North by Northwestern

With wins over TCU and Illinois State during Thanksgiving Break, Northwestern seized the South Padre Island Invitational and claimed its third regular season tournament title in the last four years.

TCU did not prove to be a very difficult opponent for the ‘Cats. They came in with a respectable 4-1 record, but they had been struggling to put points on the board, averaging only 56 points per contest prior to the game. Northwestern lowered that statistic by holding the Horned Frogs to 26.5 percent shooting in a 55-31 drubbing on Friday. The senior starters paved the road to victory, as Jared Swopshire contributed 15 points while Drew Crawford and Reggie Hearn each added 12. On the other end, Devonta Abron led the Horned Frogs with 12 points, but he was the only TCU player with more than four.

Illinois State proved to be a much tougher opponent on Saturday. It took overtime, a technical foul and plenty of timely 3-pointers for the Wildcats to pull off the 72-69 win. The ‘Cats showed plenty of resilience, bouncing back from a 32-23 deficit early in the second half and answering an abundance of tough shots by the player of the game, ISU guard Tyler Brown. Despite Brown’s 36 points, the most important play came when the Wildcats knocked the ball off his leg and out of bounds to end the game without the Redbirds getting off a final shot.

Northwestern improved to 6-0 heading into Tuesday’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchup against Maryland. But first, here's a look at some of the positives and negatives from Saturday's close win over Illinois State. 

Positives

Fab five

After center Alex Olah proved ineffective early on, Bill Carmody turned to another freshman, Mike Turner. Turner, Crawford, Reggie Hearn, Dave Sobolewski and tournament MVP Swopshire carried the team to victory, with each of them logging at least 35 minutes on Saturday.

Turner had his best game of the season. Although he only had two points, he grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out four assists. Hearn provided energy when it was needed most. With the ‘Cats trailing by nine early in the second half, he knocked down a three and then followed it up with a steal and layup to put the pressure back on the Redbirds. Crawford shot just 6 of 20 from the field, but he had nine boards, three steals and two lead-preserving buckets near the end of regulation, a 3-pointer and a runner.

Swopshire earned his MVP honors with 15 points and 10 boards in the championship, with several clutch plays in overtime. He had a nifty tip-in off a Crawford miss to increase the lead to 60-57, and followed it up by going 4-4 from the free throw line in the last minute of the contest.

Sobo down the stretch

Sobolewski made amends for his missed three at the second half buzzer with his composure in the extra period. He opened the overtime scoring with a 3-pointer and he gave the ‘Cats breathing room by knocking down a long jump shot off the dribble to increase the lead to 62-57.

With less than a minute to play and the Wildcats clinging to a three-point lead, he made quite the heads-up - well, sneaky - play. After a Redbird foul, ISU’s Jackie Carmichael gave Sobolewski a little shove during the dead ball and Sobolewski flew backward to accentuate the contact, forcing the officials to take notice and give Carmichael a technical foul. As a result, Northwestern was given three free throws and extended their lead.

And just like Swopshire, Sobolewski was also 4-4 from the line in the final minute to preserve the victory.

Shutting down the stars (for the most part)

Coming into the championship game, Illinois State had three players averaging at least 15 points per contest: forward Jackie Carmichael and guards Bryant Allen and Tyler Brown. Carmichael’s stat line against the 'Cats (13 points, 12 rebounds) was respectable, but Northwestern forced him into six turnovers. That resulted in eight of the Wildcats’ 25 points off turnovers.

Allen had a rough night, as he was just 1-10 from the field for only three points. Many of his shots were difficult 3-point attempts with a hand in his face and he ended up going just 1-6 from beyond the long line.

Brown, on the other hand, was a different story.

Negatives

Brown vs. the Northwestern defense

So far this season, Northwestern has had the tendency to allow one player on the opposing team to have a career night scoring. First it was Mississippi Valley State’s Davon Usher with 35 points, then Delaware State’s Tahj Tate with 23. Saturday, it was Tyler Brown, who went off for 36 on the ‘Cats. These players all caught fire from behind the arc because of Northwestern’s preference toward a tightly-packed defense, allowing them to find space for long bombs.

This time around, the Wildcat defense was a little better, but Brown was still able to find just enough space to get his silky jumper off. He was 7-13 from 3-point land, many coming late in the game to keep ISU in it. He had two in the final minute of regulation, the second one coming off of a screen with Swopshire’s hand right in his face to tie it up.

In overtime, he didn’t cool down. He put up twelve more points in the extra period, including two more long bombs. But with the Redbirds down three with just seconds remaining, the ‘Cats were able to force him into a turnover and preserve the victory.

Handling the pressure

Though they became more comfortable as the game progressed, the Wildcats had a hard time getting into their offense against the Illinois State pressure defense. When the Redbirds pressed, it often took the ‘Cats almost the entire 10 seconds to get past half court. When they did, they would get trapped immediately in the corner.

The pressure caused Northwestern to become impatient on offense and they rushed their sets trying to make tough passes. They had 17 turnovers on the night, several coming from attempted backdoor passes or kick-outs for jumpers. Conversely, they only had 10 assists as a team, far from their previous season average of 21.2 per game.

Trouble converting

As has been a problem in several games so far, the ‘Cats had a lot of trouble converting in the paint. They missed eleven layups total, and it wasn’t just one player. The entire team was very inefficient making even simple shots. When all was said and done, they were 37.5 percent from beyond the arc, but just 33.9 percent from inside it.

The Redbirds were much better (42.3 percent and 42.1 percent, respectively), but the Wildcats were able to earn the resume-building victory by knocking down 23 of 27 free throws on the night.