Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Wake Forest In Review
11/29/2016 10:09:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
This was early in the second half of the 'Cats Monday night stare down with Wake Forest, and the Deacs 6-foot-10 John Collins shot and missed and grabbed the offensive rebound. 'Cat point Bryant McIntosh, trying to make a play, instinctively dug at the ball, and here he caught an inadvertent Collins' elbow that split his upper lip. He would have to come out now, he would have to be tended, and as he approached the bench he heard his coach Chris Collins shout out, "Patch him up. Patch him up."
As a child, back home in Indiana, McIntosh had idolized Jimmy Chitwood, the cool hand who drops the last-second shot that delivers tiny Hickory high a state title in the movie Hoosiers. Now hearing his coach scream those words all these years later, he will say, "For whatever reason it took me back to the movie Hoosiers. That got me going. That woke me up."
**********
Later, after the 'Cats had closed out the Deacs by seven, Collins would say, "That was a good, old-fashioned fist fight. I thought both teams' defenses were terrific tonight. I thought they took us out of a lot of what we wanted to do, and I thought we took them out of a lot of what they wanted to do."
"I thought tonight was an early conference game for both teams," echoed Wake coach Danny Manning. "I thought Northwestern came out, down the stretch, and made some really good plays. I thought we had some breakdowns offensively and defensively, and they certainly capitalized on them. With three minutes to go in the game, we were right there. Northwestern didn't let us make enough plays to win the game, and they made the plays."
They made the plays, and grabbed off a significant win, and one of their catalysts was the senior forward Sanjay Lumpkin, which was only appropriate. For, throughout his career, he has been the 'Cats glue guy, the guy who totes a lunch pail and does the dirty work, and this kind of laborer was most necessary in a game where every basket was well-earned. "It was toughness," Collins later said when asked how his team survived this evening. "We talk about it all the time. We had to will that game. That wasn't going to be a pretty game. We had to will it out with our defense. Our defense won the game."
Here are some measures of that defense's dominance. Wake entered this game averaging 86.3 ppg; this night it would put up only 58. Wake entered this game averaging 9.67 threes per game and shooting 43.9 percent from distance; this night it would make just five while shooting a mere 23.8 percent. Wake point Bryant Crawford entered this game with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.75-to-1; this night he would have far more turnovers (nine) than assists (four). Finally there was Collins, who entered this game averaging 18.8 ppg and shooting an ACC best 66.7 percent from the field (40 of 60).
He was on track to match those numbers through Monday's first 30 minutes, but then, with center Dererk Pardon out with an injured hand, Lumpkin asserted himself. "I told (assistant) Coach (Brian) James during one of the huddles to put me on him, I could give him some trouble," he later recalled. "It's tough. You've got to do the dirty work. I just had to battle him. He's always trying to post me up. I've got to push him out as far as I can so my teammates can dig and help me. It takes all five."
Those five, with Lumpkin as their Alpha, would hold Collins without a point through this one's last 15:26, and when the 'Cat closed this one out with a dunk with 12 seconds remaining, that too was appropriate. For, Collins would say, "To see the plays Sanjay Lumpkin made tonight guarding John Collins giving up six inches, tons of weight — he wouldn't let him touch the ball, he took a charge, got a strip. Sanjay Lumpkin was magnificent tonight in his own way."
**********
Bryant McIntosh had not been magnificent in this one's first half, here going two-of-eight overall and missing his only three-point attempt. This merely continued his season-long struggle with his shot, but then, six minutes after flashing back to Hoosiers, he drove, dropped a layup and set off on a performance as impressive as any cinematic epic. Twenty-four second later, on a controlled break, he slalomed through a bevy of bodies and spun home another layup to tie this one up at 42 with 11:01 remaining.
One more layup came just 37 seconds after that, and now the 'Cats were up and McIntosh was urging an already-loud Welsh-Ryan crowd to get even louder. "You go through times like that," Collins would later say, thinking of McIntosh's struggles. "The thing about Bryant, he's such a good player and he wants to play great. He's a perfectionist. One of the things with him is getting over that there is no perfect game in basketball. If you make half your shots, you're considered a tremendous shooter. That means you're going to miss half. My whole philosophy was, if you miss eight in a row, at some point you're going to make eight in a row. At the end of the day, you're going to be who you are. So my approach (as he struggled) was, 'Hey, man. You missed a bunch. Bit all that means to me is you're going to hit a stretch where you're going to be on fire.'"
McIntosh was now at the front end of that stretch and, at 7:22, he dropped a three to put the 'Cats up four. Next, at 3:45, came a cold-blooded baseline jumper to break a tie at 51 and then, at 3:13, he turned the right corner, laid in a floater while getting fouled by Collins and finished off an old-fashioned three-point play to break a tie at 53 and put the 'Cats up for good. One more jumper and one more three would follow and, when it was over, he had gone eight-of-eight overall in this second half, two-of-two on his threes and put up 19 points. "We all know that's what B Mac does," Lumpkin later said of this performance. "We all expect that out of him. He seizes that moment."
"No surprise," said Wake coach Manning. "He's a really good player. Everybody knows that. He's certainly capable of taking over a game like he did tonight."
"It's nice," McIntosh would say when asked how it felt to get off, and then he paused and exhaled audibly.
"I put a lot of pressure on myself," he finally went on. "I want to play so well because I want to win and I want to play well for my team. I have a lot of expectations for myself and this team. So when I'm not playing to what I think I'm capable of, it's frustrating and I can get down on myself. I'm really hard on myself. It's a credit to my teammates and my coaches for getting me out of it, for challenging me. I'm glad I finally performed."
**********
Later, after his team had grabbed off this important win, Collins showed up for his press not in coat-and-tie, but in a gray tee-shirt. "Little water fight in the locker room," he said.
Uh?
"The guys think it's funny when they mess up my suits," he explained. "I've learned. I do take my coat off now and my tie. I let the dress shirt take the brunt. But I have been in the gym a lot, so I just might start going bare-chested to let them know this 42-year-old guy's still got some guns. Those are fun locker rooms. When you're in games like that, and everyone knows you've been in a fight, and then you can go in the locker room and celebrate together, that's one of the most fun things of doing what I do.
"I love being in our locker room after big games like that."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
This was early in the second half of the 'Cats Monday night stare down with Wake Forest, and the Deacs 6-foot-10 John Collins shot and missed and grabbed the offensive rebound. 'Cat point Bryant McIntosh, trying to make a play, instinctively dug at the ball, and here he caught an inadvertent Collins' elbow that split his upper lip. He would have to come out now, he would have to be tended, and as he approached the bench he heard his coach Chris Collins shout out, "Patch him up. Patch him up."
As a child, back home in Indiana, McIntosh had idolized Jimmy Chitwood, the cool hand who drops the last-second shot that delivers tiny Hickory high a state title in the movie Hoosiers. Now hearing his coach scream those words all these years later, he will say, "For whatever reason it took me back to the movie Hoosiers. That got me going. That woke me up."
**********
Later, after the 'Cats had closed out the Deacs by seven, Collins would say, "That was a good, old-fashioned fist fight. I thought both teams' defenses were terrific tonight. I thought they took us out of a lot of what we wanted to do, and I thought we took them out of a lot of what they wanted to do."
"I thought tonight was an early conference game for both teams," echoed Wake coach Danny Manning. "I thought Northwestern came out, down the stretch, and made some really good plays. I thought we had some breakdowns offensively and defensively, and they certainly capitalized on them. With three minutes to go in the game, we were right there. Northwestern didn't let us make enough plays to win the game, and they made the plays."
They made the plays, and grabbed off a significant win, and one of their catalysts was the senior forward Sanjay Lumpkin, which was only appropriate. For, throughout his career, he has been the 'Cats glue guy, the guy who totes a lunch pail and does the dirty work, and this kind of laborer was most necessary in a game where every basket was well-earned. "It was toughness," Collins later said when asked how his team survived this evening. "We talk about it all the time. We had to will that game. That wasn't going to be a pretty game. We had to will it out with our defense. Our defense won the game."
Here are some measures of that defense's dominance. Wake entered this game averaging 86.3 ppg; this night it would put up only 58. Wake entered this game averaging 9.67 threes per game and shooting 43.9 percent from distance; this night it would make just five while shooting a mere 23.8 percent. Wake point Bryant Crawford entered this game with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.75-to-1; this night he would have far more turnovers (nine) than assists (four). Finally there was Collins, who entered this game averaging 18.8 ppg and shooting an ACC best 66.7 percent from the field (40 of 60).
He was on track to match those numbers through Monday's first 30 minutes, but then, with center Dererk Pardon out with an injured hand, Lumpkin asserted himself. "I told (assistant) Coach (Brian) James during one of the huddles to put me on him, I could give him some trouble," he later recalled. "It's tough. You've got to do the dirty work. I just had to battle him. He's always trying to post me up. I've got to push him out as far as I can so my teammates can dig and help me. It takes all five."
Those five, with Lumpkin as their Alpha, would hold Collins without a point through this one's last 15:26, and when the 'Cat closed this one out with a dunk with 12 seconds remaining, that too was appropriate. For, Collins would say, "To see the plays Sanjay Lumpkin made tonight guarding John Collins giving up six inches, tons of weight — he wouldn't let him touch the ball, he took a charge, got a strip. Sanjay Lumpkin was magnificent tonight in his own way."
**********
Bryant McIntosh had not been magnificent in this one's first half, here going two-of-eight overall and missing his only three-point attempt. This merely continued his season-long struggle with his shot, but then, six minutes after flashing back to Hoosiers, he drove, dropped a layup and set off on a performance as impressive as any cinematic epic. Twenty-four second later, on a controlled break, he slalomed through a bevy of bodies and spun home another layup to tie this one up at 42 with 11:01 remaining.
One more layup came just 37 seconds after that, and now the 'Cats were up and McIntosh was urging an already-loud Welsh-Ryan crowd to get even louder. "You go through times like that," Collins would later say, thinking of McIntosh's struggles. "The thing about Bryant, he's such a good player and he wants to play great. He's a perfectionist. One of the things with him is getting over that there is no perfect game in basketball. If you make half your shots, you're considered a tremendous shooter. That means you're going to miss half. My whole philosophy was, if you miss eight in a row, at some point you're going to make eight in a row. At the end of the day, you're going to be who you are. So my approach (as he struggled) was, 'Hey, man. You missed a bunch. Bit all that means to me is you're going to hit a stretch where you're going to be on fire.'"
McIntosh was now at the front end of that stretch and, at 7:22, he dropped a three to put the 'Cats up four. Next, at 3:45, came a cold-blooded baseline jumper to break a tie at 51 and then, at 3:13, he turned the right corner, laid in a floater while getting fouled by Collins and finished off an old-fashioned three-point play to break a tie at 53 and put the 'Cats up for good. One more jumper and one more three would follow and, when it was over, he had gone eight-of-eight overall in this second half, two-of-two on his threes and put up 19 points. "We all know that's what B Mac does," Lumpkin later said of this performance. "We all expect that out of him. He seizes that moment."
"No surprise," said Wake coach Manning. "He's a really good player. Everybody knows that. He's certainly capable of taking over a game like he did tonight."
"It's nice," McIntosh would say when asked how it felt to get off, and then he paused and exhaled audibly.
"I put a lot of pressure on myself," he finally went on. "I want to play so well because I want to win and I want to play well for my team. I have a lot of expectations for myself and this team. So when I'm not playing to what I think I'm capable of, it's frustrating and I can get down on myself. I'm really hard on myself. It's a credit to my teammates and my coaches for getting me out of it, for challenging me. I'm glad I finally performed."
**********
Later, after his team had grabbed off this important win, Collins showed up for his press not in coat-and-tie, but in a gray tee-shirt. "Little water fight in the locker room," he said.
Uh?
"The guys think it's funny when they mess up my suits," he explained. "I've learned. I do take my coat off now and my tie. I let the dress shirt take the brunt. But I have been in the gym a lot, so I just might start going bare-chested to let them know this 42-year-old guy's still got some guns. Those are fun locker rooms. When you're in games like that, and everyone knows you've been in a fight, and then you can go in the locker room and celebrate together, that's one of the most fun things of doing what I do.
"I love being in our locker room after big games like that."
••••••
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