Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Michigan In Review
2/7/2018 11:21:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
He fights out of the bantamweight division, and needs an eight-foot ladder to dunk, and appears angelic enough that any mother would trust him to date her daughter. But make no mistake. There is a blaze in the belly of 'Cat coach Chris Collins and it roars like a thunderclap over the plains. It is the trait that was imbued in him during those one-on-one games on the family driveway against his competitive dad Doug; the trait that propelled him to greatness at Glenbard North and to a starring role at Duke; the trait that allowed him to fearlessly accept a challenge so daunting that many thought it impregnable.
He conquered it, of course, guiding the 'Cats to their first NCAA tourney appearance, and in its wake came another first, a preseason ranking. But they were bounced badly by Texas Tech, bounced similarly by Oklahoma, bounced enough that their losses counted into double figures, and with that their public perception was appreciably altered. No longer were they their sport's darlings, the little engine that could. Now they were underachievers, the one-hit wonders.
But this hardly tempered their coach's innate fire and so there it was on public display Tuesday night shortly after his team had shut down No. 20 Michigan in the second half and toppled them by nine. "For us to hold them to 20 points in the second half, 52 overall, makes me really proud of the defense, the fight," he said in the opening of his post-game press conference, and then came a bit of sarcasm as obvious as a zit on Mona Lisa's nose.
"I know there's so much wrong with us and it's a disastrous season and everybody's writing our obituaries and it's a lot of fun," he said here. "But I'm not sure I'm quite seeing that at six-and-six (in the Big Ten), 15-10 (overall). So really proud of my guys. They love playin' and we're just going to try and keep it going."
"I think it's funny," point Bryant McIntosh would say when asked how he felt about the 'Cats being described as virtual zombies. "I think he (Collins) tries to use it as a motivational tactic and we listen to it. But we can't let it define us. You've just got to use it as a little bit of fuel."
••••••••••
The teams had met just eight days earlier, Michigan winning by 11 at home, and so the 'Cats knew what to expect in their rematch at Allstate. "I knew after them studying film, and with his mind, it was going to put a lot of pressure on our defense," Collins said with a nod to the offensive genius of Michigan coach John Beilein. "They were going to be ready for it because they'd seen it. Sometimes teams who haven't played against our zone, it takes some time to figure out where the holes are. Obviously Michigan was ready. They were moving the ball, making shots."
They, in fact, made four-of-their-first-six shots and added three free throws and were up 10 after just five minutes on the chilly 'Cats, who here were just one-of-eight. "We came out and played very well. We had a good plan," Beilein would later say. "When they adapted to our plan, we did not adapt very well."
What was that plan and what adaptions did the 'Cats make?
"I'm not going to tell you the plan," Beilein said. "It's a switching, man-to-man zone. We were trying to read it. You've got to be so good at this— I don't know if we had a week prep we could make a big difference. It is really good. It is really good. You very, very rarely see it, especially with that length everywhere. It's got a chance to be help them win a lot of games. You can see the advantage it gives them. When we used to play the 1-3-1 when I was at West Virginia, it was so different— teams coming in on short prep or a tournament, it could give them a big advantage. It is a difficult thing to prepare for."
"It was obvious they were moving the ball very quickly," Collins said later when asked the same question. "When you play a defense the way we do, it requires talk, it requires communication, and I thought their pace, they were getting the ball up the floor and moving it quickly. We tried to make a few adjustments to slow them down a little bit. Obviously when guys get a little tired that tends to happen as well. But again. It was hard. It was a constant trying-to-adjust to what they were doing. Give our guys a lot of credit. This isn't football. I can't huddle 'em up after every play and say this is what they're doing. You've got to figure it out on the fly. Our guys did a really good job of adjusting to the things they were trying to do to us."
Here are the numbers that show just how well they did that. After surrendering 13 points in those first five minutes, they held the Wolverines to just 39 over the last 35. And after giving up those four field goals in that opening stretch, they limited the Wolverines to just 13 more over that last 35. And after looking vulnerable to an offense that was averaging 74.8 ppg, they steeled themselves and held it to a total of just 52. "We could not get open looks today," Beilein later lamented.
"They really pride themselves offensively. They have a great offensive head coach over there," said McIntosh. "We had to do our best communication of the season to get those stops and let us get out in transition and run and find shooters and make plays."
Those plays, just about all of them, were made by the 'Cats starting five, whose members this night were iron men who played big minutes and contributed all but four of their 61 points. Leading the way was McIntosh, who put up 24 and shot eight-of-11 and handed out five assists with just one turnover in his 35 minutes, and abetting him ably was Scottie Lindsey, who had 19 and seven in his 36. Vic Law also played 36, finishing with seven and seven and a pair of steals, then there was Gavin Skelly with nine rebounds in his 31 and Dererk Pardon with a pair of blocks in his 28. "I think we're playing pretty well," Collins would say soon after this quintet had finished up its work.
"Obviously for us at times our offense gets stagnant and points have been hard to come by. But I think we've strung together now four or five pretty good defensive performances. The zone has given us some life. . . . I like the fight in our guys. They look— this time of year you see a lot of teams that want to crank it up and make a push, and then you see a lot of teams that are counting down the days for the season to end. We've talked about that with our guys. Do we want to be a team that's counting down the days? Or do we want to be a team that makes a push?"
••••••••••
Collins, his death notice duly noted, is asked if he is rolling out that declaration as motivation? "I don't know," he says. "I never get too high or too low. I really don't. I've been in this thing since I was a little kid. My father was a professional athlete (starring for the '76ers and coaching the Bulls, among other things). You have to have a thick skin. You have to know when things are good, it's not as good as they will tell you. And when things are not so good, it's going to be worse. That's the nature of how things are. Hopefully they'll use it as fire. I think it's amusing that we're .500 in the league and 15-10 and it's a disaster of a season. I just think it's funny. I'm not sure how many Northwestern teams have been six-and-six after 12 games in the Big Ten in the program's history. So it's quite a disaster that is going on this year. We're going to keep playing. I know we're dead. I know we're bad. I know we have all these problems. But we're just going to keep playing and see what happens."
"We've heard that (they're dead) a lot throughout this year, and I think it's more of a pride thing for us," Scottie Lindsey soon adds. "We know how good we can be. We know the work we've put in. We know what we've accomplished. For the seniors, we don't want our last year to go out in a bad way. So we're going to keep playing hard no matter what anybody's saying about us."
"We try, as best we can, to not listen to the outside noise talking about how our season's over, how we let it slip away, we're failures," Bryant McIntosh now concludes. "We try to stay locked in. There's still a lot to play for right now. The things we want to do aren't out of reach quite yet."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
He fights out of the bantamweight division, and needs an eight-foot ladder to dunk, and appears angelic enough that any mother would trust him to date her daughter. But make no mistake. There is a blaze in the belly of 'Cat coach Chris Collins and it roars like a thunderclap over the plains. It is the trait that was imbued in him during those one-on-one games on the family driveway against his competitive dad Doug; the trait that propelled him to greatness at Glenbard North and to a starring role at Duke; the trait that allowed him to fearlessly accept a challenge so daunting that many thought it impregnable.
He conquered it, of course, guiding the 'Cats to their first NCAA tourney appearance, and in its wake came another first, a preseason ranking. But they were bounced badly by Texas Tech, bounced similarly by Oklahoma, bounced enough that their losses counted into double figures, and with that their public perception was appreciably altered. No longer were they their sport's darlings, the little engine that could. Now they were underachievers, the one-hit wonders.
But this hardly tempered their coach's innate fire and so there it was on public display Tuesday night shortly after his team had shut down No. 20 Michigan in the second half and toppled them by nine. "For us to hold them to 20 points in the second half, 52 overall, makes me really proud of the defense, the fight," he said in the opening of his post-game press conference, and then came a bit of sarcasm as obvious as a zit on Mona Lisa's nose.
"I know there's so much wrong with us and it's a disastrous season and everybody's writing our obituaries and it's a lot of fun," he said here. "But I'm not sure I'm quite seeing that at six-and-six (in the Big Ten), 15-10 (overall). So really proud of my guys. They love playin' and we're just going to try and keep it going."
"I think it's funny," point Bryant McIntosh would say when asked how he felt about the 'Cats being described as virtual zombies. "I think he (Collins) tries to use it as a motivational tactic and we listen to it. But we can't let it define us. You've just got to use it as a little bit of fuel."
••••••••••
The teams had met just eight days earlier, Michigan winning by 11 at home, and so the 'Cats knew what to expect in their rematch at Allstate. "I knew after them studying film, and with his mind, it was going to put a lot of pressure on our defense," Collins said with a nod to the offensive genius of Michigan coach John Beilein. "They were going to be ready for it because they'd seen it. Sometimes teams who haven't played against our zone, it takes some time to figure out where the holes are. Obviously Michigan was ready. They were moving the ball, making shots."
They, in fact, made four-of-their-first-six shots and added three free throws and were up 10 after just five minutes on the chilly 'Cats, who here were just one-of-eight. "We came out and played very well. We had a good plan," Beilein would later say. "When they adapted to our plan, we did not adapt very well."
What was that plan and what adaptions did the 'Cats make?
"I'm not going to tell you the plan," Beilein said. "It's a switching, man-to-man zone. We were trying to read it. You've got to be so good at this— I don't know if we had a week prep we could make a big difference. It is really good. It is really good. You very, very rarely see it, especially with that length everywhere. It's got a chance to be help them win a lot of games. You can see the advantage it gives them. When we used to play the 1-3-1 when I was at West Virginia, it was so different— teams coming in on short prep or a tournament, it could give them a big advantage. It is a difficult thing to prepare for."
"It was obvious they were moving the ball very quickly," Collins said later when asked the same question. "When you play a defense the way we do, it requires talk, it requires communication, and I thought their pace, they were getting the ball up the floor and moving it quickly. We tried to make a few adjustments to slow them down a little bit. Obviously when guys get a little tired that tends to happen as well. But again. It was hard. It was a constant trying-to-adjust to what they were doing. Give our guys a lot of credit. This isn't football. I can't huddle 'em up after every play and say this is what they're doing. You've got to figure it out on the fly. Our guys did a really good job of adjusting to the things they were trying to do to us."
Here are the numbers that show just how well they did that. After surrendering 13 points in those first five minutes, they held the Wolverines to just 39 over the last 35. And after giving up those four field goals in that opening stretch, they limited the Wolverines to just 13 more over that last 35. And after looking vulnerable to an offense that was averaging 74.8 ppg, they steeled themselves and held it to a total of just 52. "We could not get open looks today," Beilein later lamented.
"They really pride themselves offensively. They have a great offensive head coach over there," said McIntosh. "We had to do our best communication of the season to get those stops and let us get out in transition and run and find shooters and make plays."
Those plays, just about all of them, were made by the 'Cats starting five, whose members this night were iron men who played big minutes and contributed all but four of their 61 points. Leading the way was McIntosh, who put up 24 and shot eight-of-11 and handed out five assists with just one turnover in his 35 minutes, and abetting him ably was Scottie Lindsey, who had 19 and seven in his 36. Vic Law also played 36, finishing with seven and seven and a pair of steals, then there was Gavin Skelly with nine rebounds in his 31 and Dererk Pardon with a pair of blocks in his 28. "I think we're playing pretty well," Collins would say soon after this quintet had finished up its work.
"Obviously for us at times our offense gets stagnant and points have been hard to come by. But I think we've strung together now four or five pretty good defensive performances. The zone has given us some life. . . . I like the fight in our guys. They look— this time of year you see a lot of teams that want to crank it up and make a push, and then you see a lot of teams that are counting down the days for the season to end. We've talked about that with our guys. Do we want to be a team that's counting down the days? Or do we want to be a team that makes a push?"
••••••••••
Collins, his death notice duly noted, is asked if he is rolling out that declaration as motivation? "I don't know," he says. "I never get too high or too low. I really don't. I've been in this thing since I was a little kid. My father was a professional athlete (starring for the '76ers and coaching the Bulls, among other things). You have to have a thick skin. You have to know when things are good, it's not as good as they will tell you. And when things are not so good, it's going to be worse. That's the nature of how things are. Hopefully they'll use it as fire. I think it's amusing that we're .500 in the league and 15-10 and it's a disaster of a season. I just think it's funny. I'm not sure how many Northwestern teams have been six-and-six after 12 games in the Big Ten in the program's history. So it's quite a disaster that is going on this year. We're going to keep playing. I know we're dead. I know we're bad. I know we have all these problems. But we're just going to keep playing and see what happens."
"We've heard that (they're dead) a lot throughout this year, and I think it's more of a pride thing for us," Scottie Lindsey soon adds. "We know how good we can be. We know the work we've put in. We know what we've accomplished. For the seniors, we don't want our last year to go out in a bad way. So we're going to keep playing hard no matter what anybody's saying about us."
"We try, as best we can, to not listen to the outside noise talking about how our season's over, how we let it slip away, we're failures," Bryant McIntosh now concludes. "We try to stay locked in. There's still a lot to play for right now. The things we want to do aren't out of reach quite yet."
••••••
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