This wasn’t the way the season was supposed to start for the Northwestern men’s basketball team.
NU coach Bill Carmody was so frustrated by the end of a weekend tournament in Alaska that he was ejected after coming onto the floor and pulling his team off the court. Carmody was upset with the physicality and over-agressiveness of Utah State, the Wildcats’ final opponent of the tournament.
The Cats finished the weekend 1-2 at the Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, Alaska, winning against Portland 56-53 on Friday and losing to New Mexico State 64-61 on Saturday and Utah State 64-57 on Sunday.
“I’m disappointed with the losses, but I’m more disappointed in the way we played,” said NU coach Bill Carmody of his team’s fifth-place finish. “I don’t think we played well, and I don’t think we’ve played well yet.”
With many analysts picking this season for the Cats to make their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance, coming home with a losing record is upsetting.
“Before the season people were talking about (the postseason), and now it’s time to prove to people that we can actually do that,” forward Davor Duvancic said. “Right now we’re pretty much down … so it’s going to be really, really hard.”
The Cats were plagued by poor shooting for most of the weekend, especially in the loss to New Mexico State (2-1). The Aggies jumped out to an 11-0 lead to start the game, and NU failed to mount a comeback.
The Cats finished the game shooting 42 percent from the field, with a 37-percent field-goal percentage in the first half. NU also was 26 percent from 3-point range while attempting 31 treys.
“Making shots is the No. 1 thing (we’re struggling with),” Carmody said. “(Against New Mexico State) we had so many open shots it was just incredible.
“We’re seriously thinking about changing some of the things we do on offense just to get the ball inside more.”
In their loss to Utah State (2-1), the Cats’ shooting fared somewhat better but still went cold in the second half with a 39-percent field-goal percentage.
Carmody was ejected in the second half, after a dispute with the officials about the amount of physical play being allowed.
The situation boiled over with about 11 minutes left, when forward Vedran Vukusic was sent to the floor while driving to the hoop past a Utah State defender.
Carmody then came onto the floor, grabbed Vukusic and ordered his team off the court. The officials immediately issued two technical fouls on Carmody, and he was thrown out of the game.
“He thought people were going to get hurt because of the physical play,” Vukusic said. “Both teams started shoving, and he went onto the court and told us to leave the court.”
As bad as a 1-2 record finish is for NU, things could be worse. The Cats were fortunate to come away with one win in the tournament.
In the opening round game against Portland (2-1), NU guard T.J. Parker hit a running, game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.
The basket was the junior’s third game-winning shot of his career, with the last one coming at home against Arizona State last season.
“I like taking big shots,” Parker said. “I’m the fastest guy on the team, so I was just trying to get the ball as fast as I could down the floor. I had a good look at a 3-point shot, and I took it and made it.”
Parker and Vukusic, who was named to the all-tournament team, were the Cats’ leading scorers and played nearly 40 minutes of every game.
Duvancic and swingman Tim Doyle also played a majority of the minutes for NU as Carmody utilized only a seven- or eight-man rotation in each of the games, even with an expanded bench this season.
“I have to have faith in my six, seven, eight, nine players that there won’t be a major drop off,” Carmody said. “That’s something I’m going to have to work on to get those guys minutes because we’ll need them.”
While freshman guard Brandon Lee saw some playing time, the other two NU freshmen — Gary Lee and Sterling Williams — still have not seen any game action, furthering the idea that Carmody may redshirt one or both of them this season.
Brandon Lee finished the tournament with nine points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer against Portland with 19 seconds left.
“Being a freshman, I was of course very anxious to get on the court,” he said. “But I couldn’t be overwhelmed by the anxiousness.
“I just wanted to do what I can to help this team, and I felt I did that.”
NU now must prepare for another upcoming road game at Colorado (1-1) on Sunday before returning to Welsh-Ryan Arena on Dec. 1 for its home opener against Virginia (2-0).
“We can’t play worse than what we did,” Parker said. “It was pretty bad. We can’t keep playing like this if we want to be successful.”
Reach Zach Silka at [email protected].
