It took Northwestern’s leading scorer, forward Vedran Vukusic, more than 38 minutes to make his first field goal on Saturday.
Vukusic, a 53 percent shooter heading into the game against No. 7 Illinois, missed his first 13 field goal attempts before hitting a 3-pointer from the left wing with 1:37 remaining in the game.
The forward couldn’t recall a day quite like Saturday.
“I don’t remember shooting like this ever in my life,” Vukusic said. “Even when I was back home (in Croatia) and I couldn’t shoot the ball. I can’t remember anything like this.”
Vukusic, typically versatile on the offensive end, misfired from inside the paint and beyond the arc. His moves in the low post were ineffective, and he shot 1-of-8 from 3-point range.
Illinois coach Bruce Weber used 6-foot-10 senior forward James Augustine to neutralize Vukusic.
Augustine had success, as the Fighting Illini limited Vukusic, who was first in the Big Ten with 21 points per game, to five points.
“(Augustine) should feel so good about what he did on Vedran,” Weber said. “He’s versatile and he can score inside and outside. (Augustine) just never let him get in a rhythm.”
NU coach Bill Carmody agreed that Augustine was impressive on defense, but he said the missed shots were shots Vukusic usually makes.
“I think he’s a good defender down low, and he contested a lot of his shots,” Carmody said. “I think he had a lot to do with it. But I thought Vedran had some open 3s.”
Before the Illinois game, Vukusic had scored in double figures in all of the Wildcats’ games this season. The last time he failed to score at least 10 points was last March, when he scored seven in the first round of the Big Ten tournament against Michigan.
Five points was his lowest point total since the 2003-2004 season, when Vukusic, then a sophomore, scored five points on 2-of-11 shooting against Iowa on March 3, 2004.
On Saturday, Carmody said Vukusic’s problem was not with shot selection or forced shots.
“It’s going to happen,” Carmody said. “I think most of those shots were pretty good. I think he may have rushed one of them. But he had a lot of open shots that are normally pretty good shots for him.”
Since shooting 5-of-7 in the first half Wednesday against Michigan, Vukusic has shot 2-of-24 in the last game and a half.
Vukusic said he hasn’t lost confidence in his shooting, and he said he has no physical problems.
The forward said it was simply a bad shooting day.
“It happens,” Vukusic said. “I just have to back to the gym and keep shooting and working hard. I will come back.”
Reach Scott Duncan at [email protected].
