Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: SIUE In Review
12/6/2015 12:39:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Quick hits from the Wildcats' 25-point win Saturday over SIU Edwardsville...
THIS WAS, in the vernacular, a comfortable victory. The 'Cats scored the first basket; fell behind 3-2 at 19:26; retook the lead 69 seconds later and never trailed after that. They led by nine at the break; went up 12 early in the second half and coasted from there, their lead never again falling below double digits.
ALEX OLAH entered this afternoon in an offensive funk and averaging a mere 6.5 shots-per-game. He had managed just five points on six shots against Virginia Tech; just four points on four shots against New Orleans; just eight points on seven shots against Missouri, and so the aim here was to get him off early. The 'Cats did that on their very first possession, feeding him down low for a baby hook. "A lot of time we run the first play just to try and get him the ball. We did and he scored, which was huge," Chris Collins said later.
""He loses confidence sometimes offensively. He has his whole career. That's who he is. He's gotten better with that. But I thought the last couple of games he lost his confidence offensively. So for him to see the ball go in, especially in the first half, I saw him kind of being back to the Alex we need."
"If you look at my trend, I always struggle in non-conference," said Olah himself. "I don't know why, but I just try to stay positive every game. I work on my shots. I work on everything. I watch film with (assistant) Coach (Brian) James. I realized I was not playing strong. I was not playing physical. That's one thing I changed. I tried to demand the ball, get deep position and go through their body, not fading away."
OLAH BROKE OUT of his offensive funk on this afternoon, ending it with a team-high 21 points and a team-high 15 shots. "I knew I had a (bad) stretch," he would say, "and I just said, 'This is it. I can't have any more games when I score four points or whatever.' I'm a senior. I have to lead this team. I need people to trust me, that I can score down low. I need to help Tre (Demps), and I need to help B Mac (Bryant McIntosh) and help everybody. The way for me to do that is to play well and dominate the center position every night."
"I've said it a lot with Alex. The power of confidence and belief and work," said Collins. "He's put the work in. He's a much different player now than when he was a younger guy. I just liked the way he responded. There was no one who was more frustrated after Virginia Tech than Alex. He knew he should have been more efficient offensively, and he really worked the last couple of days. I could sense it in the locker room before the game. I just felt he was ready to break out and he did, which was great."
THE FRESHMAN FORWARD AARON FALZON was the 'Cats other big scorer this afternoon, ending it with 17 points. He not only buried five straight threes in a nine-minute stretch spanning the end of the first half and the beginning of the second. He also got off the quote-of-the-day when asked how big the basket looked to him during his torrid run. "It's pretty big every day," he said with a shooter's grin.
THE 'CATS put up 81 points even though Tre Demps and Bryant McIntosh, their leading scorers, combined for just six of their 30 field goals. This was not insignificant. "I think we're showing, with our shooting ability, if you want to take those two guys out of the game, that we can hurt you with other guys. That's good going forward," Collins would say, explaining why. "We have shooters. We have big guys who can score. I thought it was good for the other guys, the whole team-- they only get 18 of our 81 points. We got a lot of production from a lot of other guys, which was tremendous."
This echoed an observation he had made back in the preseason. "I think we can be a strength-in-numbers type of team," he said then. "We're going to be the kind of team that, on a given night, there can be a different leading scorer. There's five or six guys to me that could, on a given night, lead us in scoring. For me figuring out how to use what we have to our advantage, I've always felt that's what coaching is. Coaching is not just me saying this is how we're going to play. Coaching is looking at the group you have and saying, 'OK, what do we have? What are we good at? Let's devise a system and a plan to utilize those things.'"
THE PLAN now looks like this. Olah or Joey van Zegeren as the center. Sanjay Lumpkin or Gavin Skelly as the, let's call it the dirty-work forward. ("Similar-type guys. Energy guys who bring physicality, rebounding, toughness," said Collins.) Falzon or Nathan Taphorn or Scottie Lindsey as the shooting forward. ("I just go with whoever has it rolling," said Collins.) Then there are the guards.
DEMPS AND McINTOSH are clearly the 'Cats Prime Time Players. But they are mortal, and the season is a marathon, and they must be preserved for the rigors of March. That is why, on Saturday, freshman Jordan Ash was not the only one to see time at guard. Lindsey did too. "Scotty is a guy who can slide over and play there a little bit," explained Collins. "What I'm trying to do is get Bryant and Tre a little more rest.
"We're so much better when they're on the floor. But I really thought I didn't do a good job in the Virginia Tech game of getting Tre some rest early. I thought he was tired in the second half. He was like two-of-11 in the second half, and some of that was just fatigue. Scottie. Jordan. Those are guys who have to be ready."
AND FINALLY: A pair of big picture observations as the 'Cats pass the quarter-pole of their regular season a sparkling 7-1. The first came from Collins last Thursday when he was asked what he had learned about his team in the past three weeks. "I'm finding out we have a team of fighters, which has been nice," he said here. "We've won some close games that could have gone either way. We've had to dig down, make plays, get stops. We've had to come back from deficits and grind out some games. That shows a lot about the heart of the team. I like that."
The other came Saturday when he was asked his feelings moving forward. "I'm just looking to win the next game really," he said now. "I know you can say that's b.s., whatever. I just want to win the next game in front of us, and I want to play good basketball. I want to play good basketball. I want to feel we're getting better. I want there to be a good chemistry. I just want there to be a good feel about our team. And I do feel that.
"Even in the game that we did lose to North Carolina, I might have felt the best after that game than any other game because when we walked into that locker room I saw a team that believed they could be good. They played against maybe the best team in the country, and we lost the game and we were disappointed with that. But I saw looks on guys' faces (that said), 'You know what, guys? We can do some things this year.'
"I felt really good about that."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Quick hits from the Wildcats' 25-point win Saturday over SIU Edwardsville...
THIS WAS, in the vernacular, a comfortable victory. The 'Cats scored the first basket; fell behind 3-2 at 19:26; retook the lead 69 seconds later and never trailed after that. They led by nine at the break; went up 12 early in the second half and coasted from there, their lead never again falling below double digits.
ALEX OLAH entered this afternoon in an offensive funk and averaging a mere 6.5 shots-per-game. He had managed just five points on six shots against Virginia Tech; just four points on four shots against New Orleans; just eight points on seven shots against Missouri, and so the aim here was to get him off early. The 'Cats did that on their very first possession, feeding him down low for a baby hook. "A lot of time we run the first play just to try and get him the ball. We did and he scored, which was huge," Chris Collins said later.
""He loses confidence sometimes offensively. He has his whole career. That's who he is. He's gotten better with that. But I thought the last couple of games he lost his confidence offensively. So for him to see the ball go in, especially in the first half, I saw him kind of being back to the Alex we need."
"If you look at my trend, I always struggle in non-conference," said Olah himself. "I don't know why, but I just try to stay positive every game. I work on my shots. I work on everything. I watch film with (assistant) Coach (Brian) James. I realized I was not playing strong. I was not playing physical. That's one thing I changed. I tried to demand the ball, get deep position and go through their body, not fading away."
OLAH BROKE OUT of his offensive funk on this afternoon, ending it with a team-high 21 points and a team-high 15 shots. "I knew I had a (bad) stretch," he would say, "and I just said, 'This is it. I can't have any more games when I score four points or whatever.' I'm a senior. I have to lead this team. I need people to trust me, that I can score down low. I need to help Tre (Demps), and I need to help B Mac (Bryant McIntosh) and help everybody. The way for me to do that is to play well and dominate the center position every night."
"I've said it a lot with Alex. The power of confidence and belief and work," said Collins. "He's put the work in. He's a much different player now than when he was a younger guy. I just liked the way he responded. There was no one who was more frustrated after Virginia Tech than Alex. He knew he should have been more efficient offensively, and he really worked the last couple of days. I could sense it in the locker room before the game. I just felt he was ready to break out and he did, which was great."
THE FRESHMAN FORWARD AARON FALZON was the 'Cats other big scorer this afternoon, ending it with 17 points. He not only buried five straight threes in a nine-minute stretch spanning the end of the first half and the beginning of the second. He also got off the quote-of-the-day when asked how big the basket looked to him during his torrid run. "It's pretty big every day," he said with a shooter's grin.
THE 'CATS put up 81 points even though Tre Demps and Bryant McIntosh, their leading scorers, combined for just six of their 30 field goals. This was not insignificant. "I think we're showing, with our shooting ability, if you want to take those two guys out of the game, that we can hurt you with other guys. That's good going forward," Collins would say, explaining why. "We have shooters. We have big guys who can score. I thought it was good for the other guys, the whole team-- they only get 18 of our 81 points. We got a lot of production from a lot of other guys, which was tremendous."
This echoed an observation he had made back in the preseason. "I think we can be a strength-in-numbers type of team," he said then. "We're going to be the kind of team that, on a given night, there can be a different leading scorer. There's five or six guys to me that could, on a given night, lead us in scoring. For me figuring out how to use what we have to our advantage, I've always felt that's what coaching is. Coaching is not just me saying this is how we're going to play. Coaching is looking at the group you have and saying, 'OK, what do we have? What are we good at? Let's devise a system and a plan to utilize those things.'"
THE PLAN now looks like this. Olah or Joey van Zegeren as the center. Sanjay Lumpkin or Gavin Skelly as the, let's call it the dirty-work forward. ("Similar-type guys. Energy guys who bring physicality, rebounding, toughness," said Collins.) Falzon or Nathan Taphorn or Scottie Lindsey as the shooting forward. ("I just go with whoever has it rolling," said Collins.) Then there are the guards.
DEMPS AND McINTOSH are clearly the 'Cats Prime Time Players. But they are mortal, and the season is a marathon, and they must be preserved for the rigors of March. That is why, on Saturday, freshman Jordan Ash was not the only one to see time at guard. Lindsey did too. "Scotty is a guy who can slide over and play there a little bit," explained Collins. "What I'm trying to do is get Bryant and Tre a little more rest.
"We're so much better when they're on the floor. But I really thought I didn't do a good job in the Virginia Tech game of getting Tre some rest early. I thought he was tired in the second half. He was like two-of-11 in the second half, and some of that was just fatigue. Scottie. Jordan. Those are guys who have to be ready."
AND FINALLY: A pair of big picture observations as the 'Cats pass the quarter-pole of their regular season a sparkling 7-1. The first came from Collins last Thursday when he was asked what he had learned about his team in the past three weeks. "I'm finding out we have a team of fighters, which has been nice," he said here. "We've won some close games that could have gone either way. We've had to dig down, make plays, get stops. We've had to come back from deficits and grind out some games. That shows a lot about the heart of the team. I like that."
The other came Saturday when he was asked his feelings moving forward. "I'm just looking to win the next game really," he said now. "I know you can say that's b.s., whatever. I just want to win the next game in front of us, and I want to play good basketball. I want to play good basketball. I want to feel we're getting better. I want there to be a good chemistry. I just want there to be a good feel about our team. And I do feel that.
"Even in the game that we did lose to North Carolina, I might have felt the best after that game than any other game because when we walked into that locker room I saw a team that believed they could be good. They played against maybe the best team in the country, and we lost the game and we were disappointed with that. But I saw looks on guys' faces (that said), 'You know what, guys? We can do some things this year.'
"I felt really good about that."
••••••
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