[NU Sports] hoops redux

Thu Feb 17 05:17:33 CST 2005

Excellent posts, I concur. 
 For the life of me, I simply can not figure out why the Cats suck, year in and year out. 
 I would think that it would be relatively ez to find two really good players and three role players and turn them into a team sound enough to win 18, 19, 20 games. 
 I would like to share Steve's optimism about next year. But I've been hearing 'next year' for nearly 30 years now. Enough. 
 I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, home of the UD Flyers. Dayton can win but Big Ten Northwestern can't? Come on. 
 Brad makes an intriguing argument about a lack of tradition. But I don't think that's it. There was once a time when Duke was not king. Stanford? Utah? Especially Utah. This was not a school with basketball tradition, yet Majerus took them to the Final Four. 
 The keys are talent and coaching. Coaching identifies, recruits and nurtures talent. I think Carmody may yet be the right guy. And all we need, really, are two talented players to shoulder the load. Two, I say. 
 I remain patiently impatient. 
 Oh, and Illinois can lose early and often, as far as I'm concerned. But that team is REALLY good. 
 - Alan

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com <nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com>
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Thu Feb 17 02:47:58 2005
Subject: [NU Sports] hoops redux

Good talk here. 

"when we can't execute the 
fundamentals that is another."

This is utterly baffling because anybody that spent 10
minutes around, or watching, Carmody's Princeton teams
saw about as fundamentally sound a group as could be
imagined. His NU teams, though ... ugh. Excuse me,
could some please box out, please? (esp. at Penn
State). What in the name of Pete Carril is the
difference? I think Carmody's the same guy and I can't
believe that the overall level of talent he has at NU
is WORSE than Princeton (though his best Tiger teams
would have mopped the floor with this sorry bunch of
Wildcats). So what's up?

"more optimistic that next year is THE year we break
through with 
everyone
back."

Ah, Steve, I always admire your optimism and in
football, I usually share it. But on the hardwood ...
this line of reasoning is the same that Penn State
football fans used last year for why PSU would be 10-1
or some such thing in 2004. Well, just why is having
everybody back from a bad team is a reason for
optimism? It didn't work for the Nits and won't for
us.

"That's what this team needs to learn the most - GOTTA
win the gimmes." 

I completely agree with this. And, again, it's so
strange because Carmody's Princeton teams hardly ever
lost to teams they weren't supposed to. Sure, a Duke
or Maryland might handle them but they had very few
bad losses. 

I wonder ... what if NU said to heck with the RPI and
attendance and scheduled the absolute softest-touch 12
non-league games, all at home (well, I guess the
ACC-Big Ten challenge wouldn't allow all cupcakes at
home, but ...)? And when I say soft-touch I mean just
that, Longwood and Long Island U. and Army and
Savannah State and Harvard and that ilk, and went 12-0
non-league? It might build confidence and excitement
and help create a winning tradition where there's
none.

"If
we'd have beaten Penn State and Ohio State, two games
we SHOULD have 
won,"

In theory "should" but I watched that Penn State game
and that was a pathetic an exhibition of aimless,
mindless basketball as I have ever seen. PSU could
have had 300 offensive rebounds if they had missed 300
shots. That day the Nits were easily better.

".. and those preseason gimme 
losses
just killed us before we even added Thompson."

Bingo. This is it, right here. If I had five minutes
with Carmody I would ask about just this: why the lack
of focus, intensity and urgency in December? How does
UIC blow us out? And New Mexico State defies belief
except that Lou Henson is plaguing us still.

" didn't think
we'd take this big of a step back this year either,"

This is what concerns me the most -- no signs of
progress, either. Let's face it, take away last-second
miracle shots vs. Iowa and Minnesota and this is one
very bad Big Ten season.

"but that's really all I see between us and the NCAAs
next
year."

Hope you're right.

"It still seems more difficult to build a good
football program than a 
good
basketball program."

You'd think so, but NU would seem to prove the
opposite.

In Evanston, I think, it can be explained by the utter
and complete lack of basketball winning tradition over
50 years. NU Football's follies, as dreadful as they
were, lasted a shorter time (1972-1994) and Barnett's
success may have laid them to rest. But hoops has
decades of failures, and has not yet found the
saviour.

I think tradition is even more important in basketball
than football in long-established leagues. Certainly
Harvard is a fine institution but has NEVER won an Ivy
League hoops title. Clemson, for all its good
football, has been consistently awful in basketball.
Ditto Texas A&M.

In football of late, we have gone to bowls and beaten
top-level teams in exciting fashion on national TV,
which has helped create interest in the team and
generate recruiting interest. Basketball gets on
national TV and does things like lose to Penn State,
which hurts, not helps.

-NMSU is 3-19 with an RPI of 300. Woof.
-PSU is 6-16 with an RPI of 223.

NU has to beat these kind of teams EVERY TIME.
Michigan State goes to the NCAAs every season because,
in large part, Izzo gobbles up his cupcakes (if you
doubt this, looks at MSU's results and find his good
wins this year. Uhhh...). When was the last time
Wisconsin lost to an IUPUI? Or Illinois to a New
Mexico State? They don't. And we can't, either.

Slight change of subject: is anyone else as sick of
the damned Illini as I am? Somebody please beat them
(yeah, yeah, wouldn't THAT be nice; I am not holding
my breath)!!!

Brad Wilson

=====
"Life is more delectable/When it's disrespectable." -- Lorenz Hart 

"Quis ipsos custodes custodiet?" -- Juvenal

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