[NU Sports] NU-Delaware State

[Michael Jackson]

It has been a long time since the Welsh-Ryan arena crowd has booed the
Cats.  It happened last night late in the second half of the Cats game
with Delaware State.  Vedran had just turned over the ball for the third
time in four or five trips down the floor.  He sleep-walked his way
through the game just missing a rare triple-double by one rebound and
two turnovers.  The rest of the Cats were not immune either getting 22
turnovers to only 11 for DS.  The Cats had more assists, 17 to 11, and
more rebounds, 37 to 19, but had less field goal attempts, 39 to 56.
Too many times they turned the ball over without even getting a shot.
It is a good thing DS couldn't shoot the ball well in the first half.
With a little less than 6 minutes left in the first half the Wildcats
had an 18 to 1 lead.  Early in the second half that lead dwindled down
to two as the Cats played down to another opponent.  The only player who
played a solid and complete game was Davor.  He energized the team
whenever he came into the game.  Vedran shot well, moved well without
the ball and rebounded well but looked like he was passing to the other
team rather than to a teammate.  Mohammed scored from long-range and
from drives but still lacks that spark he had last year.  He is very
careless with the ball.  TJ ran the offense well but still turned over
the ball to often.  Michael was a force inside but forced it too often
and was second in turnovers for the team.  He also had too many bricks
at the foul line forcing BC to sub for him down the stretch.  He only
played at the defensive end limiting his chance to get to the foul line.
Tim Doyle is still looking for his shot.  He also struggles when he has
the ball in traffic.  There you go.  It was a team effort.  They all
deserved to be booed by the home crowd.  It will be a long Big 10 season
if the Cats can't stop their butter-finger ways.  I don't ever remember
seeing Bill Carmody as angry as he was last night.  I wouldn't want to
be at practice for the next few days.