Don’t panic, but there are some things to figure out in ‘Cats basketball land.
Over the past two seasons, Northwestern vs. Purdue games have been cinematically awesome. From two court storms at Welsh-Ryan Arena to Boo Buie’s missed floater at the buzzer on the road last season, these games have never failed to disappoint — until yesterday when the ‘Cats lost 79-61 at Mackey Arena. Yikes. It’s not time to panic, of course. Purdue was ranked No. 20 in the nation, and it’s still early in conference play. This game had shades of the Illinois trouncing last season at about this same time, and look what that NU team accomplished. Here are three measured, reasonable takeaways from a miserable afternoon of basketball.
Angelo Ciaravino should play more
Let’s start with the positive. In a game that was lost at halftime, the first-year was electric. Ciaravino dropped 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting to go along with four boards – easily his most impressive statistical output this season.
Yes, I know, giving inexperienced freshmen real minutes in Big Ten action is a risky business. But coach Chris Collins and the Wildcats have no choice here. For starters, I’d be remiss if I didn’t credit Ciaravino for earning a role. When he’s out there, he looks like he belongs. He has a nose for the basket. He’s aggressive and energetic. He can jump through the ceiling. There’s a lot to like eye test wise.
But Northwestern is also simply not a deep team. Especially with Ty Berry looking how he’s looking (more on that later), there aren’t enough productive players on the team to keep Ciaravino out of the lineup. If Collins is honestly assessing his secondary scoring options, I don’t see how he can reasonably argue that Ciaravino doesn’t warrant minutes.
Lastly, what is the risk again? He starts playing badly? Ok, bench him then. Easy, problem solved. The rewards outweigh the risk here, and Ciaravino deserves to be part of this rotation. Collins and his staff would be doing a disservice to this year’s squad if he isn’t.
It is time to panic about Ty Berry
All season it’s been a waiting game for Berry to finally wake up and look like the player he was last season. It’s time to start accepting that maybe he just isn’t going to be that guy anymore. It’s no disrespect to Berry, who was integral to last year’s success and had to go through a brutal injury and rehab process. But it’s also time to face facts and move forward.
The truth is, we can no longer work under the assumption that Berry will be a productive player for this team. Collins deployed him for just 13 minutes against Purdue in which he scored no points. Berry is shooting just 34.3% from the field and averaging only 7.3 points per contest. The senior is losing minutes to freshmen and Justin Mullins. It’s been a disastrous start.
Maybe he still comes around, but this isn’t just a little slump anymore. It’s a huge one. Something is very wrong, and Collins and Berry need to get to the bottom of it and turn his season around. It could be a huge boost to a Northwestern team in desperate need of more consistent complementary scoring. If not, a severe minutes reduction and a shifting of expectations is in order.
The offensive game plan needs to be more flexible
Barnhizer and Martinelli bully-ball has been working for Northwestern in conference play. It did not work against Purdue. Barnhizer had his worst game in recent memory, shooting 4-of-15 from the field for only 11 points. Martinelli barely touched double-digits with 10 points on 2-of-8 shooting. Neither had that same dominating presence working in the paint that they’ve had all season.
It’s not time for the doomer takes about how this style of play will never work against bigger, more physical Big Ten competition. We’ve seen it work against Illinois and Iowa, and Barnhizer and Martinelli are simply way better players than they looked yesterday. However, it would behoove Northwestern to have a plan for when it isn’t working.
Yesterday, it felt like they panicked. It wasn’t working, and the solution was just continuing to throw it to Barnhizer and hope for the best. Then, it shifted to letting Ciaravino have his game once it was clear he was on a roll. NU has guys who can theoretically shoot the three, but they didn’t shoot it well yesterday (7-of-25 as a team). Maybe that’s the backup plan, but maybe that’s too volatile for this year’s team.
Whatever the case may be, Northwestern is going to lose some key games this season when Barnhizer and Martinelli don’t dominate. They’re fantastic players, and they play with so much drive and effort, but they aren’t world beaters. There has to be another path to victory.