And now, the thrilling conclusion to our two part series: Northwestern Basketball 2011. Today, we look at the Defense.
The thrills!
The heartbreak!
The horror!
As good as Northwestern has been on offense the past 2 seasons, they have been equally bad on defense. How else can you explain finishing under .500 in conference with the 3rd best offense in the B1G? You can’t, I assure you. Last year, as Cats fans watched with disbelief, Northwestern’s defense was cut up worse than the folks in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. When fans search for reasons for our continued failure to reach the Dance, defense sits alone at the top of the list. How could things be this bad?
Blame can be assigned liberally across the team and coaches. For much of Coach Carmody’s tenure, reports surfaced that the team practiced little defense in their preparations, instead choosing to focus on mastering the complexities of our offense. At times in the early to mid-2000s, the team didn’t need to execute on the defensive end: the very slow pace of the Princeton Offense limited opponents’ possessions, and would sometimes prevent other teams from getting into any rhythm on offense. Northwestern fans should remember games such as the 40-39 victory over Purdue, back in a time where there was a running joke that the football team would outscore the basketball Cats on any given weekend.
As our offensive pace has increased in the past 2 years, some of the natural defensive advantages of the Princeton Offense have been lost. In their absence, some glaring defensive deficiencies have emerged. In any given game, the Cats can sport a 2-3, 1-3-1 or man defense. All have been beaten badly by our conference brethren.
Having set that stage, is there any chance of improvement in the 2011-12 campaign? Maybe…
One of the big issues in my mind is that while systems like the Princeton Offense can minimize and overcome a talent gap between the Cats and Big Ten opponents, it’s more difficult to compensate for these differences on defense. Northwestern today is more athletic than at any point in their history, but with the exception of a few players, are still generally less athletic than some of their B1G competition.
When executed well, the Cats should be able to limit some of the differences through their zone defenses. However, whether it’s coaching or a lack of trust in the big men in the paint, Northwestern’s 2-3 zone is consistently beaten by dribble penetration -> defensive collapses on the ball -> opponent kicking it out -> open shot on the perimeter. Nearly every week some player lights us up with their career record in points, and as fans we wonder why we have such bad “luck” and always catch players on their best nights. Truth is, when you end up leaving guys on the outside more open than Tobias and Lindsay Funke’s marriage, they’re going to hit some shots.
Issues with our 1-3-1 zone are more well documented. While the unique defensive look can be very effective against teams out of conference, at this point most Big Ten schools have learned to exploit its key weakness, namely the single player covering the whole baseline. Teams with solid ball movement who can avoid the trapping D at the top will consistently get a man wide open for a 3 on the baseline.
The loss of Juice Thompson will undoubtedly have offensive repercussions, but the defensive impact is less certain. Juice was not one of the stronger pieces of our defense last season, and he was particularly out of place at the bottom of the 1-3-1. How many times did we hear the play by play guys laughing about the 5’10” Juice guarding a 6’9” center down low? Too many.
This year many expect Crawford to fill that role in the 1-3-1, which certainly adds a lot of length at the position, without a drop off in speed. In both zone sets, increased minutes for Marcotullio should be a positive. Marco’s quick hands generated some key turnovers last season, and it’s not hard seeing him develop into a defensive player similarly effective to Jeremy Nash 2 years ago. Finally free of injury, Shurna should be even more mobile this season, which combined with his size should result in further improved. Down low, he’s proven himself to be a fairly capable shot blocker.
The jury will remain out on the freshmen until after the Cats navigate through some of their tougher non-Con matchups, but from a size and strength perspective both Demps and Sobo look as though they can hold their own.
Continued concern will revolve around the play of our centers (yes, its them again). Defensively, both Mirk and Curletti have been dominated at times by Big Ten centers. Unfortunately, there’s no reason to think this year will be any different. The key to stopping Big Ten centers from putting up huge numbers against Northwestern will be the Cats’ ability to keep the ball out of their hands as much as possible, or forcing them to get possession outside of the immediate vicinity of the hoop. This would give the Cats time to drop another player down low for the double team, which would hopefully prove more effective. Of course, the clear downside to this strategy is the open shot we’d basically concede on a kick out to whichever offensive player had been abandoned.
On the whole, the 2011-12 defense shouldn’t be any worse than last season, and may even show some improvement based on the new personnel. However, as we learned in some games last season, our best progress on the defensive end might not be tied to defensive play at all.
Playing against an immensely talented Ohio State team last season without Shurna, Northwestern decided that their best chance at victory was to kick it old school: revert back to running the Princeton Offense at a snail’s pace. Limit possessions, throw off Ohio State’s flow and see what happens. While the Cats ultimately lost in a close game, the strategy worked brilliantly. Moving into 2011, the Cats’ should continue to adjust their speed on offense up or down based on the quality of opponent. Sure, slowing it down makes the games more frustrating to watch, but if the strategy works, I trust you won’t find any fans complaining.
Expect some improvement in the players year over year, but look to the gameplan for any serious defensive improvement this season. The offense possibly being the best defense…it’s so Northwestern.
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