[NU Sports] Cat report card

[Dennis W. Brandt]

A runaway Coble, a Shurna sprained ankle, and no rebounder:  That sums up 
the Cats' season.  As for next year, there again will be no Coble and, 
barring some recruiting miracle, still no rebounder.  At least Shurna's 
ankle will heal, and Crawford and Cobb will be a year wiser.  We can always 
hope for a miracle in the tournament next week, but don't count on it, 
especially if we have to play Penn State.

Individual ratings by comparison to the league:

Michael Thompson - B+:  The dependable one, always on the floor, and the guy 
to go to at crunch time.  He will be missed next season.

John Shurna - C+:  Two words: sprained ankle.  A promising season went down 
the tubes with that injury.

Drew Crawford - C+:  A physically gifted player who improved little from his 
freshman season.  It seems he should be the slasher we've always lacked, but 
he doesn't do that often enough.  He is dumb-foul prone and a 67% foul 
shooter.  He needs to step up next season.

JerShon Cobb - C:  Physically gifted but raw, and the weight room beckons 
him to put more than 180 lbs. on his 6' 5" frame.  Hopefully he'll do a 
Shurna and come back a much improved player in his sophomore year.  He 
appears capable of growing into an impact player.

Luca Mircovic - D:  The weak link in the starting lineup.  His best games 
came mostly against teams with a weak front line.  Against everyone else, he 
was little threat to score, seldom grabbed a contended rebound, and had a 
grand total of 17 blocked shots in 28 games.

Davide Curletti - C:  Started to offer some quality moments off the bench 
during the latter portion of the season but overall did not make much 
impact.

Alex Marcotulio - D:  Made little impact during the Big Ten season.  His 
per-game minutes were up from last season, but all of his shooting 
percentages were down.

Power forward - F:  Unnamed because we have none and haven't had one for a 
very, very long time.

Rest of bench - F:  Little or no help was found there.

Coaching - D+:  The Carmody coaching machine has stripped a gear. 
Recruiting the big man remains an illusive goal.  He otherwise has improved 
the talent level enough to post a good record in a weak non-conference 
schedule and defeat the less-than-stellar Big Ten teams (except Penn State), 
but we have to cry, "Oh, no!" because winning in the Big Ten still eludes 
Mister Bill.  Once more NU was the worst rebounding team in the Big Ten, the 
major reason they fail year in and year out.  If the trey isn't falling, 
they are cooked, and the trey percentages were down across the board this 
season.  Is it time for a coaching change, or do we give him more time 
because he runs a clean program?  I don't know.  No one else has had any 
coaching success at Northwestern either.  In any event, he will almost 
certainly be back next season.  An injury and a foolish defection hurt this 
season, but sooner or later you run out of excuses.  "Expect victory" hasn't 
yet reached into Welsh-Ryan.