It’s time to show everyone what you’re made of on the road.
Fresh off an exhilarating overtime home win over Maryland, the ‘Cats travel to Ann Arbor tomorrow to take on No. 20 Michigan. NU has still yet to win a true road contest this season, although a handful of the losses have been brutally close. To be clear, not a couple or a few. A handful or “several” is the territory we’re in. Sigh.
Northwestern will look to flip that script and come home with a massive Quad-1 victory that would likely jolt them closer to the bubble. Here are three keys for pulling off the upset:
Execute the post trap like it’s Zach Edey
If we’re being realistic, Matt Nicholson and whoever else gets minutes at the five for the ‘Cats simply are not as good as Vladislav Goldin or Danny Wolf. Both of those guys average 10-plus points; Goldin is up over 15; and Wolf also averages a double-double. Meanwhile, Nicholson isn’t much of an offensive threat and has well-documented rebounding struggles.
However, Nicholson is pretty good at defense, and the ‘Cats’ bread and butter against elite bigs the past few years has been the post trap. Northwestern is unlikely to fully contain the Michigan bigs, and they’re probably going to get theirs. That’s fine. The goal here is frustration. It’s been a ref show all year, but amidst some unavoidable post scoring, the ‘Cats need to be really physical and have active hands. If they get screwed by Big Ten officials again, so be it.
Back in the Edey days against Purdue, the ‘Cats were phenomenal at this. Edey would still drop ridiculous point totals, but he’d also cough the ball up often and appeared visually frustrated dealing with the post trap. NU needs to have that effect on these big men, or it will likely get run out of the building.
Northwestern just isn’t going to win in a shootout. It doesn’t have enough consistent scorers to do that in a hostile environment like this one. But if the defense is humming and the big man containment strategy is working, then Northwestern has a shot.
Chris Collins
Northwestern’s coach reminded everyone why he’s so great at Welsh-Ryan the other night. The ‘Cats could have very easily laid down and accepted that their season was going down the tubes. Instead, they stood up and traded blows with a better team for as long as it took to come out on top. That’s coaching. That’s how this program has been taught to operate.
And then, of course, after the game, Collins was as humble as they come, crediting all of the key players in the game as well as assistant coach Brian James for the play call leading to Nick Martinelli’s buzzer-beater. He’s the epitome of a leader, and Northwestern has been so fortunate to have him leading the way for his entire tenure — especially the past couple of years with more talent in the program.
With that being said, Collins has to find a way to keep the good vibes going and motivation high. This game is crucial if the ‘Cats are still aiming for their stated goal of competing in the NCAA tournament. Yesterday, I wrote about this team’s unshakeable resiliency. It will be put to the test again tomorrow, and the messaging from Collins to his players truly will be a deciding factor in what version of NU on the road shows up in Ann Arbor.
Ty Berry
It remains to be seen whether Berry’s 15-point outburst that included three triples was enough to reclaim his starting spot over freshman Angelo Ciaravino. But it doesn’t matter much. Berry will see his minutes regardless, and they need to look like Thursday’s minutes as opposed to all the other minutes he’s been playing all season.
Berry is crucial for a few reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, his scoring gives Northwestern a significantly better chance to be in games. Brooks Barnhizer and Martinelli cannot be the only guys out there scoring with a little help from Jalen Leach. In the numbers game, the math doesn’t bode well without Berry contributing to the final score.
Secondly, Northwestern has minimal outside shooting ability. Nobody has been consistent in knocking down the three-ball, and that was Berry’s presumed role heading into the season. Without that presence, teams can really pack it in against Barnhizer and Martinelli’s post game, and then they’re both forced to shoot threes. As we saw against Michigan State, that’s a bad formula. It won’t work against Michigan either which, as I said above, has some serious dudes in the post.
Lastly, Berry is legitimately a good perimeter defender. He’s faster and more athletic than most of the guys Northwestern has out there. He moves his feet well and can stay with quick Big Ten guards. If he’s scoring, then that means more of him out there playing good defense. But Collins can’t justify giving him big-time Barnhizer-like minutes if he’s not scoring the ball.