In the 1970s, Union (N.Y.) College point guard Bill Carmody caught his first glimpse of a defense he called “impossible to beat.”
Eight games into the 2005-06 season, Northwestern coach Bill Carmody thought that defense was exactly what his struggling team needed.
He decided to implement an extended 1-3-1 zone, which the Wildcats had used in past years but never as its primary defense.
Since turning to this zone on Dec. 18 against Seton Hall, NU has reeled off five straight wins, while limiting opponents to 45.4 points per game, 34.4 percent shooting from the field and 25.9 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
NU (9-4, 2-0) will look to slow down Penn State (8-4, 0-1) Wednesday, when the Cats try to start its conference season 3-0 for the first time in 38 years.
“In the 1-3-1 if you’re tall and long, it’s helpful, and we have some guys that are built like that,” Carmody said. “It’s been pretty effective.”
Carmody said the inspiration for the 1-3-1 defense came from a zone he faced during his playing experience at Union from 1972-75.
At that time, Roy Chipman was the coach at Hartwick College, a Division II school in Oneonta, N.Y. According to Carmody, Chipman, who later coached at Lafayette and Pittsburgh, and his assistant Nick Lambros utilized the extended 1-3-1 zone, and it caught on in upstate New York.
This season, NU currently leads the Big Ten in scoring defense, giving up 54.2 points per game. The Cats also lead in turnover margin and are second in steals with 8.7 per game.
The 1-3-1 defense has left teams confused and turnover prone, unable to find open spaces on offense.
Seton Hall guard Jamar Nutter said after the game in December that it seemed like there were arms and legs all over the place, and according to the Associated Press, Minnesota guard Moe Hargrow said Saturday that he had never seen a zone defense like NU’s.
“We try to make a lot of different people handle ball, get in passing lanes, try to neutralize speed,” Carmody said. “We’re just not a good man-to-man team. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be a good defensive team.”
The Cats might receive a boost defensively Wednesday, when senior guard Mohamed Hachad makes his likely return against the Nittany Lions. Hachad, who sat out the past two games after having an emergency appendectomy, leads NU in steals with 1.8 per game.
In the past two games, Carmody used junior swingman Tim Doyle at the top of the zone, but he said he prefers to have Hachad in that role.
“He’s a little bit more scary up there,” Carmody said.
Last week, both Purdue and Minnesota looked for opportunities to break the zone by penetrating off the dribble, moving the ball around the perimeter and looking for holes. But both failed to crack the defense.
Doyle, who had four steals in the first two Big Ten games, said there is an awkwardness to the defense that teams haven’t been able to overcome.
“It’s been our bread and butter,” Doyle said. “No one has been able to put a finger on how to beat it. If it’s not broke, we’re not going to fix it. We’re going to keep going to the well with it.”
Reach Scott Duncan at [email protected].
