tough it is to play at this level." Does he understand that now?
"Each game is a challenge. Each game is its new, own beast," Law said. "Preparation like this is how you win each game. When you come in before practice and (stay) after practice to shoot, and go in and watch film and do different things like that. That's how you win games like this, and each game gets more challenging. From now on it is going to be that way, so I feel you've got to put in even more time after practice and behind the scenes to get better."
After that UNI game, Collins himself was later asked, does his team better understand how hard it is to win at this level?
"Well, I hope so. I hope so," he said with a chuckle.
And going through that, is that part of the process referred to by Law?
"I think so. Yeah. I think so. Look. Very few guys are going to come out and set the world on fire. You've got to come out and you've got to adjust to a new level. That's where you've got to rely on your veterans. Those guys, they have been through the fires. They get it and they can do a great job, even better than I can, of helping those guys (the freshmen) while the fight is going on out there. That's what we need from them."
QUICKLY NOTED: One of those veterans, senior JerShon Cobb, struggled mightily against UNI, ending that night with no points and no rebounds in 16 minutes. For the year he is averaging just 5.7 ppg on 31.3 percent shooting. "He's trying to adjust because of some of his physical limitations," Collins said of Cobb, who during his career has suffered a torn labrum, a knee injury and stress fractures to both his feet. "Some of the stuff he's been able to do his whole life he maybe can't do. You see it with all players as they go through injuries and get a little older. You've got to figure out how you can be successful. I think he'll bounce back. He'll learn how he can be more successful.". . . After opening their season with six games in 12 days, the `Cats have been off since that UNI loss and so had the opportunity for some real practices instead of mere walk-throughs. "When you have young players, you need to be practicing because all this stuff is new to them," Collins said, explaining the importance of this. "So it was good to get home and have a couple days on the practice floor and hopefully get better at some of the things we struggled."
AND FINALLY, Collins, on Wednesday's game and Saturday's at Butler: "We have to take the next step. This is a big week for us. We play two really good teams, two physical, hard-nosed teams that are from power conferences. These are going to simulate Big Ten games. So it's a great week for us to see if we can turn the page from UNI and figure out a way to win."
