[NU Sports] Wildcats out of the Dance

[Tom Maycock]

I had the misfortune of being at the game on Sunday. We left with about 10 
minutes remaining in the 2nd half, which is probably my earliest departure ever 
from an NU sporting event (and that includes more than a few late-eighties 
football blowout losses). Partly it was because we had folks coming over to our 
house to watch the football game, but mostly it was because we couldn't stand to 
watch. 

I can take watching a lot of things, but a lack of rebounding effort is not one 
of them. I think it was one of the last possessions of the first half that 
Wisconsin grabbed two or three offensive rebounds on one possession. On one of 
them, NU was scrambling to follow the ball rotation, so I could live with that. 
On the second one, we had players in position but it appeared to me that all 
they did is watch the track of the ball, with no apparent effort to put a body 
on someone at the same time. To say that was disheartening is a massive 
understatement.

Things really got ugly in the 2nd half when NU decided to just start chucking up 
3 pointers as soon as they crossed the half court line. 

It was a real head-scratcher of a performance. Wisconsin plays extremely well on 
both ends of the court and has some very talented players. But this is not a 
team that dominates us athletically, so the blowout can only be attributed to a 
lack of effort in my opinion. 

I don't know if it seems worse than the Illinois game because it was worse, or 
just because between my wife and I and two friends, we probably paid $100 or 
$120 to witness it in person. Ugh.

At least the football games were entertaining.

Tom