Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Illinois Preview
12/1/2017 11:33:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Last March they were the Kids of the Moment, the debutantes at basketball's biggest dance, the anointed ones who finally earned the 'Cats their first invite to the NCAA tourney. This November, with their core back, they surrendered 75 points to Loyola (MD) and 66 to St. Peter's, 92 to Creighton and 74 to La Salle and 85 to Texas Tech while losing by 36. "We need to get cohesive again as a unit defensively. We need to get back to what we did before, which is playing defense and then scoring points," Vic Law will say early Thursday afternoon.
"We really hang our hat on defense and that's what we need to get back to doing. Playing defense. Then the offense will come. I'm not really worried about offensive things now. I just think defensively we need to lock in better. We really need to get back to being a blue collar team that works hard for everything, that knows we're not going to be given anything. We have to play like that and I don't think we have been."
"We got away from— we were a little undisciplined. We were just really undisciplined," Bryant McIntosh will add minutes later. "A lack of concentration. A lack of paying attention to the game plan. It wasn't anything the coaches were doing. At times you can kind of lose yourself. It's really easy. It's a long season. A lot has happened in the last year. You can become a little more confident and kind of lose what got you to where you were. I thought we had to have a little bit of a reality check. I think we're starting to get back to it. But we've got a lot more room to improve."
Bluntly put, did they get big heads?
"Maybe some of us. I don't want to think that though. I don't think that was the case," says McIntosh. "I really just think we lost touch, and then you lose what made us successful. We just kinda thought it would naturally happen."
"As a coach you take responsibility for some of that. It's my responsibility to keep these guys on track and to prepare them the right way for a season," Chris Collins then says. "The things we went through at the end of last year, that carries over into an off-season. You're hearing a lot of praise. You're being told how good you are. You have a lot of guys back. I think everybody, coaches included, you have a tendency to just assume that you're going to be that same team and that you're going to have those same habits and that you're going to play that same way instead of understanding that you've got to get on the practice floor in the summer, you've got to get to work in the fall and you've got to redevelop all of those habits. We got away from that a little bit. Now we did have some injuries, where guys missed a lot of practice time. But it doesn't take much at this level. For us, we have good talent. But for us to be good we need everybody locked in. We need five guys connected on both ends. The good thing is, these guys know. We're working. . . . (But) we've had to learn the hard way, through some tough losses."
So did they, as McIntosh suggested, forget what got 'em there?
"In some respects, yeah," Collins says. "You know you have a veteran team. You know you have a lot of guys who've been around. I just think we all got away from redeveloping the habits— I talk about it all the time. Every season is new and every season is different. You have to go back square one even if you have a lot of guys back. I think we all just kind of assumed, with seven veterans back, four returning starters, that those same habits, that that same togetherness, that same cohesiveness that we had was just going to be there. We didn't take the time with our drills, with our habits day-to-day, to relearn those things. We're doing it now. We've had to learn some tough lessons. That's why we didn't play so well our first five games. But now we're seeing some improvement."
••••••••••
That improvement followed the spanking the Red Raiders gave them at the Hall of Fame Tip-Off in Connecticut, where they received a message they could not ignore if they hoped to salvage their young season. So they took a glance at their condition; and responded by holding Sacred Heart to 50 in an easy win at home and Georgia Tech to 52 in their one-point loss Tuesday in Atlanta; and with that better prepared themselves for their Big Ten opener Friday night against Illinois at the Allstate Arena. "Sometimes, when you're going through tough times, you've got to go back to the basics," Chris Collins will say when asked the cause of that improvement.
"It starts with me. The guys know, the person I'm most critical of is myself. Me and my staff have to do a better job with these guys, preparing them for games, getting their habits right. What we wanted to do when we came back from Connecticut— you lose a game like that, you have to really look in the mirror and look at yourself and say, 'OK. What are we all doing that's leading to something like that?' We just wanted to go back to the basics. For a lot of us, we felt we didn't approach the preseason the way that we should have. I say we, not them. The way I coached the guys. The way we worked. We didn't approach it the way we should have and we've had to learn a couple hard lessons because of that. We all realized we had to get back to work. We had to all rededicate ourselves. That's the only way you find it. It doesn't just magically appear."
"We're the same team. In practice we just ramped it up," Vic Law says when asked about the change. "We've practiced a lot harder. We're doing thing more sharply, more crisply. We're really paying more attention to the details of basketball rather than just making or missing shots or getting rebounds. We're making sure that everything from rotations to blocking out to being help side to talking is 100 percent. That's what we need to win games."
"A lot of it is attention to detail, and seeing how hard we have to compete and play," McIntosh says. "The Texas Tech game really woke us up. Having to go through that, unfortunately, is what it took for us to see the mistakes we were making. We had to have that reality check. We had to understand who we were at the moment. At the time we were the team that got beat by 36 on ESPN. We thought we were really good. We were ranked. We had a false sense of reality, and we got put in check real quick. It was time we understood it. And if we wanted to do something about it, it was time for us to change."
Was he surprised that such a veteran group, which should know better, lost its way?
"We should. So it's surprising. It's disappointing," McIntosh finally says. "But you can't change it now. What's happened has happened. The only thing we can do now— we have to deserve to win. Recently we haven't. It's our job to get back to work and deserve to win."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Last March they were the Kids of the Moment, the debutantes at basketball's biggest dance, the anointed ones who finally earned the 'Cats their first invite to the NCAA tourney. This November, with their core back, they surrendered 75 points to Loyola (MD) and 66 to St. Peter's, 92 to Creighton and 74 to La Salle and 85 to Texas Tech while losing by 36. "We need to get cohesive again as a unit defensively. We need to get back to what we did before, which is playing defense and then scoring points," Vic Law will say early Thursday afternoon.
"We really hang our hat on defense and that's what we need to get back to doing. Playing defense. Then the offense will come. I'm not really worried about offensive things now. I just think defensively we need to lock in better. We really need to get back to being a blue collar team that works hard for everything, that knows we're not going to be given anything. We have to play like that and I don't think we have been."
"We got away from— we were a little undisciplined. We were just really undisciplined," Bryant McIntosh will add minutes later. "A lack of concentration. A lack of paying attention to the game plan. It wasn't anything the coaches were doing. At times you can kind of lose yourself. It's really easy. It's a long season. A lot has happened in the last year. You can become a little more confident and kind of lose what got you to where you were. I thought we had to have a little bit of a reality check. I think we're starting to get back to it. But we've got a lot more room to improve."
Bluntly put, did they get big heads?
"Maybe some of us. I don't want to think that though. I don't think that was the case," says McIntosh. "I really just think we lost touch, and then you lose what made us successful. We just kinda thought it would naturally happen."
"As a coach you take responsibility for some of that. It's my responsibility to keep these guys on track and to prepare them the right way for a season," Chris Collins then says. "The things we went through at the end of last year, that carries over into an off-season. You're hearing a lot of praise. You're being told how good you are. You have a lot of guys back. I think everybody, coaches included, you have a tendency to just assume that you're going to be that same team and that you're going to have those same habits and that you're going to play that same way instead of understanding that you've got to get on the practice floor in the summer, you've got to get to work in the fall and you've got to redevelop all of those habits. We got away from that a little bit. Now we did have some injuries, where guys missed a lot of practice time. But it doesn't take much at this level. For us, we have good talent. But for us to be good we need everybody locked in. We need five guys connected on both ends. The good thing is, these guys know. We're working. . . . (But) we've had to learn the hard way, through some tough losses."
So did they, as McIntosh suggested, forget what got 'em there?
"In some respects, yeah," Collins says. "You know you have a veteran team. You know you have a lot of guys who've been around. I just think we all got away from redeveloping the habits— I talk about it all the time. Every season is new and every season is different. You have to go back square one even if you have a lot of guys back. I think we all just kind of assumed, with seven veterans back, four returning starters, that those same habits, that that same togetherness, that same cohesiveness that we had was just going to be there. We didn't take the time with our drills, with our habits day-to-day, to relearn those things. We're doing it now. We've had to learn some tough lessons. That's why we didn't play so well our first five games. But now we're seeing some improvement."
••••••••••
That improvement followed the spanking the Red Raiders gave them at the Hall of Fame Tip-Off in Connecticut, where they received a message they could not ignore if they hoped to salvage their young season. So they took a glance at their condition; and responded by holding Sacred Heart to 50 in an easy win at home and Georgia Tech to 52 in their one-point loss Tuesday in Atlanta; and with that better prepared themselves for their Big Ten opener Friday night against Illinois at the Allstate Arena. "Sometimes, when you're going through tough times, you've got to go back to the basics," Chris Collins will say when asked the cause of that improvement.
"It starts with me. The guys know, the person I'm most critical of is myself. Me and my staff have to do a better job with these guys, preparing them for games, getting their habits right. What we wanted to do when we came back from Connecticut— you lose a game like that, you have to really look in the mirror and look at yourself and say, 'OK. What are we all doing that's leading to something like that?' We just wanted to go back to the basics. For a lot of us, we felt we didn't approach the preseason the way that we should have. I say we, not them. The way I coached the guys. The way we worked. We didn't approach it the way we should have and we've had to learn a couple hard lessons because of that. We all realized we had to get back to work. We had to all rededicate ourselves. That's the only way you find it. It doesn't just magically appear."
"We're the same team. In practice we just ramped it up," Vic Law says when asked about the change. "We've practiced a lot harder. We're doing thing more sharply, more crisply. We're really paying more attention to the details of basketball rather than just making or missing shots or getting rebounds. We're making sure that everything from rotations to blocking out to being help side to talking is 100 percent. That's what we need to win games."
"A lot of it is attention to detail, and seeing how hard we have to compete and play," McIntosh says. "The Texas Tech game really woke us up. Having to go through that, unfortunately, is what it took for us to see the mistakes we were making. We had to have that reality check. We had to understand who we were at the moment. At the time we were the team that got beat by 36 on ESPN. We thought we were really good. We were ranked. We had a false sense of reality, and we got put in check real quick. It was time we understood it. And if we wanted to do something about it, it was time for us to change."
Was he surprised that such a veteran group, which should know better, lost its way?
"We should. So it's surprising. It's disappointing," McIntosh finally says. "But you can't change it now. What's happened has happened. The only thing we can do now— we have to deserve to win. Recently we haven't. It's our job to get back to work and deserve to win."
••••••
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