Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Maryland In Review
2/16/2017 1:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Here is one thing Chris Collins said Wednesday night after his 'Cats went 23-of-59 overall (39 percent) and five-of-22 (22.7 percent) on threes in their meeting with No. 23 Maryland. "It was one of those nights. We just couldn't put it in the basket. Against a really good team, you're not going to be able to get away with that."
Then here is another thing Chris Collins said Wednesday night after the Terps had out-rebounded the 'Cats by nine and had shot 50 percent overall (27-of-54) and 44.4 percent on threes (eight-of-18). "I thought we were a bit slow to everything tonight. I thought they were a little bit quicker. I thought our heads were in the right place. We were definitely ready to play the game. We prepared well for the game. But we were a little bit slower to the ball than we normally are."
Finally here is what Terp coach Mark Turgeon said Wednesday night after his star, guard Melo Trimble, went for a career-high 32 while going 12-of-17 (70.6 percent) overall and four-of-five (80 percent) on his threes. "Melo's a great player. He showed that tonight. I just told Melo to play with confidence. He's got to have the confidence. I can't give it to him. His mom can't give it to him. He's got to have it. He's got to be borderline cocky out there, and I think he played that way a little bit tonight. It was pretty obvious he had another gear tonight. He looked fast."
Those are the three observations that explain well enough why the Terps exited Welsh-Ryan Wednesday night with a 10-point win. They were fast. The 'Cats were slow. They shot lights out. The 'Cats scatter shot.
••••••••••
The 'Cats, off their big Sunday win at Wisconsin, were again without leading scorer Scottie Lindsey when they trotted out to face the Terps. They had, in his absence, put up just 59 points against Purdue and 61 points against Illinois and 66 points against the Badgers, and so here it was clear how they would have to win this game. "We've won with defense when we've played without him," Collins would explain. "We're not capable right now of throwing up 75, 80 points. We don't have enough fire power. So we have to win games 65-60. Maryland's very potent offensively. They score the ball and we could't match that. I thought for stretches our defense was very good. Especially in the first half, we could have been down big."
The 'Cats defense was indeed good through the first half, holding the Terps to 32 points over those 20 minutes. But here is how mightily their own offense struggled. They got a dunk from Dererk Pardon at 19:29, and they got a three from Isiah Brown at 15:55, and they got another dunk from Pardon at 9:47, and over that stretch they missed their 13 other shots. Bryant McIntosh would not get his first points until eight minutes remained in the half, and just 5:54 remained when Vic Law got his, but here they were down only six.
At halftime their deficit was still a manageable 10, and it was that again when Nathan Taphorn dropped a three with 16:19 remaining in the game. But now Trimble hit a three, and Taphorn's three rattled in-and-out, and the Terps went one-of-two from the line, and Law missed an eight-footer in the paint, and Trimble hit one more three to put his team up 17 just 84 seconds later at 14:55. "I could have guarded him better," Law later said of the Terp, who was also guarded by Sanjay Lumpkin. "Early, I did a good job. I had a couple blocks, I kept him out of the lane. But then I let him go. I wore down. On the pick-and-rolls, he got a lot of space between me and the ball screen. I could have done a better job of getting over the ball screens and being more active defensively on him."
"What we didn't do a great job of, he's very shifty," echoed Collins. "You've got to do a good job of staying between him and the basket. I thought he was able to split the ball screens a few times. He was able to get angles to the basket and he got layups. As a player, when you get layups, then the basket looks really big when it comes to your jump shot. He's tough to guard, especially when he's got it rolling like that."
••••••••••
The 'Cats would go down by 20 before they finally flurried behind the freshman Isiah Brown, whose layup-and-one at 6:32 stirred a Welsh-Ryan crowd that had fallen silent. At 4:58, when he dropped a three to bring them within a dozen, that crowd was back in full cry, and it was louder still at 3:16 when Lumpkin cut it to nine off a pretty drive-and-dish from Law. "I thought he was confident tonight," Collins later said of Brown, who finished with a team-high 19.
"He's not afraid out there. He's going to attack. That's what he knows how to do, and he can really score the ball. What he's learned this year little by little is how to be more efficient with that. We needed him to be aggressive. We needed him to attack. We were having a hard time scoring and that's something he does really well."
But now, with a chance to cut the 'Cat deficit to six, Brown missed a three over Trimble, and now the Terps made foul shots enough over the last two minutes to escape with their 74-64 win. "Maryland is honestly a real good team," a brutally-honest Vic Law would then avow soon enough. "I think when you come into a game like this, especially off a Wisconsin win, you can't be sluggish from the last win. You can't still be thinking, 'We still beat Wisconsin.' When you play a team like this that's just as good as Wisconsin, they can put you in a hole like they put us in.
"We have to be prepared day in, day out."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Here is one thing Chris Collins said Wednesday night after his 'Cats went 23-of-59 overall (39 percent) and five-of-22 (22.7 percent) on threes in their meeting with No. 23 Maryland. "It was one of those nights. We just couldn't put it in the basket. Against a really good team, you're not going to be able to get away with that."
Then here is another thing Chris Collins said Wednesday night after the Terps had out-rebounded the 'Cats by nine and had shot 50 percent overall (27-of-54) and 44.4 percent on threes (eight-of-18). "I thought we were a bit slow to everything tonight. I thought they were a little bit quicker. I thought our heads were in the right place. We were definitely ready to play the game. We prepared well for the game. But we were a little bit slower to the ball than we normally are."
Finally here is what Terp coach Mark Turgeon said Wednesday night after his star, guard Melo Trimble, went for a career-high 32 while going 12-of-17 (70.6 percent) overall and four-of-five (80 percent) on his threes. "Melo's a great player. He showed that tonight. I just told Melo to play with confidence. He's got to have the confidence. I can't give it to him. His mom can't give it to him. He's got to have it. He's got to be borderline cocky out there, and I think he played that way a little bit tonight. It was pretty obvious he had another gear tonight. He looked fast."
Those are the three observations that explain well enough why the Terps exited Welsh-Ryan Wednesday night with a 10-point win. They were fast. The 'Cats were slow. They shot lights out. The 'Cats scatter shot.
••••••••••
The 'Cats, off their big Sunday win at Wisconsin, were again without leading scorer Scottie Lindsey when they trotted out to face the Terps. They had, in his absence, put up just 59 points against Purdue and 61 points against Illinois and 66 points against the Badgers, and so here it was clear how they would have to win this game. "We've won with defense when we've played without him," Collins would explain. "We're not capable right now of throwing up 75, 80 points. We don't have enough fire power. So we have to win games 65-60. Maryland's very potent offensively. They score the ball and we could't match that. I thought for stretches our defense was very good. Especially in the first half, we could have been down big."
The 'Cats defense was indeed good through the first half, holding the Terps to 32 points over those 20 minutes. But here is how mightily their own offense struggled. They got a dunk from Dererk Pardon at 19:29, and they got a three from Isiah Brown at 15:55, and they got another dunk from Pardon at 9:47, and over that stretch they missed their 13 other shots. Bryant McIntosh would not get his first points until eight minutes remained in the half, and just 5:54 remained when Vic Law got his, but here they were down only six.
At halftime their deficit was still a manageable 10, and it was that again when Nathan Taphorn dropped a three with 16:19 remaining in the game. But now Trimble hit a three, and Taphorn's three rattled in-and-out, and the Terps went one-of-two from the line, and Law missed an eight-footer in the paint, and Trimble hit one more three to put his team up 17 just 84 seconds later at 14:55. "I could have guarded him better," Law later said of the Terp, who was also guarded by Sanjay Lumpkin. "Early, I did a good job. I had a couple blocks, I kept him out of the lane. But then I let him go. I wore down. On the pick-and-rolls, he got a lot of space between me and the ball screen. I could have done a better job of getting over the ball screens and being more active defensively on him."
"What we didn't do a great job of, he's very shifty," echoed Collins. "You've got to do a good job of staying between him and the basket. I thought he was able to split the ball screens a few times. He was able to get angles to the basket and he got layups. As a player, when you get layups, then the basket looks really big when it comes to your jump shot. He's tough to guard, especially when he's got it rolling like that."
••••••••••
The 'Cats would go down by 20 before they finally flurried behind the freshman Isiah Brown, whose layup-and-one at 6:32 stirred a Welsh-Ryan crowd that had fallen silent. At 4:58, when he dropped a three to bring them within a dozen, that crowd was back in full cry, and it was louder still at 3:16 when Lumpkin cut it to nine off a pretty drive-and-dish from Law. "I thought he was confident tonight," Collins later said of Brown, who finished with a team-high 19.
"He's not afraid out there. He's going to attack. That's what he knows how to do, and he can really score the ball. What he's learned this year little by little is how to be more efficient with that. We needed him to be aggressive. We needed him to attack. We were having a hard time scoring and that's something he does really well."
But now, with a chance to cut the 'Cat deficit to six, Brown missed a three over Trimble, and now the Terps made foul shots enough over the last two minutes to escape with their 74-64 win. "Maryland is honestly a real good team," a brutally-honest Vic Law would then avow soon enough. "I think when you come into a game like this, especially off a Wisconsin win, you can't be sluggish from the last win. You can't still be thinking, 'We still beat Wisconsin.' When you play a team like this that's just as good as Wisconsin, they can put you in a hole like they put us in.
"We have to be prepared day in, day out."
••••••
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