Tentative at times, yet flashy at others, Croatian freshman Vedran Vukusic’s play was symbolic of the Northwestern men’s basketball team’s performance on Sunday. But his experience wasn’t.
“I never played in front of this many people,” Vukusic said of the crowd, which was about 150.
The veteran Wildcats, most of whom are used to much larger venues, showed spurts of fluidity and periods of their typical sloppiness. They trounced the International Select All-Stars 84-64 at Welsh-Ryan Arena in their first exhibition game of the 2001-02 season.
The International All-Stars features a collection of former college players including Terrance Simmons, who played for Minnesota last year.
Junior swingman Jason Burke led the way for NU, going 5-for-5 from the field for 13 points, including three baskets from beyond the arc. Burke’s strong play wasn’t much of a surprise for Cats coach Bill Carmody, who said the Plano, Texas, native has shown great improvement.
“I liked how hard we played,” Carmody said. “Jason played about as good a first half as you can play. He’s played as well as anyone these first two weeks of practice.”
Burke accounted for half the Cats’ three-point field goals, as NU finished a less-than-stellar 6 of 33 from three-point range. Overall, NU shot an above-average 44.4 percent from the field. And inside the arc, the Cats shot better than 66 percent.
Many of NU’s shooting woes came from its typically solid shooters. The Cats’ top three-point scorer last season, junior forward Winston Blake, finished just 1 of 9 from behind the arc and 5-for-16 overall. Senior forward Tavaras Hardy, who has been looking to become an outside threat, didn’t connect on any of his four three-point attempts. Sophomore guard Jitim Young was also scoreless on his three long-range attempts.
But poor shooting isn’t causing the Cats to panic just yet.
“I don’t think anyone took too many bad shots,” Hardy said. “We all were comfortable with our shots – they just didn’t fall. We’re definitely not worried about the percentages right now.”
NU made up for its inept outside shooting in other areas – specifically by attacking the basket. During a 10-0 run that started not quite five minutes into the game, the Cats strung together numerous back-door cuts, which resulted in easy layups. Their run was briefly slowed down when the game was stopped after a young child spilled candy on the baseline. Still, NU overcame the slight distraction and took a 16-5 lead.
Using fast breaks and defensive hustle, NU never looked back.
The Cats led by as many as 31 points, scattering many impressive runs along the way. They even brought the mellow crowd to its feet with a 17-2 run to end the first half. Young provided the main highlight when he picked off a pass at half court and raced to the other end for a one-handed, tomahawk slam dunk.
The Cats have been focusing on improving their transition game, Young said. They scored 12 points off fast breaks on Sunday.
“Now that we’re pushing the ball up the court more, that gives us an advantage over teams,” Young said, “We’re faster than everybody because everybody’s tall, so we have to beat them with quickness.”
All three European freshmen saw action, but each started slowly. Forwards Vukusic and Davor Duvancic each recorded a turnover and a foul early in the game. Denmark native Thomas Soltau’s first pass was intercepted by Darryl Parker, who missed the ensuing breakaway dunk.
All the Cats scored, except for sophomore forward Pat Towne and freshman walk-on Michael Jenkins.
