The Northwestern men’s basketball team plays Virginia Commonwealth at 1 p.m. today in its regular-season opener, and sophomore Jitim Young thinks the Wildcats are ready.
NU is coming off of two exhibition wins, over the International Select All-Stars on Nov. 4 and against Lithuania-Alita on Saturday.
“To start off this season this way, we’re really confident going into the North Carolina tournament,” Young said, as the Cats head into the first of three games in three days at the Black Coaches Association Invitational in Raleigh, N.C.
The Cats may be confident, but are they ready for Virginia Commonwealth’s 7-foot-2 Russian center, Denis Orlov?
“We’re smaller than them,” NU coach Bill Carmody said. “We go into every game being smaller than the opponent, pretty much. (But) when you have a 7-2 guy, he labors a little bit when he runs and maybe that’s our advantage.”
Orlov is six inches taller than anyone in the Cats’ starting lineup.
But Carmody said 6-foot-8 senior Tavaras Hardy might be a weapon against the Rams’ height, despite the forward’s “small” stature.
“If we can get (Tavaras) to start taking some outside shots and making them, then maybe sometimes we have the advantage,” Carmody said.
The Cats will have to use their speed against the height of the Rams, according to Young.
The fast-break offense, which improved in Saturday’s 70-47 win over Alita, will be a key to NU’s game.
“It’s going to be crucial to be fast against them,” Young said. “We can’t really get into a half-court game with them. But at the same time, we have to continue to have pressure on the guards and make defense our trademark.”
Orlov is the lone 7-footer on the team, but he isn’t the only foreign player on Virginia Commonwealth’s roster — the Rams feature four Russians.
NU will have to look out for Willie Taylor, Virginia Commonwealth’s top returning scorer, who averaged 12.6 points per game last season.
“It’s a veteran team,” Carmody said. “(They’re) not unlike us, except they’re bigger.”
The Rams will be starting their regular season schedule against the Cats after going 2-0 in exhibition play against the New Zealand national team and Virginia Union.
Last year, Virginia Commonwealth went 16-13, finishing fourth in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Rams led the conference in scoring offense with 73.1 points per game.
By contrast, NU averaged only 60 points per game last season.
The contest is the first of three games the Cats will play in the tournament, which will test their depth.
Carmody’s rotation is solidifying in the early going. He will go with the same starting lineup he used in both exhibition games: junior Winston Blake and freshman Vedran Vukusic at the forward positions, Hardy at center, and Young and senior Collier Drayton at the guards.
Carmody listed Jason Burke as his sixth man. Aaron Jennings and Davor Duvancic will follow Burke off the bench.
With the large number of games in a short period of time, Carmody expects to see more of the zone defense that Alita played Saturday, because the back-to-back-to-back schedule tires teams out.
“We weren’t really comfortable with our zone offense in the first exhibition, but we were real comfortable playing it (against Alita),” Hardy said. “But it’ll be (Virginia Commonwealth’s) first game too. That should help us, to play against guys who are in the same situation.”
