After a monumental choke last Sunday, the ‘Cats bounced back with their best defensive effort of the season in a win over Ohio State.
The ‘Cats finally snapped out of a three game skid with a win over Ohio State on Thursday, dominating from the first whistle to the final one to keep their Big Ten Tournament hopes alive and deal a major blow to the Buckeyes NCAA dream. Absolute dominance on the defensive end, reminiscent of the 2022-23 ‘Cats, was the catalyst in the victory.
Defense
Thursday night was a masterclass in staying connected on the defensive end. The Wildcats were certainly aided by a barrage of Buckeye butterfingers in the first half, but Collins’ unit locked down the paint and forced OSU to shoot 19% from three.
In particular, NU did a phenomenal job defending the pick and roll. In this clip, they shut it down twice. First, Matt Nicholson executes his hard hedge while Nick Martinelli tags the roll. Importantly, Jordan Clayton does a good job herding Bruce Thornton to the sideline so his crosscourt pass goes awry and gives the rest of the defense plenty of time to reset. Then, John Mobley and Sean Stewart run a middle pick and roll. Stewart tries to sneakily slip his screen, but Clayton alertly jumps in to force a high pass and Mullins does the same for the interception.
Again, the seamless switching of the one through four spots in the lineup combined with Nicholson’s take-up-a-lot-of-space-ness caused the Buckeyes a ton of trouble. In this particular play, K.J. Windham, Ty Berry and the aforementioned Martinelli pull off a series of seamless switches. The first was the most impressive, with Windham chasing over top of a pindown screen and Berry picking up his man.
Fast forward a bit to the side pick and roll. I really like how Martinelli and Nicholson cover this. Martinelli slides to the high side, forcing Mobley to accept the screen against his preference. Proximity to the sideline provided an extra defender and Mobley isn’t able to create the requisite space to gain a step on Martinelli. Nicholson does end up floating a bit, but he discourages Mobley from attempting a drive. Angelo Ciaravino, absent for most of the possession, puts the finishing touches on the defensive effort with a heads up play to prevent the lob. His jump appears almost comically mistimed at first, but the early leap keeps Devin Royal grounded until the ball floats safely over the baseline.
Defense is generally a team effort, but here we have a singlehanded star in Ciaravino’s defensive effort. Just watch No. 44 in purple. Ciaravino switches cleanly, slides his feet with multiple turns to cut off multiple drives, executes a soft double team and finds a way to take a weak side charge (which, for my money, should have been a blocking foul. But can’t say I mind NU being on the beneficial side of a whistle). The first year has had his fair share of defensive struggles this season but recently he has really picked up the slack on the defensive end and mostly made Blake Smith a redundant piece of the rotation, when he plays anymore. Fans should be extremely excited about Ciaravino’s defensive growth combined with his natural offensive skills going into next year.
Offense
Just one offensive clip today, but it’s a good one. Readers of the column may remember my article a few weeks ago with a focus on Berry’s effectiveness on floppy action. The play here is another fun variation in an ever-growing arsenal for Chris Collins and the rest of the coaching staff.
This set is a thing of beauty (unlike Virginia basketball. If you know, you know). Sam Hoiberg is guarding Berry on the baseline, expecting the sharpshooter to clear across to the other side. Hoiberg is readying to navigate the impending Justin Mullins or Keenan Fitzmorris screen by positioning himself out of range of any decent screen. Unfortunately for Hoiberg, he plays right into Northwestern’s hands. Berry breaks off his baseline jog and curls into a ridiculously quick shot around Martinelli’s floppy screen. Hoiberg is caught completely off guard and Martinelli barely even has to make contact with the coach’s son. Juwan Gary absorbs the brunt of Martinelli’s pick and Berry finds himself open to knock down one of six threes from the first half of the Nebraska game. (Do NOT ask what happened in the second half of said Nebraska game.)
Honorable Mention: K.J. Windham’s performance in the Ohio State game deserves a lot of credit and would have made this column if there was more room. He dominated Ohio State by using his quickness advantage to take Buckeye defenders on straight line drives. The less he complicates his game, the better he has been (see: last week’s column).
Coach Collins Clip of the Week
This clip hails from the end of the Nebraska game from the scorer’s table referee camera, of all things. In a complete lapse of judgment, Northwestern’s shell-shocked defense forgot to foul while trailing in the final minute of their collapse against the Huskers. Chris Collins did everything he could to get his team’s attention, running halfway onto the court and basically fouling the player himself.
Just watch the complete franticness of Collins on the sideline. He is yelling at the top of his lungs to foul and none of his players oblige. He makes his way up the entire sideline, on the court, just to get ignored in a crucial moment. I would be frustrated too. While this angle unfortunately does not show his facial expressions, you can sleep easy knowing they were as incredible as usual.